Tag: Gabriella Castillo

As Cuba faces an eighth month of a U.S.-imposed oil blockade on top of a 67-year economic embargo, Second Secretary of the Cuban Embassy Gabriela Castillo speaks with SF Bay View Editor-in-Chief JR Valrey about the humanitarian impact, Cuba’s sweeping new economic reforms, U.S.-Cuba relations, and why Havana says diplomacy—not sanctions—is the only path toward peace and stability.

Cuba has always defended the need for international relations based on sovereign equality, dialogue and cooperation, rather than hegemonic doctrines or threats of force. The peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean have the right to freely determine their own destiny, without external interference.

The question we should be asking ourselves is not whether socialism has failed, but rather: What country in the world, regardless of its political system, would survive a siege of this magnitude for seven decades?

What the Cuban people endure is not a limited or selective restriction – it’s a full-scale siege. A form of collective punishment aimed at breaking a nation’s spirit.