Cuba's Report to the UN Secretary General on General Assembly Resolution 57/11: 'Necessity of Ending the Economic, Commercial and Financial Blockade Imposed by the United States of America Against Cuba'

For more than 40 years, the Cuban people have confronted the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the government of the United States of America, one of the most cruel, inhuman and prolonged policies of hostility endured by any people in the history of human civilization. From the very moment of the triumph of the Revolution, when the people of Cuba made a reality of the enjoyment of their right to self-determination by destroying the foundations of the neocolonial regime maintained on the island by the United States, the U.S. authorities imposed various economic sanctions against Cuba with the express goal of causing 'hunger, despair and the overthrow of government,' as stated in an official U.S. State Department document dated April 6, 1960.