Photos: Karoly Emerson
"Any measure condemning trade in the United States or for which penalties are received by financial factors, many alters and other paralyzes." So declared Juan Gonzalez Escalona, president of Cuba Ron and Havana Club International, during an interview for the short documentary Blockade, the longest genocide in history, by the filmmaker and journalist Hernando Calvo Ospina. This audiovisual was presented on November 13th at the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), located in the capital city.
To the projection of the material, 22 minutes long, was attended by Elio Gamez, vice president of the Institute, Fernando Gonzalez Llort, Hero of the Republic of Cuba and vice president of ICAP, Graciela Ramirez, correspondent of Latin American Summary, and guests of the Cuban newspaper Granma Internacional, the staff from the embassy of Venezuela, among others. At the meeting, Gámez highlighted as one of the priorities of the country after the reopening of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States, the importance of denouncing the blockade imposed by the US government that "far from what is being interpreted, is a scourge which still remains ".
Meanwhile, Calvo Ospina also president of the Association France-Cuba Solidarity is author of the book The Saga of Bacardi. From the Text, the journalist noted for this publication that the brand of rum from Santiago de Cuba, since it emerged as a company outside the island, has been linked to counterrevolutionary organizations and the Central Intelligence Agency.
If before 1960 the Bacardi was proud of being Cuban, after the revolutionary triumph, according to Calvo, they began to support a series of terrorist attacks and invasion attempts; stories related to the company that are barely known.
" Cuba Ron led the first great war, after signed the Helms Burton Law, and today is one of the biggest fights of Cuba abroad for stealing the brand. The Helms Burton Act is virtually Bacardi´s, as lawyers of the company wrote and financed it. If such legislation is known today even more is because of the disputes between the two companies", the director of the film added.
To millions of millions ascends the economic damage caused by the blockade. The Imports of any product in the country should not possess 10% of US component. Therefore, as González Escalona, president of leading Cuban rum company assured, "many invest elsewhere to avoid falling into any of the clauses of the blockade".
Blockade, the longest genocide in history, sponsored by organizations of solidarity from Italy and France, as well as the digital portal Cubainformación TV, because of its interest abroad has been translated into English, French, Italian and Turkish. It will soon have a translation into German, Portuguese and Arabic.

