Declaration of the Cuban ambassador causes great impact in Ethiopia

Great media attention today has the statement of the Cuban ambassador to Ethiopia, Jorge Lefebre Nicolás, who criticized international interference and the imposition of sanctions by Western states on sovereign nations.

No matter what the differences or conflicts that need to be resolved, there is always a way to deal with them through diplomatic means, instead of applying measures against the countries, Lefebre said.

Imposing sanctions on a sovereign country, he stressed, is like committing an act of genocide because it harms the majority of the population.

Whenever superpowers impose sanctions, they explain that it is to improve people’s lives, but in reality they make people’s lives more difficult, he commented.

Punishing the majority of the population with hunger is not the right way to achieve political goals, he assured in an interview with the Ethiopian News Agency.

The superpowers believe that their idea of ​​democracy should be a unique approach for the rest of the countries and do not accept that other nations have their own way of practicing democracy, he said.

All countries have their difficulties and have their ways of solving them, he said, commenting that “if Western powers really stand for people’s rights and better lives, they should support others on how to tackle problems.”

By applying sanctions, you kill people’s hope of a better life, because when you try to punish a government, millions of people are really the victims, he insisted.

If you prohibit or prevent a country’s access to international financial institutions, how will their conditions improve and how will the economy grow? the ambassador questioned.

Diplomacy was created to resolve differences through discussions and dialogue. No matter the difference, there is always a way to deal with it. In a face-to-face meeting to discuss and expose positions, common ground can always be found to solve problems, he asserted.

Several Ethiopian media outlets reviewed the diplomat’s statements and many Ethiopians residing in this nation and the diaspora published fragments of the interview on social networks, mainly on Twitter and Facebook.

In different comments, they describe his words as brave, there are allusions to the United States policy in Ethiopia, the western reaction regarding the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and the North American hostility against Cuba.