Long argued that the measure lacks legal support and denied that “Cuba is not an ‘unusual and extraordinary threat’ to the United States”.

In his account on the social network X, the ex-diplomat stated that the “total suffocation of the Cuban people through the imposition of a blockade on the sale of fuels is, besides being cruel and imperial, according to international law, an act of war”.

The former Minister of Foreign Affairs also warned that blockades are only legal in self-defense contexts and stressed that “they are always illegal when they seek to collectively punish the civilian population”.

In his statement, Long warned that this type of action can have international criminal consequences, noting that “in such cases a war crime and even a crime against humanity may be constituted”.

Criticism of the White House’s decision against the Caribbean nation was joined by former deputy Foreign Minister Fernando Yepez Lasso, who considered that the executive order deepens the historic blockade imposed on the island.

Yepez Lasso also called for a regional and international reaction to the measure: “Ecuador and the world must condemn and stop this aggression against a brother country, to law and civilized coexistence,” he added.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez denounced to the world “this brutal act of aggression against Cuba and its people, which for more than 65 years has been subjected to the longest and most cruel economic blockade ever applied against an entire nation and which is now promised to be subjected to extreme living conditions.”

abo/ro/avr