“They Are Apologists to Crimes Against Humanity”

“Embargo,” “sanctions,” “pressure,” “leverage.” According to Cuban-American international law expert Alfred de Zayas, the neutral-sounding words used to describe U.S. policy toward Cuba helps justify economic warfare.

By using terms like this is, “you are actually playing the game of the United States,” de Zayas told Belly of the Beast journalist Liz Oliva Fernández, because they imply “that the country imposing sanctions has a moral or legal right to do so — which is not the case.”

De Zayas, who served as a UN Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order, argues that what Washington calls “sanctions” are more accurately described as “unilateral coercive measures,” the term used by the United Nations to describe actions taken by one state to bring about regime change in another in violation of international law.

He explains how unilateral coercive measures restrict access to food, medicine and basic infrastructure for ordinary Cubans. These measures, he said, amount to a form of collective punishment — one that has been repeatedly condemned by the international community.

Corporate media outlets, de Zayas argues, normalize illegal economic warfare through neutral-sounding language and by downplaying how the Cuban people are impacted. The upshot: “They actually are apologists of this crime against humanity.”