Argentina Slams Absurd Persistence of Blockade on Cuba http://www.insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2011/may/02/latinamerica11050201.htm

The U.S.-led severe economic, financial and trade siege on the island was condemned in this capital during the celebration of Cuba Day at the International Book Fair.Despite that absurd persistence, the U.S. blockade "failed efforts to strangle the Cuban Revolution," stated Vicente Batista, member of El Libro Culture Foundation Commission.

In his speech, interrupted several times by applauses, Batista said that to talk about Cuba obliges, inevitably, to talk of poetry. He quoted some verses written by national poet Nicolas Guillen in "Por el Mar de las Antillas" (On the Caribbean Sea).He also referred to the key condition of the New World granted to Cuba several centuries ago, acquired as a genuine and true reason after the triumph of the Revolution on January 1, 1959.Batista stated that, amid the most severe economic crisis faced by the island in the 90s of the last century after the fall of the socialist bloc, there were two sectors that increased rather than reduced, education and health.