TRADE UNIONISTS should not fall for “media spin” that suggests the blockade of Cuba is over and done with, the Cuban embassy’s counsellor warned yesterday.

Addressing the conference of probation officers’ union Napo, Jorge Luis Garcia thanked delegates for their support for the Miami Five prisoners, who were released by the US in December last year.

But he urged the British labour movement to “fight to defeat the immoral American blockade that the Cuban people have been suffering for 55 years.

“The media spin says the blockade is open, but I can tell you it’s not,” he warned.

He welcomed “steps in the right direction,” including the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the US and the removal of Havana from Washington’s list of state sponsors of terrorism.

But he said these measures were “limited in their scope” and only addressed “some aspects of the blockade.”