The Economic War Against Cuba by Salim Lamrani

Author:Salim Lamrani [Lamrani, Salim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781583673416
Publisher: Monthly Review Press
Published: 2013-11-15T06:00:00+00:00

APPENDIX 1

UN General Assembly Votes on U.S. Economic Sanctions against Cuba220

EBSCOhost - printed on 8/1/2021 10:13 AM via METROPOLITAN LIBRARY COMMISSION OF OKLAHOMA COUNTY. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use

APPENDIX 2

UN General Assembly Vote in 2011: Balance [Assessment] and Declarations221

SPEAKERS DENOUNCE CUBAN EMBARGO AS “SAD ECHO”

OF FAILED COLD WAR POLITICS;

GENERAL ASSEMBLY, FOR TWENTIETH YEAR,

DEMANDS LIFTING OF ECONOMIC BLOCKADE

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION SPEAKING WITH VOICE

OF REPUBLICAN PREDECESSORS, CUBAN FOREIGN

MINISTER SAYS OF WASHINGTON’S “WORN-OUT,

REPETITIVE POSITION”

DRAWING PARALLELS TO recent political uprisings in defense of freedom and self-determination, General Assembly delegates today again denounced the decades-old economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba, voting overwhelmingly to adopt the world body’s twentieth consecutive resolution calling for an end to the measures. The resolution—adopted by a recorded vote of 186 in favor to two against (United States, Israel), with three abstentions (Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Palau)—reaffirmed the sovereign equality of States, non-intervention in their internal affairs and freedom of trade and navigation as paramount to the conduct of international affairs.

By the text, the Assembly expressed concern at the continued application of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act—which extended the embargo’s reach to countries trading with Cuba—and whose extraterritorial effects impacted both State sovereignty and the legitimate interests of entities or persons under their jurisdiction. It reiterated the call on States to refrain from applying such measures, in line with their obligations under the United Nations Charter, urging those that had applied such laws to repeal or invalidate them as soon as possible.

Introducing the resolution before the vote, Bruno Eduardo Rodríguez Parilla, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Cuba, said that the United States’ “hostile and aggressive” policy had not changed for the last fifty years. Rather, Washington had taken measures to strengthen its “siege” on his island nation in a “cruel and opportunistic” manner. Cuba was still unable to freely export or import products with the United States, while Cuban companies were banned from trading with American companies or their subsidiaries in third-party States.

In addition, entrepreneurs interested in investing in Cuba could not do so, hampering the economic development of the nation. The total direct economic damage imposed by the blockade was estimated to exceed $975 billion, he said, and even humanitarian aid was restricted, leading to suffering among the Cuban people.

In 1991, when the General Assembly had first decided to include the current item in its agenda, it had seemed impossible that the discussion would continue twenty years later, Parilla said. Indeed, for the two decades the Assembly had been calling for an end to the embargo, the United States had not heeded to the majority opinion of Member States. He recalled that United States President Barack Obama had recently responded with a “noncommittal refusal” to an offer made by the Cuban Government to hold a dialogue on items on the bilateral agenda, preferring, it seemed, to stick to the same worn-out, repetitive position anchored in the past. Nevertheless, Cuba’s proposal to move toward normalization of relations and to expand bilateral cooperation with the United States still stood.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.