[NYTr] UN votes overwhelingly against US embargo on Cuba for 16th year

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[Palau, the Marshall Islands, and the USA's faithful partner in crime,
Israel, voted no. 184 voted yes. Micronesia abstained. - NYTr]

Reusters via Yahoo - Oct 30, 2007
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071030/pl_nm/cuba_un_embargo_dc

U.N. votes against U.S. embargo on Cuba for 16th year

By Claudia Parsons

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. General Assembly voted
overwhelmingly on Tuesday to urge the United States to lift its
four-decade-old embargo against Cuba in a resolution adopted for the
16th consecutive year.

The measure is nonbinding and such moves in the past have had no impact
on U.S. policy.

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque denounced the "arrogance and
political blindness" of Washington in ignoring 15 similar resolutions
passed since 1992.

The resolution, entitled "necessity of ending the economic, commercial
and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against
Cuba," was passed with 184 votes in favor, four against and one
abstention.

Voting "no" with the United States were Israel, Palau and the Marshall
Islands. Micronesia abstained.

U.S. President George W. Bush last week rejected any easing of
sanctions without a transition to democracy on the Caribbean island and
said doing so would only bolster the communist government's grip on
power.

In his first formal speech on Cuba since an ailing Fidel Castro handed
power to his brother Raul in July 2006, Bush labeled the Castro
government a "disgraced and dying order" and urged Cubans to push for
democratic change.

Every year since 1992, the U.N. General Assembly has told the United
States to lift the embargo against Cuba. Last year's resolution was
approved by 183-4, with one abstention.

"The United States has ignored, with both arrogance and political
blindness, the 15 resolutions adopted by this General Assembly calling
for the lifting of the blockade against Cuba," Perez Roque said in his
speech to the assembly.

CALL FOR DEMOCRACY

The Bush administration has tightened the embargo, including
restrictions on visits to Cuba and remittances to families.

Ronald Godard, the U.S. mission's adviser on Latin American affairs,
told the General Assembly that the United States was the largest
provider of humanitarian aid to the Cuban people and he blamed Cuba's
own policies for hardships there.

He urged the world to press Cuba toward democracy instead of voting
against U.S. policy.

"It is long past time that the Cuban people enjoy the blessings of
economic and political freedom," he said.

Perez Roque, in a stinging attack on U.S. policy, said the embargo had
cost Cuba more than $89 billion in more than 40 years, which he said
was the equivalent of $222 billion in current dollar terms.

"The blockade is today the main obstacle to the development and
well-being of the Cubans and a blatant, massive and systematic
violation of the rights of our people," he said.

Perez Roque mentioned U.S. film makers Michael Moore and Oliver Stone
as examples of how Washington tried to restrict freedom of speech by
hampering their efforts to film in Cuba.

"With its grotesque persecution of the honest word and independent art,
the president of the United States is emulating the inquisition of the
Middle Ages," he said.

Several speakers who voted in favor of the resolution, including
representatives of the European Union and Australia, said they did so
despite serious concerns about human rights in Cuba and they called for
the release of political prisoners.

The Cuban minister drew a round of applause as he ended his speech with
the words "Viva Cuba Libre."