[NYTr] UN Vote Against Cuba Blockade a "Crushing Defeat" for US

Tue Oct 30 18:32:31 EDT 2007

[Here's more assorted news on the UN General Assembly vote. There's
tons of it but it mostly all says the same thing. Cuba gained one
vote this year: Nicaragua.  In the last couple of years Mexico, which
had been abstaining, began voting with the majority to shut down the
blockade. We're just send a few of the non-US mainstream stories.-NYTr]

RTT News - Oct 30, 2007
http://www.rttnews.com/FOREX/gblnews.asp?date=10/30/2007&item=5

UN General Assembly Urges US to End Its Trade Embargo Against Cuba

10/30/2007 2:21:56 PM The U.N. General Assembly voted on Tuesday to
urge the U.S. to end its trade embargo against Cuba, an exercise the
world body has been repeating for the past 15 years in vain.

The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling
for the 46-year-old U.S. economic and commercial embargo against Cuba
to be repealed as soon as possible.

Speaking at the assembly, Cuban foreign minister Felipe Perez Roque
accused the U.S. of stepping up its “brutal economic war” to new
heights.

Representatives of 184 nations in the 192-member world body voted in
favor of the resolution, while four voted against it and one member
abstained from voting. Delegates in the General Assembly chamber
applauded vociferously when the result of the voting flashed on the
screen.

“The blockade had never been enforced with such viciousness as over the
last year,” Perez Roque told the assembly. He accused Washington of
adopting new measures based on madness and fanaticism that have hurt
Cuba and interfered in its relations with at least 30 countries.

                               ***

Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN)
http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles

Crushing Defeat of US blockade of Cuba at UN General Assembly

Havana, Oct 30(acn) For the sixteenth consecutive time, United Nations 
members voted against the US economic, financial and commercial 
blockade of Cuba. The resolution presented by the island received 184 
votes in favor, one more than in 2006, four against and one abstention.

President Bush's latest speech calling for a strengthening of the 
economic war on the Cuban people triggered an opposite reaction and the 
White House was suddenly left alone except for its own vote, that of 
its loyal ally Israel, and the vote of the Marshall Islands and Palau. 
Only Micronesia abstained.

The Bush administration tried in vain to "persuade" UN members prior 
and during the General Assembly sessions, but the pressure only worked 
on Albania, which did not show up, and Iraq and El Salvador whose 
representatives left the room before taking the vote.

Several countries spoke up against the blockade. Pakistan took the 
floor on behalf of the Group of 77, while Egypt did so representing the 
Non Aligned Movement, and the Bahamas on behalf of CARICOM.

Venezuela, Mexico, Viet Nam and South Africa stood up alongside Cuba as 
well, as did, in their speeches, the representatives of China, Russia, 
India, Uganda, Bolivia, Libya, Tanzania, Zambia, Nicaragua and Zimbabwe.

Cuba's Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque called on UN members to 
support the report entitled "Necessity to end the economic, financial 
and commercial blockade imposed by Washington against Cuba," 
considering the blockade as part of an extra territorial and illegal 
policy, a genocide. The draft resolution, which had already been 
circulated among the 192 member states, s supported by an annual report
by the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, which reflects the
disagreement of 120 countries and institutions in relation to the US
aggressive policy against Cuba.

"Cuba will never give up. On the contrary, Cuba will fight on because 
by defending the rights of their people it is defending the rights of 
all the peoples represented by the UN General Assembly," he concluded.

                         ***

Financial Times via MSNBC - Oct 30, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21550028/

Fresh Edge on New Cuba Embargo Call [whatever that means... -NYTr]

by Harvey Morris at the UN

A resolution to lift the 45-year-old US embargo on Cuba was passed by
the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, although the Bush
administration is likely to ignore it.

The debate on the unilateral sanctions has become a traditional fixture
at the UN since 1992. This year, however, the predictable condemnations
of the US blockade from Cuba's allies and others in the developing
world had an added edge.

President George W. Bush, approaching his final year in office,
recently engaged in a long-distance rhetorical spat with Fidel Castro,
the ailing 81-year-old who may also be facing his final year as Cuban
leader since leading the 1959 revolution.

With the prospect of a change of guard in Havana, a number of
Democratic candidates in the US presidential campaign are already
proposing a change of tack after almost five decades of a blockade that
has stifled the Cuban economy but failed to bring the Castro regime to
its knees.

Jorge Valero, representing Venezuela, Cuba's closest ally, told the
General Assembly yesterday that the embargo was a "criminal, genocidal
act of force" that violated the UN charter and international law.

Speaking for Cuba, Felipe Pérez Roque, foreign minister, said the
embargo was the biggest obstacle to the welfare and development of the
Cuban people. The Havana government routinely points to what Cubans
call el bloqueo as the chief factor behind the island's economic woes.

Sanctions include a ban on US companies doing business with Cuba and
limitations on US citizens travelling there. Mr Bush has previously
vetoed US congressional moves to lift the travel restrictions.

Referring to the regime as "a disgraced and dying order", Mr Bush last
week urged Cuba's army and security forces to stand aside if there were
to be a popular movement for change, prompting a Cuban response that he
was inciting a popular uprising. Mr Bush said that easing US sanctions
in the absence of a full transition to democracy would strengthen the
Havana government.

Mr Castro ridiculed Mr Bush's speech, comparing Cuba's early
independence fighters to Abraham Lincoln. 

                           ***

EuroNews - Oct 30, 2007
http://www.euronews.net/index.php?page=info&article=451147&lng=1

UN reaffirms opposition to America's Cuba embargo

The United States is coming under renewed UN pressure to end its
40-year-old embargo of Cuba. For the 16th consecutive year the General
Assembly voted overwhelmingly to urge Washington to lift the ban. Only
Israel, Palau and the Marshall Islands voted with the US against the
resolution.

Just last week the White House rejected any easing of sanctions without
a transition to democracy on the communist island. Cuba's Foreign
Minister Felipe Perez Roque said the embargo was the main obstacle to
the development and welfare of the Cuban people. He described it as a
"systematic and flagrant violation of Cuba's rights". The US
representative said the onus was on Havana to change, saying the Cuban
leadership had an "embargo on freedom".

A lack of basic provisions is just one impact of the trade ban on Cuba.
But the situation is unlikely to change anytime soon with most
Americans supporting their government's position. The UN resolution is
non-binding and such votes have had no effect on US policy in the past.

                          ***

AFP via Google - Oct 30, 2007
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5joQgjAc2_TuGGZdOvKiNEYEtg7sQ

Overwhelming UN support to end US embargo on Cuba

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — The UN General Assembly on Tuesday voted
overwhelmingly for the 16th year in a row to demand an end to the
crippling US trade embargo against Cuba, despite Washington's pledge to
keep it in place.

By a vote of 184 in favor, it reiterated its "call upon all states to
refrain from promulgating and applying laws and measures (such as those
in the US embargo) in conformity with their obligations under the
Charter of the United Nations and international law."

The 192-member assembly again urged "states that have and continue to
apply such laws and measures to take the necessary steps to repeal or
invalidate them as soon as possible in accordance with their legal
regime."

Like last year, four countries -- the United States, Israel, Marshall
Islands and Palau -- voted against the resolution and one, Micronesia,
abstained.

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque immediately hailed the vote
as a "splendid victory" coming less than a week after US President
George W. Bush vowed to keep in place the US sanctions, which were
imposed 45 years ago against the communist-ruled island following the
failed Bay of Pigs invasion by US-backed Cuban exiles.

"As long as the regime maintains its monopoly over the political and
economic life of the Cuban people, the United States will keep the
embargo in place," Bush said.

"I think the president's remarks stand," US national security council
spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Tuesday in reaction to the UN vote.

The margin of support for ending the embargo has grown steadily since
1992 when 59 countries voted in favor of the resolution. The figure was
179 in 2004 and 182 in 2005.

Addressing the Assembly ahead of the vote, Perez Roque said the
economic and trade sanctions were having a crippling effect, and
estimated Cuba had suffered losses of "no less than 222 billion
dollars," based on the US dollar's current value.

The blockade "has never been applied with as much ferocity as in the
past year," he said, noting that Washington even barred US companies
from providing Internet services to Cuba and was denying Cuban children
access to needed medication.

And he later told AFP that the vote was "the expression of the virtual
universal rejection of the policy of blockade and aggression which
Bush, like no other US president, has applied toward Cuba."

He said ailing Cuban President Fidel Castro "followed the (UN) debate
live and was the main architect of this victory because he embodies
like no-one else the will of Cubans to be a free people despite the
embargo and the aggressions we have suffered."

The 81-year-old Castro has been sidelined from power since he underwent
gastrointestinal surgery in July 2006. His brother Raul Castro, 76, is
serving as interim president.

Ronald Godard, the US State Department's senior advisor for Latin
American affairs, blamed the communist regime for the country's woes.

"Cuba's problems derive not from any decision of the United States, but
from the embargo on freedom that the Cuban regime has imposed on its
own people," he said.

"We call on the international community to join together in demanding
that the Cuban government unconditionally release all political
prisoners as the essential step in beginning a process that restores to
the Cuban people their basic human rights," he told the assembly.

Several speakers denounced the embargo slapped on Cuba on February 7,
1962 by the US administration under the late president John Kennedy.

Egypt's UN envoy, Maged Abdelaziz, said the Non-Aligned movement
"reiterates its deep concern over the widening of the extra-territorial
nature of the embargo against Cuba and rejects the reinforcement of the
measures adopted by the US government aimed at tightening the embargo."

Pakistan's deputy UN ambassador Farukh Amil, speaking on behalf of
another grouping of 130 nations, called for greater dialogue and
cooperation to "contribute greatly not only toward the removal of
tensions, but also promote meaningful exchange and partnership between
countries whose destinies are linked by history and geography."

Speaking on behalf of the European Union, Portuguese delegate Jorge de
Lemos Godinho said: "we express our rejection of all unilateral
measures against Cuba which are contrary to commonly accepted rules of
international trade, and repeat our view that the lifting of the US
trade embargo would open Cuba's economy to the benefit of the Cuban
people."

                          ***

PL via Granma International - Oct 30, 2007
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2007/octubre/mar30/44voto.html

UN opposes U.S. blockade of Cuba

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 30 — The United Nations today, by 184 votes,
expressed its opposition to the blockade maintained against Cuba for
almost half a century by the United States.

A resolution calling for the end of that economic, commercial and
financial blockade gained one more vote since last year (Nicaragua),
and the only votes against the resolution came from the United States,
Israel, Palau and the Marshall Islands, plus one abstention
[Micronesia]. (PL)

Translated by Granma International

                           ***

Agenzia Giornalistica Italia - Oct 30, 2007
http://www.agi.it/world/news/200710302031-pol-ren0082-art.html

CUBA. RECORD VOTING AT U. N. TO LIFT EMBARGO; 184 YES

(AGI) - New York, Oct.30 - The UN General Assembly has approved, with a
majority record (184 votes for, out of 192), a resolution that asks,
for the umpteenth time, to lift the embargo on Cuba. Only USA, Israel,
Palau and the Marshall Islands voted against, while Micronesia opted
for an abstention. With the text, the Assembly "asks all states to
refrain from passing and enforcing laws and measures (such as the US
embargo), compliantly with their duties, abiding the UN Charter and
international law". It's the sixteenth time, since 1992, that the UN
approves such a motion, which has gathered more and more consent with
time: from 59 votes in 1992 to 170 in 2004 and 182 in 2006. Last week,
US president George W. Bush reasserted that the US will confirm the
measures taken 45 years ago - on 7 February 1962, following the crisis
of the Russian missiles in Cuba - until Fidel Castro or his brother
Raoul are in power.

                            ***

Al Jazeera - Oct 30, 2007
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/AA4DCAE8-1717-487D-81EE-10F3FB1F3940.htm

UN votes against US embargo on Cuba  	 	

The UN general assembly has voted overwhelmingly 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 non-binding and
such moves in the past have had no impact on US policy. 
The US has ignored the previous 15 resolutions since 1992.

Felipe Perez Roque, the Cuban foreign minister, earned a round of
applause from the assembly on Tuesday as he completed his case for the
embargo to be lifted, saying that it was the main block to development
of his country. 

The resolution, titled Necessity of Ending the Economic, Commercial and
Financial Embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba,
was passed with 184 votes in favour, four against and one abstention.

Israel joined the US in voting against the resolution, as did Palau and
the Marshall Islands. Micronesia abstained.

Last week, George Bush, the US president, rejected a proposal to ease
sanctions, arguing that it would only give the communist government
greater power.

In his first formal speech on Cuba since Fidel Castro, the country's
ailing leader, handed power to his brother Raul in July 2006, Bush said
the government was a "disgraced and dying order".

He encouraged Cubans to push for democratic change.

Every year since 1992, the UN general assembly has told the US to lift
the embargo against Cuba. Last year's resolution was approved by
183-four, with one abstention.

Perez Roque, in his speech to the assembly, said: "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." 

Call for democracy

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

Ronald Godard, the US mission's adviser on Latin American affairs, told
the general assembly that the US 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 towards democracy instead of voting
against US policy.

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

Perez Roque said the embargo had cost Cuba more than $89bn in more than
40 years, which he said was the equivalent of $222bn 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 US filmmakers Michael Moore and Oliver Stone as
examples of how Washington had 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 favour of the resolution, including
representatives of the European Union and Australia, said they did so
despite concerns about human rights in Cuba. They called for political
prisoners to be released.