UN resolution backs end to US blockade of Cuba
By Deepa Fernandes
HAVANA — For the sixth time in six years, the United Nations General Assembly on November 5 overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling for the end to Washington's more than 35-year economic blockade against Cuba.
One hundred and forty-three nations voted in favour of Cuba's resolution, 17 abstained and just three — the United States, Israel and Uzbekistan — voted against. Dozens of nations spoke in favour of the resolution, entitled "Necessity of Ending the Economic, Commercial and Financial Blockade Imposed by the United States of America Against Cuba".
This year's resolution was introduced by the president of Cuba's parliament, Ricardo Alarcon. He noted that five previous resolutions calling for the lifting of the blockade had already been passed by wide margins, and that not only has the United States ignored those resolutions, but it has added new unilateral and extraterritorial measures.
What is more, said Alarcon, in l991 Washington went as far as to claim that there was no blockade against Cuba. "On August 21, 1991, in an official document distributed here the US State Department was brazen enough to declare: 'A blockade implies that the United States is taking measures to prevent other countries from trading with Cuba. Clearly, this is not the case.'
"The truth is that by that date, the United States had already been taking measures for 30 years in order to prevent trade between Cuba and other countries. To achieve this, it had established mechanisms, regulations and had taken illegal and interfering actions that had, on many occasions, generated the protests and legitimate countermeasures of other countries."
Alarcon commented that, in the 1992 UN General Assembly, the first resolution demanding an end the cruel and criminal blockade was adopted. Ignoring this international consensus, the US enacted the Torricelli Act the same year.
This act, as if to spite the United Nations, forbids subsidiaries of US companies based in other countries from doing business with Cuba and prohibits ships of any flag involved in transactions in Cuba entering US ports.
Alarcon wasted no words in pointing out the US arrogance contained in the Torricelli Act. "It not only seeks to prevent trade between Cuba and other countries, but it violates the sovereignty of those countries."
Alarcon charged that not only had the US grossly violated international norms, but that US policy against Cuba shows blatant disrespect for the rights, interests and feelings of all humanity, including broad sectors in the US.
"In support of its conduct, Washington cannot cite a single intergovernmental, religious or trade-union organisation. No other government, parliament or political party endorses it. No institution, no decent person in any part of the planet advocates it."
Then, Alarcon said, in 1996, as if out of the Stone Age, emerged the Helms-Burton Act.
He took issue with US claims that the blockade against Cuba is aimed at protecting the commercial interests of Cuba's citizens. Alarcon said, "Maintaining the blockade for more than 30 years, far from benefiting those who had their property expropriated, actually harms them".
He said that the Helms-Burton law is aimed at "establishing a plan for the colonial absorption of Cuba and working against the rights of other states".
Alarcon said that Washington is expanding its economic sanctions against Cuba every day. He also noted that US National Association of Manufacturers statistics show that between 1993 and 1996 the US had imposed 61 economic sanctions against 35 countries.
Currently, Alarcon said, 42% of the world's population lives in countries which suffer from economically crippling policies of the United States. "How far will this policy, which attacks everyone, go? How long must we put up with it? My delegation has confidence in the capacity of the world to confront it."
The UN assembly's vote confirms, once again, that many nations are willing to defend the principles of justice and respect, Alarcon said. "The challenge that we face is great, but greater yet is our will to preserve our independence and justice, conquered through many long years of struggle and immense sacrifice of successive Cuban generations ... Cuba is not and shall never be a colonial possession of the United States.
"Next year it will be a century since the US military invasion robbed Cuba of its independence and imposed the domination that ended forever in January of l959. Those in Washington who are still delirious with their imperial dreams should realise that it is high time that they wake up."