Cuba Embargo Blasted Again at UN 188-3

Cuba has survived the embargo, but at great cost.

HAVANA TIMES (dpa) – The UN General Assembly on Tuesday renewed a demand that the United States lift the economic embargo imposed on Cuba since the 1960s.

The 193-nation assembly voted 188-3 to adopt an annual resolution, for the 21st consecutive year, calling for UN members to consider the US embargo against Cuba as illegal and respect international law that reaffirms freedom of trade and navigation. Last year’s vote was 186-2.

The United States, Israel and Palau voted against the resolution, while the Marshall Islands and Micronesia abstained.

Washington has rejected the repeated UN demands to end the embargo. But it has also improved ties with Havana and allowed US citizens to travel to Cuba.

The resolution, like in previous ones, asked all states that have been implementing the US embargo “to take the necessary steps to repeal or invalidate them as soon as possible in accordance with their legal regime.”

The economic embargo against Cuba was strengthened by US President John F Kennedy in February 1962 following the failure of US-backed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.

The US embargo was further boosted in 1996 by the Helms-Burton Act with the US Congress demanding compliance by all companies with regard to trade and navigation with Cuba.

 

3 thoughts on “Cuba Embargo Blasted Again at UN 188-3”

  • Close US allies like Canada, the UK and Germany joined virtually the entire world in voting against the US embargo. In part this is because of self-interest when Canadian companies like Sherritt incur retaliatory US actions for investing in Cuba. But it’s also because – after more than 50 years – it’s pretty well been proven that the major beneficiary of the leaky US embargo has been the Castro dictatorship. It gives them a handy foreign scapegoat to rail against and blame for their own failings. For the Castro’s the embargo is the gift that keeps on giving.

  • Neither this UN vote nor Cuba´s continued propagandizing worldwide against the embargo will move the US Congress to vote for its repeal. Despite the appeals made by those who oppose the embargo that the US economy has suffered the loss of access to the Cuban market, the reality is that 11 million poor Cubans do not constitute even a rounding error in the GNP of the US economy. US allies who voted against the embargo will continue to recognize it´s existence. Cuba´s allies, Venezuela in particular, will rail against the embargo at every turn yet continue to lust for the American consumer and maintain business as usual. The reality is that Cuba must make measurable steps toward a more democratic society before the US Congress will consider changing US policy towards Cuba.

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