UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States on Wednesday voted against a United Nations resolution that heavily condemned the US economic embargo on Cuba for the 29th year, maintaining opposition to the Trump administration and the Obama administration. Refused to return to the 2016 boycott.
Voted in the 193-member General Assembly, 184 countries supported the condemnation, the United States and Israel opposed it, and Brazil, Colombia and Ukraine abstained. Four countries did not vote – the Central African Republic, Myanmar, Moldova and Somalia.
Before the vote, the US mission’s political coordinator, Rodney Hunter, told the assembly that the Biden administration voted “no” because the United States believes sanctions are vital to advancing democracy and human rights that ” Our policy towards Cuba is at the core of our efforts”.
“The sanctions are a legitimate way to achieve foreign policy, national security and other national and international objectives,” Hunter said, “and our broader commitment to Cuba to advance democracy, promote respect for human rights, and help There is a set of tools in the effort. The Cuban people exercise fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
“That’s why we oppose this proposal.
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Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez accused the Biden administration of adhering to the policies of the Trump administration, which tightened economic, commercial and financial sanctions and restricted travel by US citizens to its tourism sector, leaving the country nearly 5 million people. Billion dollars in record losses.
“All these measures are still in force today and are being fully implemented,” he said. “And the irony is that they are shaping the behavior of the current US administration, especially during the months when Cuba has experienced the highest COVID-19 infection rate, the highest number of fatalities, and the worst economic impact.”
Rodriguez said the sanctions remain in place despite the Democratic Party’s platform that “voters promised a swift reversal of actions taken by Donald Trump’s administration, notably ending sanctions on Cuban travel, financial remittances and bilateral Including the implementation of the Migration Agreement. Granting of visas.”
A man fishes along the Malecón Seawall near the US Embassy in Havana, Cuba, on Wednesday, July 29, 2020. (AP Photo / Ismail Francisco)
He added that “a vast majority” of Americans support lifting restrictions, restoring freedom to travel and establishing normal relations.
“There are some who have blamed this deadly inertia on the electoral ambitions associated with Florida or the balance of political and legislative elites,” Rodriguez said.
The General Assembly’s last vote in November 2019, during its 74th session, was 187-3, with the US, Israel and Brazil voting “no,” and Colombia and Ukraine voting no. The 75th session of the Assembly began in September 2020, but voting on the Cuban resolution was postponed until Wednesday last fall due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Israel has followed America’s lead on the annual resolution over the years.
General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding and unenforceable, but they reflect world opinion and the vote has given Cuba an annual platform to demonstrate America’s isolation.
It was imposed in 1960 after the revolution led by Fidel Castro and the nationalization of assets belonging to American citizens and corporations. After two years it was further strengthened.
Former Cuban President Raul Castro and then-President Barack Obama officially restored relations in July 2016, and that year the US for the first time withheld a proposal to end the embargo. But Obama’s successor, Donald Trump, sharply criticized Cuba’s human rights record, and in 2017 the US again voted against the proposal.
US diplomat Hunter said the United States recognizes “the challenges facing the Cuban people”.
In this file photo taken on June 22, 2021, a woman walks near a wall depicting the Cuban flag in Havana. The United Nations General Assembly on June 23, 2021 condemned the nearly 60-year-old US embargo on Cuba for the 29th year in a row, calling for it to end by a vote of 184 to two. (Photo by Yamil Lage/AFP)
“This is why the United States is an important supplier of humanitarian goods to Cuba and one of Cuba’s major trading partners,” he said. “Every year we authorize the export of billions of dollars, including food and other agricultural goods, medicines, medical equipment, telecommunications equipment, consumer goods and other items to support the Cuban people.”
Cuba’s Rodriguez vehemently disagreed. He said the damage to Cubans from the embargo was “incomparable” and accused the United States of “massive, major and systematic violations” of their human rights, arguing that it was “an act of genocide” under the 1948 Geneva Convention. Qualifies as an act.”
In the health sector, the foreign minister said, “it is an impossible impossibility to access the equipment, technologies, devices, therapies and most appropriate pharmaceuticals” from US companies. And the embargo, which Cubans call a “blockade,” has deprived the country’s industries of funding and restricted food imports from the U.S. to specific amounts that decrease day by day amid COVID-19, rising prices. and form long lines. pandemic, he said.
Rodriguez said, “Cuba demands to live in peace, without restraint, and calls for an end to the oppression of our commercial and financial relations with the rest of the world.” “We call for an end to manipulation, discrimination, and barriers between Cubans living in the United States and their relatives in Cuba and the country in which they were born.”
