188 Nations Condemn US Embargo Against Cuba

[cqo_000]

(Reuters) - The U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly for the 22nd time to condemn the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba, whose foreign minister said the American policy in place since 1959 was barbaric and amounted to genocide.

There were 188 votes for the non-binding resolution, entitled "Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba," in the 193-nation General Assembly.

The only country that joined the United States in voting against the resolution was Israel.

Last year, there were the same number of votes for the resolution, though the tiny Pacific island nation of Palau voted with Israel and the United States against the resolution. This year, Palau abstained, along with fellow Pacific island nations Micronesia and Marshall Islands.

U.S. President Barack Obama, who said before taking office that he wanted to recast long-hostile U.S.-Cuba relations, has been a disappointment to the Cuban government, which hoped he would do more to dismantle the embargo.

"The human damages caused by the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States are incalculable," Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez told the assembly.

"It provokes hardships and is a mass, flagrant and systematic violation of human rights," he said. "The fact that 53 years later the same policy still prevails is something extraordinary and barbaric."

He added that the economic damage to Cuba amounted to $1.126 trillion and that the embargo "has been classified as an act of genocide" under the Geneva Convention of 1948.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/29/us-cuba-un-idUSBRE99S10Q20131029

[gopiscrap]

1. wow, still don't know why we are still doing it.

[Demeter]

2. Miami Cubans

another ten years should do it...they'll all be dead, and their descendants assimilated and indifferent.

[gopiscrap]

3. wow that's pretty amazing

also I think Castro needs to be dead too before they change it.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Something needs to happen to get them to spread out, resettle

around the country, rather than holding out in Florida, controlling Florida politics, controlling the entire slate of electors, which makes them so important to every Presidential election, wherein ALL candidates will end up making pilgrimages to Miami to seek favor, votes, and contributions from the Cuban "exile" reactionaries.

They have held inordinate power over US politics in the Americas ever since they ran to Florida following the Cuban revolution. Many believed the US would invade Cuba, and they would move right back and take over where they left off.

When that didn't happen, the simply ran Florida politics with the corrupt, violent, treacherous style they ran things in Cuba prior to the Revolution, the same racist, heavy-handed, entitled attitude which generated the revolution in the first place.

Many Miamians bailed out of South Florida following this power shift, and left their new leader, Jorge Mas Canosa blithely telling Spain's El Pais:

7/31/94 The Miami Herald reprints an interview with Jorge Mas Canosa from the Spanish newspaper El Pais. Mas Canosa was asked by El Pais whether he believed Americans would take over Cuba if Fidel Castro fell. The Herald quoted Mas Canosa as saying, in part, "They haven't even been able to take over Miami! If we have kicked them out of here, how could they possibly take over our own country?" (MH, 7/28/94; WP, 7/28/94)

http://cuban-exile.com/doc_126-150/doc0146b.html

[Judi Lynn]

5. It's so strange seeing Israel as the only vote in support of the US embargo.

Israel, has it has done for years, has business relations with Cuba, has sent advisors to instruct regarding agriculture in the desert parts of Cuba, has instructed on hydroponics, has sent groups of tourists, has engaged in trade.

Yet they back up the U.S. economic war on Cuba. Doesn't make sense, unless you believe it might have something to do with their fear of losing some of the astonishingly generous foreign aid package they receive annually from the U.S. taxpayers, all dependent, of course, on what political choices they make.

[Paolo123]

6. It's a quid pro quo

The US always votes with Israel against almost the whole UN on Israeli/Palestinian matters.