all cuban ladies sharing love and knowledge in poor neighbourhoos of Tachira, Venezuela
ORGANIZATION OF SOLIDARITY OF THE PEOPLES OF AFRICA, ASIA AND LATIN AMERICA
October 29, 2008/No 34
Almost Unanimous Rejection at the UN to US Blockade Against Cuba
A resolution on the “need to put an end to the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States against Cuba” received 185 votes in favor and 3 against (United States, Israel and Palau) and two abstentions (Micronesia and Marshall Islands).
The approved resolution “once more urges the United States –where laws and measures of that kind exist and continue to be enforced– to take the necessary measures to derogate them or leave them without effect in the shortest possible term and according to their legislation”.
The General Assembly also requested Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to prepare “a report on the fulfillment of the present resolution”.
The international support granted to Cuba was even greater than last year’s, when a similar resolution obtained support from 184 countries.
In 2007 four countries voted against and one –Micronesia– abstained. This year, the Marshall Islands also abstained from voting against the Caribbean island. The number of votes in favor has been progressively increasing: from 59 countries that supported a similar text for the first time in 1992 it went up to 179 in 2004 and to 185 this year.
The Cuban Minister of Foreign Relations Felipe Pérez Roque highlighted the extra territorial nature of that policy that tries to prevent the normal trade of other countries with Cuba.
“The United Status has the right to trade with the countries they wish, but they have no right to persecute their business persons, much less those of other countries for wanting to trade or invest in Cuba”, he stated.
“If the U.S. governments were truly concerned with the welfare of the Cuban people, the only moral and ethical behavior would be to raise the blockade imposed upon my country”, he underlined.
Alter the closing of the voting, the president of the General Assembly, Nicaraguan diplomat Miguel d’Escoto described the U.S. blockade against Cuba as ilegal and criminal, and said that “there is nothing that violates more the spirit and text of the Charter of the United Nations Organization”.
