Cuba lobbies for end to U.S. embargo

The blockade of Cuba. It’s been a fact of life in U.S. politics for four decades… but for the people of Cuba it is literally a matter of life and death. Today the Cuban Embassy in Belize held a press conference to seek support for an end to the economic sanctions and lobby for a U.N. resolution to be introduced on November eighth.

Eugenio Martinez, Cuban Ambassador to Belize
?We think that international pressure from wherever it comes, either from Belize or from Haiti or from Brazil, to call the U.S. to end this policy is the right thing to do, so we are bringing the attention to this. Plus, usually you don?t see in the news this since even in Belize where we have very close relations with the people of Belize, we are a very strong presence in Belize in the area of cooperation, but rarely you see or hear about these facts. So I am calling the attention of Belize as my colleagues are doing in Guatemala or in Mexico, of these inhumane policies and I hope and I am certain that the Government of Belize is in favour to this resolution, but at the same time calling the attention of the people of Belize to this act of genocide because we are helping Belize, we have a close relation, people to people, government to government relation. But I want the people of Belize to know that it costs a lot to Cuba to keep that relation in place because of these policies.?

The Bush administration has tightened the blockade and fined a number of U.S. companies and organisations for doing business with Cuba. Belize is one of one hundred and seventy-nine countries that voted in favour of a similar U.N. resolution last year. Because of the importance of Florida–and its influential anti-Castro Cuban population–the blockade has survived a succession of both Republican and Democratic administrations.