Cuban ambassador calls for end to U.S. embargo on the island
Since 1963 the United States government has had an embargo on Cuba. According to the U.S. Department of Treasury website, “the basic goal of the sanctions is to isolate the Cuban government economically and deprive it of U.S. dollars.” As such, they have restricted U.S. residents from travelling to that country, prevented imports and exports and frozen all Cuban assets in the United States. Next week, the Cuban government will put forward its seventeenth resolution to the United Nations General Assembly to try and put an end to what it says is an “act of economical war and genocide” by the U.S. government. According to Cuban Ambassador to Belize, Manuel Rubido, while the overwhelming majority of countries have voted in their favour, the U.S. government ignores the moral mandate.
Manuel Rubido, Cuban Ambassador to Belize
“The ultimate goal of the blockade, among other hostilities endured for almost fifty years, is to overthrow the legitimate government of Cuba which has been constituted by the sovereign will of our people. There is no question but that the blockage is the main obstacle to the development and well-being of Cubans and constitutes a blatant, massive and systematic violation of the rights of an entire people. Arrogantly and contemptuously, Washington continues to ignore the sixteen resolutions passed by the UN general assembly. The virtually unanimous call by the international community for an end to the genocidal policy remains unheeded. Last year a hundred and eighty-four nations voted with Cuba demanding the end of the blockade. So you can have the significance of that, a hundred and ninety-two nations are members of the UN, so the support is overwhelming as is the isolation of the United States in its policy towards Cuba. I don’t think that the international communities and Cuba’s demand can be ignored forever. I don’t think that there is a wrongdoing, as somebody said, that could last for more than a hundred years. Nevertheless, if it does last for a hundred years, we have already sustained almost fifty and we are willing to sustain another fifty. We hope we don’t have to and that is why I do see the end off the blockade because I do believe very consistently in the better nature of man.”
According to Rubido, up to the end of 2007 Cuba has suffered ninety-three billion dollars in losses as a result of the embargo.
