UN votes overwhelmingly for end to US blockade of Cuba

On October 28, the UN General Assembly voted resoundingly in 
favour of ending the vicious and punitive US blockade against the 
people of Cuba. The annual resolution to end Washington's 
economic, trade and financial blockade against the island's 
people and their democratic system of governance was won with 179 
nations in favour (including Australia), four against (US, 
Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau) and one abstention (Micronesia). 
Last year's vote was 179 nations in favour of Cuba, three against 
(US, Israel, Marshall Islands) and two abstentions (Micronesia 
and Morocco). Noteworthy was Afghanistan's vote to end the US 
blockade of Cuba — clearly a blow to Washington.

In the plenary session prior to the vote, Cuban Foreign Minister 
Felipe Pirez Roque addressed the General Assembly. His 
presentation (reproduced below) was followed by massive applause.

Cuban statement to UN

Statement by his Excellency Mr Felipe Pirez Roque, Minister of 
Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba before the United Nations 
General Assembly in New York on October 28. The agenda item was 
listed as the "Necessity of Ending the Economic, Commercial and 
Financial Embargo Imposed by the United States of America against 
Cuba".

Excellencies:

Millions of Cubans are now closely following what happens in this 
hall.

Some 70 per cent of them have had to endure all their lives the 
longest blockade in history, imposed by the Government of the 
United States on our homeland right from the triumph of the Cuban 
Revolution.

However, in voting today on draft resolution "Necessity of Ending 
the Economic, Commercial and Financial Embargo Imposed by the 
United States of America against Cuba", the 191 UN Member States 
will not only be making a decision on an issue of interest to 
Cuba. They will also be voting in favour of the respect for the 
Charter of the United Nations, in favour of the respect for 
International Law, in favour of the sovereign equality of States 
and the self-determination of the peoples, so that no government, 
mighty as it may be, can punish not only Cuba but also any other 
country for trading with and investing in ours.

Today, we will cast a vote against the extraterritorial 
enforcement of laws; a vote against haughtiness and the disdain 
for the rights of others.

I have an odd document here, distributed by the United States to 
all delegations — except Cuba, of course.

Genocidal economic war

It lies so much, and so many times, that it deserves to be 
commented on.

Let us see:

"The United States maintains that the embargo is a bilateral 
issue that should not come before the General Assembly. It is 
clearly not a blockade, as we do not interfere with the trade 
between Cuba and other nations."

But this General Assembly knows that there is a different truth 
to it. Well does it know that it is not just an embargo; it knows 
that the US Government has unleashed a worldwide genocidal 
economic war against Cuba. Cuba is prevented from exporting to 
the United States; Cuba is prevented from receiving American 
tourism; we are prevented from gaining access to the technologies 
produced in this country; Cuba is prevented from importing any US 
product, equipment or raw material.

The Assembly knows that the Torricelli Act, which prevents the 
subsidiaries of US companies in third countries from trading with 
Cuba, has been in force since 1992 and is meticulously enforced. 
I will just mention a few examples:

* The Canadian subsidiary of US Picker International could not 
sell spare parts for X-ray equipment to Cuba because it is a 
branch of an American company.

* France's Bull could not complete the sale of ATMs to Cuba 
because it was bought by America's Diebold.

* Refractarios Mexicanos, a company from Mexico, was purchased by 
US Harbison Walker Refractory — and thereafter it could not 
continue selling to Cuba heat-resistant bricks used in furnaces 
for cement production.

* The US representative is well aware, even with expressions to 
the contrary, that nobody in the world can sell a product or 
piece of equipment to Cuba if containing more than 10 per cent of 
US components.

* The import of a quadruple veterinary vaccine, which should have 
been supplied to our country by the Netherlands' Intervet, was 
curtailed when the US Government informed the aforementioned 
company that it could not sell the product to Cuba because it 
contained 10 per cent of an antigen made in the United States.

On the other hand, the US Government prevents any company in the 
world from exporting a product or piece of equipment to the 
United States if containing Cuban raw materials. A Japanese car 
manufacturer has to certify to the US Government that the metals 
used to make the automobile do not contain any Cuban nickel. A 
European confectioner has to prove that no Cuban sugar was used.

Worldwide penalties

The US document also says the following:

"The embargo regulations apply only to persons or entities 
subject to US jurisdiction."

If so, then why, after seven years of investigations, was 
Canadian citizen James Sabzali sentenced last February by a 
Philadelphia Federal Court to a year's probation and a US$10,000 
fine for having sold to Cuba some resins that purify the drinking 
water supplied to the Cuban population?

Why does the Torricelli Act prevent vessels of the rest of the 
world from calling at Cuban ports under the threat of being 
"blacklisted" and denying their access to American ports for a 
period of six months?

Why does the Helms-Burton Act, in force since 1996, penalise the 
businesspeople from the rest of the world who attempt to engage 
in business deals with Cuba?

The General Assembly has been informed that last May 4 the US 
State Department sent a letter to the Chairman of Jamaica's 
SuperClubs, warning him that if his business with Cuba did not 
terminate within 45 days he would be penalised under the Helms-
Burton Act — which involved the denial of visas for him and his 
family to travel to the United States and the threat of facing a 
lawsuit in the future in US courts.

The Government of the United States prevents Cuba from using the 
dollar as currency for trading operations with the rest of the 
world. Our charges or payments in that currency are confiscated.

Is it true or not, Mr US representative, that your Government 
imposed a US$100 million fine on Switzerland's banking entity UBS 
for the latter's reception of dollar transfers from Cuba 
following the accrual of absolutely legal earnings in our tourism 
and trade?

As of last June, the media controlled by the Miami-based 
terrorist groups of Cuban origin unleashed a gross campaign aimed 
at frightening the banks that may have financial relations with 
Cuba.

US fines banks

At the same time, we have been receiving continuous reports that 
US authorities are exerting pressure on an ever-increasing number 
of banks from other countries in order to thwart the transfers 
originating in Cuba.

Finally, last October 9, Daniel Fisk, Deputy Assistant Secretary 
of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, in addition to 
recognising the efforts of the US Government to boycott tourism 
to Cuba from Europe, Canada and other countries, announced that 
the United States has set up a Group for the Persecution of Cuban 
Assets with a view to freezing the movements of hard currency 
towards and from Cuba.

As a result of the foregoing, we concluded that all necessary 
actions had to be promptly implemented in order to defend our 
country from the new aggressions that attempt to prevent the use 
of the dollars that we earn to pay for our imports. Therefore, 72 
hours ago our President, Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro, 
informed the public opinion of the decision to replace the 
circulation of the dollar with that of the convertible Cuban peso 
all across the national territory. On this new episode of the US 
blockade and about our sovereign measures to defend ourselves, 
the Permanent Mission of Cuba is conveying additional information 
to each delegation.

Would the US delegation explain why Cuba does not receive and has 
never received a credit from the World Bank and the Inter-
American Development Bank? Because the US Government prevents 
them from doing so. In 2003, these two international banks, which 
are not American-owned or legally under its control, loaned US$14 
billion to Latin America. Why was not a single dollar lent to 
Cuba to build houses, roads, hospitals or schools? Is it not Cuba 
in the centre of the map of the Americas?

It is true that over the last three years we have been able to 
purchase food from the United States. However, we can still see 
the draconian obstacles imposed on those sales, such as the need 
for bureaucratic licences, the obligation to pay in advance and 
in cash without the possibility of receiving not even private 
credits and the prohibition for Cuban vessels to carry the goods.

The US delegation also maintains that its Government has 
introduced measures "facilitating greatly the export of ... 
medicines and medical supplies" to Cuba.

However, the General Assembly knows, once again, that there is a 
different truth to it.

The truth is that this year the US Government prevented Abbott 
from selling to Cuba two essential drugs in the treatment of AIDS 
patients: Ritonavir and Lopinavir+Ritonavir. Therefore, Cuba had 
to purchase them in another country, with a six-fold increase in 
price.

The truth is that the US Government imposed a fine of US$168,500 
on Chiron Corporation because a European subsidiary of such 
company had sold — reportedly by mistake — two children's 
vaccines to Cuba.

The American text distributed to those present here goes on to 
add that "Cuba is using this resolution to justify its own 
political and economic woes". If the US Government is so sure 
that Cuba uses the issue of the blockade as a pretext, why does 
it not lift the blockade and leave us without a pretext?

I am going to answer that to you: because the US Government is 
afraid. It is afraid of our example. It knows that if the 
blockade on us is lifted, Cuba's socio-economic development will 
spiral up. It knows that we will further prove the possibilities 
of the Cuban socialism; the as-yet-untapped potential of a 
country without any discrimination whatsoever, with social 
justice and human rights for all citizens and not only for a few. 
It is the Government of a large and mighty empire, but it is 
afraid of the example of the small rebellious island.

Excellencies:

We are gathered here only five days away from the elections in 
this country, awaited by all with secret hopes. It is true that 
these four years have been terrible for the world.

Optimism and confidence

Cuba, however, awaits and works with optimism and confidence. It 
knows that it is right. It knows that time is in its favour. It 
sees the ever-increasing rejection of the blockade right within 
the United States. It does not forget that the blockade has cost 
us over US$79 billion. Cuba knows that if the blockade is lifted, 
within a few years there will be a tremendous improvement in the 
living standards of its citizens. It knows, for example, that in 
10 years our country would build one million new houses, into 
which some four or five million Cubans would move.

Cuba also knows, that if the blockade is not lifted and there is 
no end to the hostility that has been in place for over four 
decades now, everything will continue to be difficult but not 
impossible. Our people are sure that there is no human or moral 
constraint capable of hindering their course towards a more 
prosperous and just country.

It is true that for the last 12 years the US Government has 
disregarded the resolutions adopted by this Assembly with ever-
increasing support, which demand the end of the blockade against 
Cuba. But that does not diminish the importance and momentousness 
of the act to be discharged today by each delegate on behalf of 
their people.

Therefore, on behalf of the Cuban people, whose sons and 
daughters have gone to heal, teach, build and fight side by side 
with every country that ever needed the Cubans; on behalf of the 
memory of the 2000 Cubans who laid down their lives fighting 
colonialism and apartheid in Africa; on behalf of the 22,474 
Cuban health co-operators currently rendering services in 67 
countries of the Third World; on behalf of the Cuban professors 
who are now teaching over 17,000 youths from 110 countries in our 
schools free of charge; on behalf of five young Cuban heroes who 
are enduring cruel and unjust prison terms for fighting 
terrorism; in sum, on behalf of a small country that is harassed 
for wanting to be free, I would like to ask you, once again, to 
vote in favour of the draft resolution submitted by Cuba.

Thank you very much.