Cuba urges UN General Assembly to vote against U.S. blockade
News from Cuba | Wednesday, 14 September 2011
Cuba on Wednesday appealed to all 193 member countries of the United Nations to cast a vote in the United Nations General Assembly against the U.S. political and economic embargo against it.
Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Abelardo Moreno said the embargo has caused losses worth 975 billion U.S. dollars to Cuba since it was first implemented in 1962. He called on the international community to repeat a near-unanimous vote against the sanctions on Oct. 25 when the General Assembly makes its annual review of the embargo.
"The figure does not count the physical, emotional and social costs of the blockade to the Cuban people for almost half a century, which has no previous records in the history of any nation under siege," said Moreno.
Moreno said the U.S. embargo has "extraterritorial range" as the U.S. imposes sanctions on all international companies wanting to have trade or business with Cuba. So "the world should denounce this inhumane blockade" once and for all and insist that the U.S. lift the sanctions, he noted.
He cited the 500-million-dollar fine imposed by the U.S. on the Dutch bank ABN-AMRO and two other European companies trying to do business with Cuba to show how the U.S. imposes the ruling outside its own sovereign jurisdiction.
In a vote considered as an "overwhelming victory" for Havana, the UN General Assembly last year voted massively against the embargo with 187 votes in favor of removing of the blockade. Only the United States and Israel voted in favor of keeping it.
