U.N. Condemns U.S. Embargo Of Cuba

Cuban-Americans Hope A New U.S. President Will Change The 37-Year-Old Policy

(CBS)  The United Nations 192-member General Assembly voted overwhelmingly -- 185-3 with two abstentions -- Wednesday morning to condemn Washington’s economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba. The “no” votes were cast by the United States, Israel and Palau. Micronesia and the Marshall Islands abstained.

This is the 17th year in a row that the world community has come out against the unilateral sanctions that Cuba says has caused the island over $93 billion in direct economic damage from its inception until the end of 2007. Last year’s vote was 184-4 with one abstention. The resolution is non-binding and has been consistently ignored by the United States.

It was the administration of President John F. Kennedy that implemented the full embargo, always referred to in Cuba as “the blockade” on Feb. 7, 1962.

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, the last speaker before the U.N. vote, told the General Assembly that it will be up to the next U.S. president “to admit” if the embargo is “a failed policy.” Nevertheless, he reiterated that the United States “shall never bring the Cuban people to their knees."

He refers to the embargo “the main obstacle to Cuba’s development” and specifically to U.S. trade sanctions as the biggest obstacle to Cuba’s recovery from hurricanes Gustav and Ike, which caused an estimated $5 billion to $8 billion worth of damage to the island, wiping out food crops and destroying the homes of around half a million people.

Perez Roque has also complained of the “irrational persecution against North American companies, banks and citizens and those of third countries” doing business with Cuba. An official of Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Investment charged last week that the trade embargo has cost Cuba around $230 million a year in lost foreign investments.

In a speech earlier this month in Coral Gables, Fla., which has a large Cuban-American population, President Bush justified the embargo, blasting the island as a “dungeon” and promising not to lift the embargo or relax restrictions until the Castro regime releases all political prisoners. The Bush administration has kept Cuba on the list of terrorist countries and has tried to isolate the island and promote regime change.

There are shades of difference between presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama’s stances on Cuba. McCain has said that restrictions could be eased once Washington is “confident that the transition to a free and open democracy is being made.” Obama has come out for easing restrictions on family-related travel and on the amount of money Cuban-Americans want to send to their relatives on the island. He also said he was open to meeting Cuba’s new President Raul Castro without preconditions but said the embargo should stay in place until Havana “begins opening Cuba to meaningful democratic change.”

Commenting on Wednesday’s General Assembly vote, Sarah Stephens, director of the Center for Democracy in the Americas, issued a statement saying, “Six days before the presidential election, the world voted on our Cuba policy and we lost in landslide,” adding, “The next U.S. president should break from the past.”

Stephens, author of a forthcoming report: “9 Ways for U.S. to talk to Cuba and for Cuba to talk to U.S.” argues for, "a new Cuba policy that legalizes travel and trade and engages the Cuban government in ways that serve our country's national interest and advance our country’s image abroad.”

Conventional wisdom has been that no candidate can win the presidential election without winning Florida, where Republican candidates’ staunch anti-Castro position has rallied voters in the past and where a corps of wealthy Cuban-Americans has bankrolled their campaigns. But that situation has apparently been changing, according to recent polls. The state’s Hispanic population has become more diverse and younger Cuban-Americans are more concerned with issues that affect their lives in the United States rather that freedom for their parents’ homeland.

“You are in for a big surprise in Florida,” says Joe Perez, a Cuban-American who has lived in the United States since 1955. Perez is CEO of J Perez Associates, an outdoor advertising company based in California but with a branch in Miami.

“Cuban-Americans in Miami have changed because they are facing reality. Even among the older population every day issues have more importance that the Cuba issue,” he says, referring to the economic crisis and rash of foreclosures that is sweeping South Florida.

The current campaign being waged by Miami’s three Democratic Congressional candidates reflects these changing concerns. Instead of railing against Fidel and Raul Castro, they are talking about hard economic issues as they try to unseat the virulently anti-Castro Republican incumbents, two of whom -- Mario and Lincoln Diaz-Balart -- are nephews of the elder Castro, whose first wife was their aunt Mirta Diaz-Balart.

Perez is echoed by Silvia Wilhelm, executive director of the Miami-based Cuban American Commission for Family Rights. “Miami has evolved to where the vast majority of Cuban Americans do not support violence...they’re for engagement, family visits, remittances and respectful dialogue,” she says.

Wilhelm has been active in trying to overturn the restrictions tightened in June 2004 by the Bush administration, which require Cuban Americans to seek a special license to visit immediate family members on the island, limits their visits to once every three years; and limits the amount of money they can send to their cash-strapped relatives to $300 every quarter.

It also defined immediate family members as spouses, children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents or siblings. It's a definition that clashes with Cuban culture, in which the extended family plays a major role in daily life. Aunts, uncles or cousins, sometimes even neighbors often play a prime role in child-raising.

Both Perez and Wilhelm support Obama and Wilhelm supports the Democratic challengers in the Florida congressional race.

The Cuban Government has accused both U.S. presidential candidates of engaging in the same old rhetoric about Cuba, noting that neither has said they would lift the embargo.

But ordinary Cubans such as documentary filmmaker Lisette Vila hope that the newly elected president will heed the U.N. resolution.

“I hope there will be a more balanced approach and a change in the policy that the United States has maintained toward Cuba until now," Vila said. "And I’m speaking about Obama, because I don’t expect anything from the other candidate.”

[eggy1620]

Another reason we continue the embargo is to satisfy the classic automobile collectors lobby. Imagine how bad the collector car market here would bottom out if Cubans could sell their 50 year old beaters in the US.

[eggy1620]

The only reason we embargo Cuba is because it was the downtrodden to took power and property from the elite, rather the normal other way around. On the other hand, it is amusing that a global populace that despises US policy readily admits that the US is the only nation on earth that can be Cubas savior.

[babooph]

The whaco pretence of US support of "democracy"carefully covered up for so many years by the propaganda system-this vote is VERY clear though !!

[zietzke-2009]

Why didn''t Bush and his administration open up dialog with Cuba ?....They are NOT a threat to the U.S....Only isolating them will bring more problems...I think the U.S. should GROW UP and welcome our neighbor to the South.....Another Bush Policy failure !

What else can you expect from an administraton that has shreaded the U.S. Constitution
and destroyed our democracy and our economy ?

[kev3211]

It will take a Presidend with vision and character to open talks with Cuba and help end this oppressive embargo on your neighbour.I think Barack Obama could be that man if elected.Former Presidend Bill Clinton had vision and help change the history of our Country [Ireland]for the better of all our people and we are forever greatful.In October of this year 6 friends and myself traviled to Cuba for a holiday.Between us we have traviled to over 35 Countrys around the world,most of them were wonderful,but we have to say the warm welcome we recived and the friendly people we meet on our trip was nothing short of fantastic.We at all times felt safe and welcome,wonderful people,wonderful culture and great music.So as friends of Cuba & USA we hope and pray you ingage in talks and move forward. After all talk is cheep and most times works,just ask Bill.

[coronalu]

IF normal relations are applied, then things will be different in Cuba, look at how opening normal relations have made a difference in other nations. Normal relations have opened many doors, a lot of improvements for the people of that nation because they can exchange ideas with other nations and they start understanding that they can improve things. We don''t have to look far in order to see that the ones that are suffering from this are the people of Cuba and yes, my first post was in jest, because, the USA has a "wet foot, dry land" policy, a great policy that benefits Cubans coming into the USA, this policy is not extended to any other nation and for this reason, why would Cubans want to change this. If you
are Cuban and you get here, within the year you qualify for expedited "legal permanent resident" status and U.S. citizenship, again, something that no other nations has. I believe that anyone, with family that come from another country would love to have this policy for the country that their parents are from. And there are countries that the people are suffering much, much more then in Cuba, yet, this policy does not apply. They are allowed to keep on suffering.

[toolmangler-2009]

How can any country that gives China MFN status dare to impose an embargo on Cuba? If they become a threat later, invade and neutralize them, otherwise treat them as well as we treat China.

[goldenqn]

Continuing the embargo is worthless. I say we remove the embargo with restrictions that if they don''t make meaningful democratic changes in 8 years, we reinstate the embargo. Show the Cubans some of the prosperity of being integrated into the international community and they will move away from communism. Their government would be pressured into giving more freedom to the people. If that doesn''t work, put the embargo back in place and let the people tear down that country after getting a taste of freedom. Just look at how China has changed over the years.

[balkan3]

Back in the1970s, we young people, who wanted to embargo South Africa because of it''s racial policies, were told that a trade and weapon system embargo would be counter productive. The same people who opposed an embargo of South Africa are all in favor of a Cuban embargo. The embargo of Cuba serves no proposes other than spite. It has caused a great deal of hardship for many people. Many lies have been told and repeated so often that young people no longer know what the truth is or what the issues are. It is time to end the embargo of Cuba!

[downsteamjim]

To ramos937: Cuba is such a great place, people must be breaking laws to move there illegally.

[ramos937]

Immediately after 9/11, Cuba denounced the attacks and offered its assistance in any way we saw fit. We ignored this.

When Katrina hit NO, Cuba Offered to send trained doctors and nurses with medical supplies to the victims. No catches; no conditions, just plain and simple wanting to help. We ignored this.

When Cuba found immense new oil and gas fields, Cuba wanted to work with the USA on developing these new resources. We ignored this and Chinese, German, French among other countries filled the void.

It is way past time to stop punishing ourselves simply because some tired rich old Cuban-Americans in South Florida want nothing to do with the Castros.

[downsteamjim]

Coronalu: LordGod Obama should support Cuba. He and Castro believe in redistributing wealth and punishing those who work. Cuba already has a ''fairness doctrine'' and only good proCastro speech is allowed.

[coronalu]

I know the Obama, once he becomes President, he will lift the embargo and a short time later will develop full relations with Cuba, This is great, great news for all Cubans in the USA, we must united and vote for Barack Obama. We should have had a normal relationship with Cuba from long ago and now, with Sen. Obama as President, this will take place. Cuba will once again have the same status as all other friendly nations. This is very welcome and long awaited. My family in Florida thank you!!! Thank you, Sen. Obama!!!