Let Cuba live without the blockade!

Let Cuba live without the blockade!

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For the 31st consecutive time, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has called on the United States to end its longstanding trade embargo against Cuba. The vote on the resolution in the 193-member General Assembly set a record of support for the Island of Freedom: the non-binding resolution was approved by 187 countries, with the US and Israel opposed and Ukraine abstaining. Somalia, Venezuela and Moldova did not vote.

Spoiler

Since 1992, the UN General Assembly has passed a resolution each year demanding an end to the US economic embargo against Cuba, with the US and Israel remaining the only countries to consistently vote against these resolutions. In 2021, 124 countries voted in favor; in 2022, 185 countries voted in favor.

The full title of the current resolution is «Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba». The Assembly expressed concern that, despite its resolutions (first adopted in 1992 — resolution 47/19), «the economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba is still in force» and has «negative consequences for the Cuban people and Cuban citizens living in other countries».

What is there to be surprised about, and what is there to worry about, if the White House does not care much about anti-American resolutions and has not and will not implement them. Neither in 1959, nor in 2023.

The U.S. officially imposed an embargo against Cuba in 1962, but unilateral sanctions began to be applied almost immediately after the victory of the Cuban Revolution in 1959.

In Cuba, the embargo is commonly referred to as el bloqueo (the blockade). It is the longest trade and economic embargo in modern world history. The United States embargo against Cuba «prohibits U.S. businesses, as well as businesses organized under U.S. law or majority owned by U.S. citizens, from trading with Cuban interests».

Beginning in 2022, the embargo is enforced primarily through the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917, the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, the Cuban Assets Control Regulations of 1963, the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992, the Helms-Burton Act of 1996, and the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000. On this basis, the United States threatened to cut off financial assistance to other countries if they traded non-food products with Cuba.

This US policy was condemned by the UN General Assembly as an extraterritorial measure contrary to «the sovereign equality of states, non-interference in their internal affairs and freedom of trade and navigation as paramount to the conduct of international affairs».

Professor Nigel White wrote: «While the U.S. measures against Cuba are not an embargo in the technical or formal sense, their cumulative effect is to create an economic stranglehold that not only prevents the island from communicating with the United States, but effectively blocks trade with other states, their citizens and companies».

According to official estimates by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) cited in a 2022 UN General Assembly resolution, the U.S. embargo has caused the Cuban economy to lose $144.4 billion and is, from the early 1960s to 2020, «the most severe and prolonged system of unilateral coercive measures ever used against a country».

A 2015 Al Jazeera report estimated that the U.S. embargo has cost the Cuban economy $1.1 trillion dollars since its imposition, adjusted for inflation.

Cuba is now experiencing its worst economic crisis since the Cuban Revolution of 1959. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, speaking at this past UN General Assembly, said that 80 percent of the island’s population has lived their entire lives only under a crippling U.S. embargo. This is «an act of economic warfare in peacetime», creating a situation of ungovernability and an attempt to destroy the constitutional order, he added.

The UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) noted that the Donald Trump administration alone has imposed an additional 240 unilateral sanctions against Cuba. In 2021, the next Oval Office host, President Joseph Biden, extended the law regulating the embargo against Cuba under the so-called Trading with the Enemy Act.

El bloqueo affects “the most vulnerable groups and human development in general,” the UNDP resolution documented.

In 1989, with the collapse of the Soviet bloc, Cuba was hit by the most devastating economic crisis. Cuba’s GDP fell by 34%. Between 1989 and 1992, the termination of traditional trade partnerships with socialist countries caused the total value of Cuba’s exports to fall by 61% and imports by about 72%. Industrial production and construction were frozen and socioeconomic projects were curtailed. This time is known as the «Special Period».

Washington was confident that the collapse of the Soviet Union and the resulting economic crisis would lead to the fall of Fidel Castro’s regime. Nevertheless, the Cuban government launched a campaign of macroeconomic adjustment and liberalization that, to some extent, ensured economic recovery. Since small businesses became legal in September 2021, more than 8,000 companies have opened in Cuba.

U.S. Representative to the United Nations Paul Folmsbee told the UNGA after the vote that the United States stands by its sanctions, which are «one tool in our broader efforts with Cuba to advance democracy and promote respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms».

«The United States opposes this resolution», Folmsbee said and addressed the General Assembly to urge the Cuban government to adhere to its human rights obligations «and to listen to the Cuban people and their aspirations to determine their own future».

However, his speech was accompanied by the whistling of most of the participants of the General Assembly.

Source

 

What blockade? We don't have our Navy surrounding Cuban waters preventing ships from entering or leaving.

 

The U.S. should always do the opposite of what the UN wants. The UN is a self serving anti-American faux government. We should make it go away.

 

What would you prefer to call it?

 

It is a ban on imports from Cuba.

 

Betrayal, I think a 100 year time out is fair enough for even thinking about letting Russia put nukes there..

And then MAYBE! We already have all the Ricky Ricardo reruns we need..

 

Let Russia support them..

 

It’s much more than that. And it’s an economic embargo.

 

We simply don't do very much trade with them, but the rest of the world does. Do you think we maintain a blockade of Cuba?

 

Yes it is. No imports from Cuba.

 

It long ago became obvious that this embargo was not having any beneficial effect. In fact, it is counterproductive to our developing better relations with Cuba, & its people, whom it is unfair, to say the least, to penalize for things that happened in the distant past, which are no longer relevant.

However, the U.N. apparently has little sense, and no consideration, of U.S. politics. What now maintains that embargo, is ironically, the desire of the Cuban population in Florida, who are apparently still loyal to Batista. President Obama made the long overdue move, in the direction of a thawing of the animosity, and of course Trump reversed this because, well, Obama had done it. This action of Obama's, no doubt, helped to defeat Clinton & so to elevate Trump to the Presidency. Any chance of Biden's returning to that Obama path, would exist (as it had, in the he case of his former boss) only in his second term. With a voter ballot initiative in Florida in the works, to further restrict that state's six-week limit on abortion, there is the possibility of Biden recapturing this state for the Democrats, and for the D's to have a better showing in this state, which had appeared to be sinking into Republican quicksand. Not that I think the Cuban community, which is overly impressed with machismo imagery, will support Biden, but nevertheless, a move with such clear political ramifications, is not going to be even mentioned, if Biden can avoid it, within a year of the Presidential election.

 

Yeah Mike, it's a "commie boogie man under your bed at night" sanction blockade. A pathetic US (and its handler israel) hold over from the Cold War. If they want to be commies, let them be commies, it's none of our damn business.

 

It IS a cold war leftover. But it seems an irrelevant one since it could hardly matter to the country if one country doesn't trade with them. I'm surprised that Biden hasn't worked to overturn them.

 

Cuba is receiving several billion dollars to host an espionage facility for the Chinese.

 

Isn't that nice, they haven't learned a thing..

 

Nope. It’s more than that.

https://jacobin.com/2021/07/us-poli...bio-history-war-covid-food-medicine-shortages

 

Got any proof?

 

Would you support the blockade if I did ?

 

So no proof. Got it.

 

Didn't you used to ban your people from going to Cuba? You can go there now, right?

 

I fully support openning trade with Cuba ...and sending the Cuban people boatloads of small arms. Then we'll find out whether they really want to be communist or not. And hey, maybe they do. Lets find out. Clearly refusing to sell them cars or buy their cigars has not fixed anything...

 

Cuba is desperate because of the embargo. So if Cuba is, in fact, hosting an espionage facility for the Chinese, the US is to blame. Obama tried to begin the process of normalizing relations with Cuba since they’re not harming the US.

 

Why? The Virgin Islands are much more appreciative and loyal then Cuba and Cubans have been..

Cuba doesn't even produce the finest cigar anymore


Nicaragua
Nicaragua produces more cigars today than any other country, and the quality of Nicaraguan cigars is unquestioned with so many premium brands originating there. The Padrón 1926 Series #2, a Torpedo, in a natural wrapper ranks tops of my choices from Nicaragua. Right up there is the Oliva Serie V Melanio Torpedo. I also like, especially after a re-blend, the La Aroma de Cuba Edición Especial, made by the Garcia factory, the one that makes My Father.

 

Direct flights from the U.S. to Cuba were banned. Americans could go but from another country's airport.

 

They are harming the US by spying.