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US, Israel Only 'No' Votes as UN Members Condemn Cuba Embargo for 30th Straight Year
"Today's U.N. vote clearly shows that the global community is calling on the U.S. to lift its brutal embargo on Cuba," CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin asserted.
Nov 03, 2022
Peace advocates on Thursday said that the near-unanimous vote by United Nations member states to demand an end to the U.S. economic embargo of Cuba underscores the imperative for the Biden administration to lift the crippling 60-year blockade.
"What would Cuba be like today, if the blockade didn't hinder its development?"
For the 30th straight year, U.N. General Assembly members voted in favor of a Cuban resolution condemning the embargo, first enacted during the administration of then-President John F. Kennedy, who according to close confidant and historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., wanted to unleash "the terrors of the Earth" on Cuba following Fidel Castro's successful overthrow of a brutal U.S.-backed dictatorship.
Thursday's vote was 185-2, with only the United States and Israel dissenting, and Ukraine and Brazil abstaining.
"The Biden administration talks about the need for a rules-based international order. Today's U.N. vote clearly shows that the global community is calling on the U.S. to lift its brutal embargo on Cuba," CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin said in a statement.
\u201cThe United States is completely isolated in sustaining its 60-year embargo on #Cuba.\n\nIn defiance of the international community's nearly unanimous will, the #Biden administration continues to block trade and travel.\n\n#LetCubaLive\u201d— Massachusetts Peace Action (MAPA) (@Massachusetts Peace Action (MAPA)) 1667492392
Benjamin added that U.S. President Joe Biden "should respect global opinion" and return to former President Barack Obama's "policy of normalizing relations with Cuba."
Manolo De Los Santos, co-executive chair of the People's Forum, wondered, "What would Cuba be like today, if the blockade didn't hinder its development?"
"It is impossible to quantify the pain generated by power cuts, long queues to purchase food, the obstacles to the life projects of families, particularly young people," he added. "Cuba has a right to live!"
\u201cBiden has faithfully applied the worst of Trump\u2019s 243 additional & illegal sanctions on Cuba that make basic trade & purchases of good nearly impossible. It\u2019s a deliberate act of violence whose only aim has been to strangle Cubans into submission.\u201d— Manolo De Los Santos (@Manolo De Los Santos) 1667491557
Speaking before the U.N. General Assembly Thursday, Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla noted that "more than 80% of the current Cuban population was born under the blockade," which he called a "deliberate act of economic war" akin to "a permanent pandemic, a constant hurricane."
Rodriguez said that since then-President Donald Trump rolled back most of the reforms set in motion by Obama, the United States "has escalated the siege around our country, taking it to an even crueler and more inhuman dimension, with the purpose of deliberately inflicting the biggest possible damage on Cuban families."
Taking aim at Biden, Rodriguez added that "the current U.S. administration does not have a policy of its own toward Cuba. It acts out of inertia and continues the inhuman policy of maximum pressure instituted during the presidency of Donald Trump."
\u201c1\u20e38\u20e35\u20e3 \ud83c\udd9a 2\u20e3\n\nThe international community eloquently confirms, once again, the almost unanimous call for an end to the blockade and the isolation the US suffers due to a cruel policy that violates International Law.\n\n#MejorSinBloqueo\u201d— Bruno Rodr\u00edguez P (@Bruno Rodr\u00edguez P) 1667495798
Rodriguez said the embargo has cost Cuba more than $6.3 billion during the first 14 months of the Biden administration, or more than $15 million per day. In 2018 a United Nations commission estimated the total cost to the Cuban economy of the 60-year blockade was at least $130 billion.
Members of CodePink plan to rally against the embargo Thursday afternoon in San Francisco. This follows CodePink protests to #LetCubaLive in cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. over the past several days.
CodePink is set to cap a week of action Saturday by joining with the Cuban-American group Puentes de Amor to send a plane loaded with 8.5 tons of food and medicines to the besieged island.
"Unfortunately," said CodePink Latin American coordinator Samantha Wherry, the shipment "represents a tiny gesture compared to the billions of dollars of harm caused by the U.S. blockade."
The peace activists have three demands: An end to the U.S. blockade, lifting of all travel and economic restrictions on Cuba, and removal of Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Successive U.S. administrations backed a decadeslong campaign of exile terrorism against Cuba, attempted subversion, failed assassination attempts, economic warfare, and covert operations large and small in a fruitless policy of regime change.
Meanwhile, a dozen U.S. administrations have come and gone since the triumph of the Cuban revolution in 1959.
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Peace Groups Say 'Let Cuba Live' at US Rallies Ahead of UN Vote on Anti-Embargo Resolution
For the 30th straight year, Cuba will submit--and the world's nations will overwhelmingly approve--a General Assembly resolution demanding an end to the devastating U.S. economic blockade of the socialist nation.
Oct 30, 2022
As United Nations member states prepare to condemn the U.S. economic embargo of Cuba for the 30th straight year, peace groups on Saturday launched a series of rallies that will take place across the nation in the coming days to demand an end to the crippling 60-year blockade.
"From L.A. to NYC we're demanding that the U.S. #UnblockCuba!"
Members of groups including CodePink, Black Alliance for Peace, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Democratic Socialists of America, and others rallied in New York City, Los Angeles, and Portland on Saturday, with further demonstrations planned on November 2 in Washington, D.C. and Chicago, and on November 3 in San Francisco. Activists from Australia to Argentina also held demonstrations of solidarity with Cuba.
The protesters have three demands: End the U.S. blockade, remove Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, and lift all travel and economic restrictions on Cuba.
Cuba will present a draft resolution to end the U.S. embargo at the United Nations General Assembly on November 2-3. The United States--usually along with Israel and a tiny handful of small, dependent nations--perennially votes against such resolutions, which pass overwhelmingly each year. Last year's vote was 184-2, with the U.S. and Israel dissenting and Brazil, Colombia, and Ukraine abstaining.
In Los Angeles, Carlos Sirah of Black Alliance for Peace noted what activists call the absurdity of the U.S. including Cuba on its list of terror sponsors.
\u201cBlack Alliance for Peace @Blacks4Peace, together with other organizations, held a protest in Los Angeles to demand an end to the U.S. blockade on Cuba \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\uddfa and called for Washington to remove Cuba from the list of state-sponsors of terrorism. \ud83d\udcf9@abemarquez3\u201d— Kawsachun News (@Kawsachun News) 1667132684
"Imagine the United States putting someone on the terrorist list--the biggest terrorist in the Western Hemisphere, the biggest terrorist in the world--has put Cuba on the [terror list], which has effectively and materially put a burden on Cuba in terms of limiting the amount of resources it can bring in," Sirah toldKawsachun News.
This "has the effect of not only impoverishing the island, but also the added effect of keeping people from their families," Sirah added. "Who has Cuba bombed? Who has Cuba invaded, versus who has the U.S. bombed? How many bases does the United States have in the world?"
Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink, was among the activists who delivered a petition with the groups' demands signed by more than 10,000 people and over 100 organizations to the U.S. State Department. CodePink is asking the Biden administration to take a big step toward normalizing relations with Cuba--which, after progress during the Obama era, were rolled back under former President Donald Trump--by abstaining from the resolution vote.
\u201cFrom NYC we demand the US government end its illegal and cruel blockade against Cuba #LetCubaLive #MejorSinBloqueo\u201d— Sammy (@Sammy) 1667138507
\u201cFrom LA to NYC we\u2019re demanding that the US #UnblockCuba!\u201d— CODEPINK (@CODEPINK) 1667073441
Having lost effective economic control of the island in 1959 following the successful revolution led by Fidel Castro against a brutal U.S.-backed dictatorship, successive U.S. administrations waged a decadeslong campaign of state-sanctioned exile terror, attempted subversion, failed assassination attempts, economic warfare, and covert operations large and small in a fruitless policy of regime change. There have been 13 U.S. administrations since the triumph of the Cuban revolution.
The United Nations estimated in 2018 that the U.S. embargo has cost Cuba's economy at least $130 billion.
"The Black Alliance for Peace along with this coalition calls for the immediate end of the blockade, but further than that, calls for the demilitarization of the whole hemisphere," said Sirah. "We call for the end to [United States Southern Command]. We call for the end of militarization. We call for the end of the constant meddling in the affairs of Latin America, the Caribbean--and Haiti."
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End of an Era as Raul Castro Steps Down as Cuba's Leader
The longtime first secretary's resignation means Cuba will be led by someone whose name is not Castro for the first time in over 60 years.
Apr 16, 2021
For the first time since the 1950s, Cuba will have a leader whose name is not Castro, as Raul Castro announced Friday that he will step down as first secretary of the country's ruling Communist Party just ahead of the 10th anniversary of his appointment.
"As long as I live I will be ready with my foot in the stirrups to defend the fatherland, the revolution, and socialism."
--Raul Castro
Castro--who has ruled Cuba since his brother Fidel resigned from the Communist Party central committee on April 19, 2011--announced his retirement during the 8th Party Conference in Havana, teleSUR reports.
"I believe fervently in the strength and exemplary nature and comprehension of my compatriots," he told the conference, "and as long as I live I will be ready with my foot in the stirrups to defend the fatherland, the revolution, and socialism."
The 89-year-old--who played a key role as a military commander in the revolution that overthrew the brutal U.S.-backed Fulgencio Batista regime in 1959--said that he has fulfilled his mission and "is confident in the future of the fatherland."
\u201cComrade Raul Castro steps down today as the First Secretary of the Communist Party in Cuba after a lifetime of service to the revolutionary cause. Venceremos!\u201d— Vijay Prashad (@Vijay Prashad) 1618588343
Castro leaves office after having implemented significant economic reforms, with the government recently allowing private businesses to operate in most sectors of the economy. While the government continues to repress political freedom, Cubans still enjoy social benefits unheard of in the United States, including free cradle-to-grave healthcare and education.
Under Castro, Cuba continued its globally renowned policy of international humanitarian assistance, which drew praise from then-U.S. President Barack Obama during his historic March 2016 visit to Havana. Last year, the Cuban government sent 2,000 doctors and nurses abroad to nearly two dozen nations during the coronavirus pandemic.
This year's party conference coincides with the 60th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion, a failed attempt by CIA-backed Cuban exiles to destroy the revolution that ended half a century of U.S. domination. In 1898, the U.S. conquered Cuba from Spain and directly ruled the island as a colony for years before backing a series of dictators friendly to Washington and Wall Street interests.
The U.S. repeatedly tried to murder the Castros, with Raul becoming the target of the earliest-known CIA assassination plot against the brothers. The Castros survived more than 600 often outrageously outlandish assassination attempts against them, and outlasted 12 U.S. presidents. They also defiantly endured 60 years of internationally condemned U.S. economic embargo and a decades-long campaign of terror against the Cuban people.
It is widely believed that Miguel Diaz-Canal, the 60-year-old president, will replace Castro. The next Cuban leader will face an ongoing pandemic and concurrent economic crisis exacerbated by the continuing U.S. embargo, and will face internal and external pressure to enact further reforms while remaining faithful to the ideals of the revolution.
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