In an overwhelming UN vote, 188 countries have called on the US to lift its 53-year trade embargo on Cuba. Havana has slammed the financial sanctions as a flagrant violation of human rights and said they are tantamount to genocide.
The recording-breaking opposition to the embargo saw Israel
isolated as the only country to vote in support of the US. Palau,
the island nation that got behind the US last year, abstained in
the 22nd UN annual vote, along with Micronesia and Marshall
Islands.
Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla conveyed
Havana’s disappointment at the Obama administration, stressing
that the human cost of the embargo is “incalculable.” Upon
assuming the presidency Barack Obama pledged to take steps to
improve US-Cuban relations, but Rodriguez said the sanctions had
actually tightened under Obama.
"Our small island poses no threat to the national security of the
superpower," Rodriguez said. "The human damages caused by
the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the
United States against Cuba are incalculable.”
Rodriguez also stated that the sanctions had been classified as
“genocide” under the Geneva Convention of 1948 and the
total cost to the Cuban economy was estimated at $1.1 trillion
dollars.
Several other nations spoke out against the US embargo at the UN
vote. China’s Deputy UN Ambassador Wang Min urged the US
“change its policy toward Cuba” as the “call of the
international community is getting louder and louder.”
Moreover, Bolivia’s UN ambassador Sacha Llorenty Soliz decried
the embargo as "sullying the history of mankind"
In the name of human rights?
The US mounted its defense in the face of overwhelming opposition
and a barrage of criticism, claiming the sanctions were in place
“urge respect for the civil and human rights."
Seeking to justify the financial penalties that have been held in
place for 53 years, US diplomat Ronald Godard said the US was
being used as a “scapegoat” for Cuba’s internal issues.
"The international community cannot in good conscience ignore
the ease and frequency with which the Cuban regime silences
critics, disrupts peaceful assembly [and], impedes independent
journalism," Godard said to the assembled UN countries.
Moreover, Godard added that the US had sent $2 billion in
remittances to Cuba in 2012 and underlined that the US provides a
large portion of the food aid to the island.
The US began imposing economic penalties on Cuba when Fidel
Castro seized power in 1959 and nationalized property owned by
American individuals and corporations. The measures were
ratcheted up three years later by the US government to a full
embargo on Cuba.
Last year Washington took action to ease travel to and from Cuba,
granting 16,767 visas to Cubans in the first half of 2013 - 80
percent more than were issued in the same period in 2012.