U.N. votes to finish US embargo on Cuba; US and Israel oppose
Cuba’s Overseas Minister Bruno Rodriguez speaks throughout a information convention in Havana, Cuba, October 19, 2023. REUTERS/Carlos Carrillo/File Picture Acquire Licensing Rights
HAVANA, Nov 2 (Reuters) – The U.N. Normal Meeting known as for the thirty first time on the USA to finish its decades-long commerce embargo towards Cuba because the communist-run island suffers its worst economic crisis in many years, with shortages of meals, fuel and medication.
The non-binding decision was accredited by 187 international locations and opposed solely by the USA and Israel, with Ukraine abstaining.
Cuban Overseas Minister Bruno Rodriguez stated in a speech earlier than the meeting that the “blockade prevents Cuba from accessing meals, medicines, and technological and medical gear.”
Havana can also be prohibited from exporting to the neighboring United States, Rodriguez stated, curbing entry to an enormous marketplace for its items and costing Cuba almost $5 billion in losses in 2022 alone.
“The blockade (embargo) qualifies as against the law of genocide,” stated Rodriguez, who stated the U.S. insurance policies have been intentionally geared toward selling struggling among the many Cuban individuals as a way to pressure change within the authorities.
The commerce embargo was put in place following Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution and has remained largely unchanged, although some components have been stiffened by former President Donald Trump. The net of U.S. legal guidelines and laws complicate monetary transactions and the acquisition of products and companies by the Cuban authorities.
U.S. diplomat Paul Folmsbee, in a quick speech opposing the decision, stated the embargo was geared toward selling “human rights and basic liberties in Cuba” and that the U.S. made exceptions for humanitarian functions.
“The US continues to be a big supply of humanitarian items to the Cuban individuals and one in every of Cuba’s fundamental buying and selling companions,” the diplomat stated.
He famous that the USA final yr bought Cuba $295 million price of agricultural merchandise.
The long-running dispute between Cuba and the USA reveals little signal of detente, regardless of some modest gestures of goodwill beneath the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden.
Biden has taken small steps to ease restrictions on Cuba, boosting consular companies however doing little to repeal the Trump sanctions.
Reporting by Nelson Acosta, enhancing by Dave Sherwood and Rosalba O’Brien
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