>Date: Thu, 9 Nov 2000 18:13:31 -0500 >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >No 'Gridlock' in UN Vote Condemning US Cuba Blockade > >Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit > >Thursday November 9 3:04 PM ET (via yahoo) > >Big Vote at UN to Lift U.S. Sanctions Against Cuba > >By Evelyn Leopold > >UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. General Assembly, for the ninth year, >voted overwhelmingly on Thursday for an end to the U.S. trade embargo >against Cuba, with Havana appealing to the new U.S. president to scrap the >38-year-old blockade. > >The vote was a record 167 for to three against -- the United States, Israel >and the Marshall Islands -- with four abstentions: El Salvador, Latvia, >Morocco and Nicaragua. > >The vote followed last year's tally of 155-2 with eight abstentions. In >1998, the vote was 157-2 with 12 abstentions. On both occasions Israel voted >with Washington. > >The 15 members of the European Union, along with such allies as Japan, >Canada, Australia and New Zealand, all voted in favor of the nonbinding >resolution because of U.S. laws that affect some foreign firms that have >commercial dealings with Cuba. > >U.S. ambassador James Cunningham said the embargo was a bilateral issue and >the assembly instead should call for Cuba to stop repressive policies. He >said $1 billion in remittances had been transferred to Cuba, presumably by >exiles. > >`Human rights violations in any one state are of concern to the >international community,'' he said. > >Dozens of envoys from all parts of the world spoke against the embargo, >despite recent U.S. legislation to ease it. Cuba, which sponsored the >resolution, deliberately left the U.S. measures out of the wording, saying >they changed little. > >Cuban foreign minister Felipe Perez Roque appealed to the U.S. president >-- whoever wins the cliffhanger election still under way -- to abandon the >trade embargo rather than bow to what he called extremist Cuban American >groups. > >`The new president of the United States should decide whether to promote a >change in this outdated policy in Congress or continue being held hostage to >the mean interests and delusions of revenge of an extremist, unscrupulous >minority long overridden by history,'' he told the assembly. > >He said Cuba was `ready to have normal and respectful relations with the >United States,'' adding that the next president-elect and the new U.S. >Congress must decide whether another generation of Cubans had to live under >the blockade. > >`You can impose power, but never moral authority. You can be the richest but >not the most virtuous. You can lie, but you cannot deceive everyone >indefinitely,'' Perez-Roque said. > >Both Texas Gov. George W. Bush (news - web sites) and Vice President Al Gore >(news - web sites), rivals for the U.S. presidency, have said they will seek >to keep pressure on Castro, although political analysts generally think Bush >would be more aggressive toward Havana than Gore. > >Washington imposed sanctions against Cuba in 1962 in the hope of isolating >the island after the 1959 revolution led by Fidel Castro that eventually >introduced a communist system. > >But after the end of the Cold War in 1989 and the saga of child shipwreck >survivor Elian Gonzalez, who was returned to his Cuban father last summer, >U.S. public sentiment began to shift toward a relaxation of the embargo. > >U.S. legislators have made proposals to ease the trade sanctions over the >past year. But they have been narrowly defeated or changed because of >concerns about the Cuban-American vote in the months leading up to the >now-deadlocked presidential elections. > >New U.S. legislation enacted last month would allow sales of American food >and medicine to the Caribbean nation for the first time in nearly 40 years. > >But it imposes restrictions, including a block on public or private U.S. >financing, which means Cuba would have to pay cash or get credit elsewhere. >Perez Roque said the obstacles rendered `those activities practically >impossible,: > >The General Assembly's resolution refers particularly to the 1996 >Helms-Burton Act, which allows U.S. citizens who were Cuban citizens before >1959 to file suit in American courts against foreign companies or >individuals who `traffic'' in confiscated property. > >As in previous years, the resolution calls on all states to refrain from >promulgating and applying such laws. It urges those that continue to apply >them to `take the necessary steps to repeal or invalidate them as soon as >possible.'' > >================================================================= > NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems > Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us > 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 > http://www.blythe.org e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >================================================================= > >nytcari-11.09.00-18:13:09-19314 > _______________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi _______________________________________________________ Kominform list for general information. Subscribe/unsubscribe messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Anti-Imperialism list for anti-imperialist news. 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