Morning Star.png Washington Abstains From Annual UN Vote Blasting Its Blockade James Tweedie, The Morning Star, London, 27 October 2016 The US sensationally abstained in the United Nations' annual vote condemning its own blockade of Cuba yesterday for the first time in 24 years. Washington's UN ambassador Samantha Power admitted the US policy had failed and had in fact "undermined the goals it set out to achieve." Earlier anonymous diplomats said Ms Power would list parts of the motion Washington objects to, despite the government's overall support for lifting the embargo. The source claimed without those elements Ms Power would be voting in favour of lifting the blockade. They said the administration had considered abstaining from the vote last year, but concluded it could not do so because the resolution did not reflect what it considered to be the spirit of engagement between US President Barack Obama and Cuban counterpart Raul Castro. Illegal cold war Caribbean bloc Caricom representative Courtenay Rattray of Jamaica stressed that "virtually the entire international community has consistently highlighted that this . measure is inconsistent with international law" and called on the assembly to "bury the last remnant of the cold war in the Americas." Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) representative Francis Lorenzo of the Dominican Republic called the 55-year blockade "unjust" and a "major obstacle to the normal development of Cuba." The UN general assembly has voted to condemn Washington's criminal embargo on socialist Cuba every year since 1992. The number voting for the motion against the embargo has risen from 59 to 192 last year, while only the US and Israel have consistently voted against. Struggle continues [British] Cuba Solidarity Campaign spokesperson Natasha Hickman called the vote "a historic moment." But she cautioned: "In reality it changes nothing. The blockade is still in place, and until it ends, Cuba will continue to present its annual motion to the UN." Ms Hickman said the surprise abstention was a "clear message" from Mr Obama to the Republican-controlled Congress, which has opposed the two-year process of detente with Havana, that he was "serious about ending the blockade." "The clearest way to do that is to take action to end it," she said. "Cuba has issued a list of 20 measures that Obama can take before he leaves office to modify aspects of the blockade including authorising imports and allowing Cuban entities to open bank accounts in the US." Ms Hickman said despite Mr Obama's rhetoric about ending the blockade, "his government continues to fund regime change activities and fine foreign banks for working with Cuba." From: http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-e631-Washington-abstains-from-annual-UN -vote-blasting-its-blockade#.WBGL_S19600 __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 14345 (20161027) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/yclsa-eom-forum/000601d23014%24889c9cd0%2499d5d670%24%40com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
