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 Editorials | November 2005 
US Goliath, an All-Time Loser
 Elsy Fors - Prensa Latina
| | Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque addresses the crowd at the memorial of late revolutionary hero Ernesto 'Che' Guevara in Santa Clara, Cuba, November 4, 2005. Thousands of Cubans gathered on Friday night at the memorial while Perez Roque was wrapping up a two months long campaign calling for the end of the trade embargo imposed by the U.S. (Reuters/Claudia Daut) |
For 14 years in a row, a modern David has bashed a Goliath with only evidence and reason as its major weapons at the UN General Assembly, and Tuesday 182 members once again voted yes to a resolution demanding an end to the US blockade against Cuba.
Even though victory was expected, many were surprised when the voting list at the General Assembly hall showed a record result: 182 countries voted to topple the blockade, while 4 said no and only one abstained. The most voted for resolution in the history of the United Nations last year scored 179 countries in support, and that was considered difficult to beat.
Cuba's unfaltering diplomacy and solidarity explains the overwhelming backing received in New York. So many were the number and quality of sympathetic speeches from country members that the US withdrew its name from the list of speakers and left the plenary, said Cuban foreign minister Felipe Perez Roque in a telephone interview from Havana.
Perez Roque mentioned numerous examples of how the blockade harms not only the Cuban economy, but its people and business partners all over the world. The resolution passed today at the UN highlights the principles and norms violated by the US when applying laws with extraterritorial reach like the Helms-Burton Act approved in 1996.
The irrational US policy even hurts its own national interests. A recent Southern Alabama study showed that eliminating the blockade would generate 100,000 new jobs and seven billion dollars in additional income for the US economy.
Instead of broadening the scope of medical attention programs, as over 38 million of its citizens have no access to medical insurance, the United States expends ever greater amounts of money in persecuting Americans who travel to Cuba or buy Cuban products in th ird countries, including cigars and rum.
Last year 316 US residents were fined by the Office of Foreign Assets Control for infringing regulations of the blockade and, as of August of this year, 477 have been fined with up to one million dollar fines for corporations, and for individuals, 250 thousand dollars and ten years in jail.
In spite of the prohibition of visiting Cuba, however, US travel magazine readers chose it as the best island in the Caribbean, and among the 115 best destinations in the world.
Thus, the country once identified as the champion of liberty and cradle of pragmatism is today more isolated from the world for upholding a failed policy that is also self-destructive. |
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