MIAMI — The United States found itself up against virtually
the entire world Wednesday as country after country at the United Nations
denounced the nearly 50-year-old trade embargo against Cuba, which the island
government says is as strong as ever under President Barack Obama.
It was the 18th time the U.N. General Assembly voted to
condemn the embargo, and the first time since Obama took office in January. In
a near unanimous vote — 187 to 3 — the only nations to side with the United
States were Israel and Palau, a country of 21,000 people in the Pacific.
Micronesia and the Marshall Islands abstained.
Experts said the vote underscored Washington’s increasingly
isolated position on Cuba, and highlighted how little Obama has moved on the
topic since taking office.
While the buzz in the United States is how Obama is warming
relations with the long-hostile nation, Cuba’s government says much of the talk
is a media gimmick. “The vote represents the fact that the continued
consensus around the world is that the United States policy doesn’t make any
sense,” said American University dean William LeoGrande, an expert on
Cuba. “The more time passes without the Obama administration doing
something significantly different than (former President) George Bush did, the
more hollow the promise of change for Cuba policy looks.”
Calling trade sanctions an act of genocide and economic
warfare, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said the embargo has cost the
country $96 billion.
“The blockade is an uncultured act of arrogance,”
Rodriguez said, according to the Associated Press. In a report submitted to the
General Assembly, Cuba asserts:
—The food sector alone lost $121 million because of the
embargo last year.
—The nation spends $5.2 million a year refrigerating
stockpiled eggs in case there are shortages.
—Increased shipping of educational materials from Asia cost
$1.39 million, which Cuba could have used to buy 40 million pencils or a half
million boxes of crayons.
—Cuba can’t buy child-size specialized medical supplies for
sick kids — and the report made the point of listing the kids by name.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations called Rodriguez’s
speech a “hostile” relic of the Cold War.
“Here we go again,” Ambassador Susan Rice said.
“I suppose old habits die hard. … We will not respond in kind to
painfully familiar rhetoric that we have heard in years past — rather, I am
prepared to acknowledge that there is a new chapter to this old story.”
She stressed that the Obama administration had renewed
family visits to the island and loosened restrictions on U.S.
telecommunications companies to do business in Cuba. Talks are under way for
direct mail and migration, she said, and the American companies last year sold
Cuba $700 million in food. In 2008, the United States was Cuba’s No. 5 trade
partner.
“Regrettably, the government of Cuba has not yet
reciprocated these important steps taken by my government,” she said,
adding that Washington has the sovereign right to conduct economic
relationships how it “sees fit.”
Lifting the embargo would require an act of Congress, but
Obama has the right to issue licenses that would chip away at it.
“The United States is standing on principle,” said
the University of Miami’s Jaime Suchlicki. “We cannot have a policy that
stands for democracy, human rights and elections and then suddenly lift the
embargo and get friendly with Cuba. It would be a major contradiction.”
Via McClatchy-Tribune News Service.
