CATEGORY:UN RESOLUTION
------------------------------

By Wallace J.A
Inside Grenada correspondent
Monday November 13,2006


THE UNITED NATIONS General Assembly met on November 8 (last week Wednesday) and the members present voted overwhelmingly for a resolution which condemned (for the 15th time) the U.S. blockade against Cuba and demanded that the blockade be discontinued.

The United Nations is made up of 192 countries around the world. Four countries were absent at the meeting in which the resolution was passed: Nicaragua, Ivory Coast, Iraq and El Salvador). Of the 188 countries present, 183 voted against the US blockade, 4 voted for it (USA, Israel, Palau and the Marshall Islands) and 1 abstained (Micronesia).

The resolution to end the blockade was first proposed in 1992 and 59 countries voted in favor of removing it then. Over the years, an increasing number of countries have sided with the Cuban government in calling for an end to the blockade. This year, the U.S was only able to get three other countries to support it in maintaining the economically asphyxiating blockade against the Cubans.

The US had no support from Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe and other States. The U.S was the lone vote from Western Europe and other States. The US also got 2 votes from the Pacific Islands and 1 from North Africa and the Middle East.

The voting at this years General Assembly meeting is a clear indication that nations around the world are not in agreement with the United States with respect to the US treatment of the independent Caribbean state of Cuba. The US, however, is not expected to honor the resolution and bring an end to the blockade.

The Cuban people were responsible for giving the Americans a ‘black eye’ in the ill-fated US ‘Bay of Pigs’ invasion of Cuba in 1961, two years after the Cuban revolution which brought Fidel Castro to power.

The policies of Castro did not go down too well with Washington and US investments in major sectors of the Cuban economy were severely affected since many of these entities were nationalized. Castro also proceeded to establish relations with the USSR during a period where there was an ideological war “cold war” being fought between the two major world powers at the time (USA and USSR).

With the end of the “Cold War” however, and the demise of Communism, many people question the motive of the U.S. in maintaining these punishing sanctions against the Cuban state. While these sanctions are slapped on the Cuban people, the US has gone on to establish close trading relations with China, another communist state. This seems to be a clear double standard in US foreign policy.

It is known, however, that there are many Cuban exiles residing in Florida who wield tremendous economic and political clout over Washington. They are vehemently opposed to Fidel Castro and many of them favor the blockade. Florida is a key state in U.S. presidential elections having 27 electoral votes. Al Gore would have lost his bid for the US presidency in 2000 because of the ‘Florida fiasco.’ Knowing how important the state of Florida is in the political scheme of things, US politicians seem to have always bent over backwards to accommodate these Cuban exiles.

During Fidel Castro’s last medical operation, many exiles in Miami were seen on international television celebrating and hoping that the Cuban leader was dead. Some were already making plans to return to the island while others were suggesting that Cuba becomes a U.S. state.