For the 16th year in a row, a majority of the world's nations condemn the US economic blockade of Cuba, writes Faiza Rady On 30 October, the UN General Assembly once again voted almost unanimously to condemn the US's economic blockade of Cuba, which has been in effect for nearly 50 years. As expected, the 192-member world body passed the resolution by 184 votes to four while the US and loyal allies Israel, Palau and the Marshall Islands, cast their votes against. Micronesia abstained. "We've been tabling the same draft resolution on 'the necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba' for the past 16 years," Cuban Ambassador to Egypt Angel Delmau Fernandez told Al-Ahram Weekly. "But I want to clarify that the term 'embargo' is strictly UN parlance. We don't agree with this definition. Instead, we refer to it as a 'blockade'," says Fernandez. "On the surface this may seem like a minor distinction, but it's not: an embargo is bilateral; it only concerns two countries, whereas a 'blockade' is extra- territorial and constitutes economic warfare. This is why so many countries are voting against the blockade." In recent decades, the blockade took on a life of its own as it was fine-tuned and upgraded in hope of choking the Cuban economy and forcing "regime change". To this effect, US Congress passed two laws with the aim of globalising the blockade: the 1992 Torricelli Act and the 1996 Helms-Burton bill, also known as the Cuban Liberty and Democracy Act. Liberty and democracy requires that imports into the US include less than 10 per cent of Cuban ingredients, while the Torricelli Act prohibits foreign subsidiaries of US multinationals from trading with Cuba, threatening severe sanctions for non-compliance. This ingenious piece of legislation also imposes a six-month long ban on ships anchored in Cuban waters from US ports. In 2004, a total of 77 companies, banks, institutions and NGOs from the US and other countries were fined for violating the blockade. In 2005, the blockade's extra-territorial provisions affected at least 38 countries. Nor are individuals exempt from harassment. In 2005, the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) increased fines on US citizens for visiting Cuba and purchasing Cuban goods by 54 per cent. Besides going after US citizens, OFAC also targets foreign nationals. In January 2006, the office sent a blacklist to the Tax Administrative Service of Mexico requesting that the accounts of companies and persons allegedly connected to drug trafficking, financing terrorism and the Cuban government be blocked. Over and above introducing creative legislation, the US government's aim remains unchanged since the inception of the blockade. As expressed in a declassified State Department report dated 1958-60 (Foreign Relations of the United States, Volume VI, Cuba), the US's aim then, as now, was to damage the economy and starve the people. "Every means should be undertaken to weaken the economic life of Cuba to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow the government," says the report. Since it was first enforced, the blockade has cost Cuba over $89 billion. In 2006, the damages to Cuba's foreign trade exceeded a total of $1,305,388,000. Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque hailed the majority vote for Cuba at the UN General Assembly while condemning as "arrogant" the dismissal of previous resolutions by successive US administrations. "The brutal economic war on Cuba has not only affected Cubans, but has also hurt the interests of many other countries," said Roque. Addressing the General Assembly before the vote, the foreign minister said, "the blockade had never been enforced with such viciousness as over the last year." This feat was in part accomplished by the ill-named "Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba", that issued the strategic document entitled Plan for the Annexation of Cuba. In addition to mapping out a military takeover of the island, one of the commission's many functions is to prevent US religious organisations from travelling to Cuba or donating humanitarian aid to Cuban counterparts. Suspect religious NGOs -- according to US authorities -- include the Pastors for Peace Caravan, a US inter-religious organisation. In July 2005, the pastors sent 43 boxes containing computer equipment to Cuban children. The US Department of Customs and Border Protection confiscated the computers at the US border. Judging by their record, it is evident that the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba has it in for computers. In December 2005, the Department of Commerce refused to grant the US NGO USA/Cuba InfoMed the licence required to donate 126 computers to Cuba. The Cuban national public health system intended to use the computers to teach televised classes in five hospitals. The commission has also targeted the National Council of Churches, USA. Though the council is known to be a highly conservative body, relevant authorities decided that church members should stay put and not travel to Cuba. Thus, on 22 November 2005, the US Treasury Department refused to renew the council's travel licence to the island. "US law forbids American citizens to 'travel to Cuba for pleasure'," announced US President George W Bush on 10 October 2003. "The law is on the books and must be enforced." The Bush administration's obsession with Cuba is explainable in the context of the politicised right wing of the Cuban exile community in Miami, Florida. It should be remembered that it was the powerful Cuban-American constituency in Miami that gave Bush the electoral votes he needed to become president in 2000. The wealthiest and most notorious of Cuban exile organisations, the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), finances many of Washington's politicians while sponsoring Cuban American terrorists on the side. Luis Posada and Orlando Bosch, both tried and convicted in Venezuela on charges of international terrorism, were bankrolled by CANF. The pair masterminded the downing of Cubana Flight 455, a Cuban civilian airplane that exploded mid-air near Barbados on 6 October 1976, killing all 73 onboard. Besides dabbling in terrorist activities, which include numerous attempts to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro, in addition to bombing Havana hotels, CANF was instrumental in placing Cuban-Americans in positions of power that affect the whole country, says Jane Franklin on ZNet. A case in point: Carlos Gutierrez, the first Cuban-American secretary of commerce, is in a unique position to ensure that the screws of the blockade are tightened. Besides Gutierrez, four Cuban Americans occupy key political positions as congressmen and congresswomen. Though the four are known to be virulently anti-Castro, Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart has earned his credentials as the most extreme of the lot. The offspring of a distinguished line of politicians from the pre-Castro era of the Batista dictatorship, Diaz-Balart works diligently for regime change. Not one to mince his words, he publicly called for Fidel's assassination in 2004. Diaz-Balart also works hard to put a stop to any congressional attempts to end the blockade. In June he rejoiced, "for the first time since 1999, sanctions opponents have not dared to even present any anti-embargo amendments to the Treasury Appropriations bill." Undaunted, Cubans celebrated their victory at the UN. "The General Assembly resolution is non-binding and will, as always, be ignored by the US," says Fernandez. "But what counts is that we have won a moral victory. To keep the issue alive, we have to tell our narrative."
