By Patricia Grogg
HAVANA, Nov 9 1999 (IPS)

The Cuban government applauded the United Nations (UN) General Assembly’s approval Tuesday of a resolution that condemns the United States economic embargo against the island, calling the resolution “a new victory.”

Ricardo Alarcón, president of the Cuban parliament, presented a motion before the UN’s maximum decision-making body that received 155 votes in favour of ending the embargo, eight abstentions and just two votes against – cast by the United States and Israel.

Cuban authorities said they had predicted the results, though several nations that had supported the island last year could not vote this time because their UN contributions are in arrears.

In 1998, a similar resolution obtained 157 votes in favour, 12 abstentions and the opposition of the United States and Israel.

Cuba brought the issue before the UN for the first time in 1992, when it received the backing of 59 countries and the thumbs down from the United States, Israel and Rumania.

Since then, Cuban diplomacy has fought for and won increased support every year in condemning the embargo. Votes in Cuba’s favour totalled 88 in 1993, 101 in 1994, and 117 in 1995. In 1996 favourable votes rose to 137, and in 1997 they reached 143.

Cuban foreign minister Felipe Pérez Roque told a press conference that Cuba is today the only country that is prohibited from buying food and medicine from the United States, since bans against North Korea, Iran, Libya and the Sudan have been lifted.

But Pérez Roque played down the potential impact of a partial lifting of the embargo that would allow the U.S. to export food and medicine to the island. He pointed out that other embargo restrictions would ultimately prevent the goods from reaching Cuba.

“Lifting the ban on sales of food and medicine to Cuba is not part of the framework or complicated regulations of the blockade,” stated the foreign minister at the same hour Alarcón addressed the UN General Assembly in New York.

“One can’t send rice from Texas to Cuba over the Internet,” he joked, and the 40-year-old embargo prohibits U.S. ships from anchoring in Cuban ports.

The 1992 Torricelli Law bans entry into U.S. ports of any ship that has docked in Cuba, regardless of the ship’s country of origin.

In Pérez Roque’s opinion, the United States would need to authorise maritime transport and establish normal trade procedures that allow Havana to receive U.S. tourists as a way to earn money to pay for U.S. imports.

Tourism has become the island’s principal source of income in recent years. According to tourism experts, Cuba is replacing the U.S. state of Florida as the preferred travel destination of Germans, Brazilians, Britons and Canadians.

“They would have to authorise normal economic activity between the two countries, accepting the fact that the blockade is an aberration, that the policy contradicts the interests of the North American people,” stated Pérez Roque.

Under the title, “The Need to Put an End to the Economic, Commercial and Financial Blockade Imposed by the United States against Cuba,” the UN-approved resolution makes special mention of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act.

The U.S. law intensified the embargo against Cuba, imposing sanctions against third countries that trade with the island.

The majority vote in favour of ending the embargo reflects the nearly unanimous rejection of regulations that affect a nation’s sovereignty, like the extra-territorial effects of the Helms- Burton Act that punishes non-U.S. companies engaged in trade with the Cuba.

One of the companies under the threat of sanctions is Spain’s Sol Melía, the largest hotel chain with investments in Cuba. Members of its board of directors, however, declared they are not considering abandoning their business on the island.

In an evident show of support for his compatriots, Spain’s president, José María Aznar, and his delegation plan to stay in one of the Melía hotels in Havana during the Ninth Ibero-American Summit to be held in the Cuban capital next week.

In the draft of the Summit’s final declaration the 21 Ibero- American nations call on the U.S. government to put an end to the Helms-Burton Act, saying it does not comply with United Nations resolutions.

Excerpt:

By Patricia Grogg
HAVANA, Nov 9 1999 (IPS)

The Cuban government applauded the United Nations (UN) General Assembly’s approval Tuesday of a resolution that condemns the United States economic embargo against the island, calling the resolution “a new victory.”

Ricardo Alarcón, president of the Cuban parliament, presented a motion before the UN’s maximum decision-making body that received 155 votes in favour of ending the embargo, eight abstentions and just two votes against – cast by the United States and Israel.

Cuban authorities said they had predicted the results, though several nations that had supported the island last year could not vote this time because their UN contributions are in arrears.

In 1998, a similar resolution obtained 157 votes in favour, 12 abstentions and the opposition of the United States and Israel.

Cuba brought the issue before the UN for the first time in 1992, when it received the backing of 59 countries and the thumbs down from the United States, Israel and Rumania.

Since then, Cuban diplomacy has fought for and won increased support every year in condemning the embargo. Votes in Cuba’s favour totalled 88 in 1993, 101 in 1994, and 117 in 1995. In 1996 favourable votes rose to 137, and in 1997 they reached 143.

Cuban foreign minister Felipe Pérez Roque told a press conference that Cuba is today the only country that is prohibited from buying food and medicine from the United States, since bans against North Korea, Iran, Libya and the Sudan have been lifted.

But Pérez Roque played down the potential impact of a partial lifting of the embargo that would allow the U.S. to export food and medicine to the island. He pointed out that other embargo restrictions would ultimately prevent the goods from reaching Cuba.

“Lifting the ban on sales of food and medicine to Cuba is not part of the framework or complicated regulations of the blockade,” stated the foreign minister at the same hour Alarcón addressed the UN General Assembly in New York.

“One can’t send rice from Texas to Cuba over the Internet,” he joked, and the 40-year-old embargo prohibits U.S. ships from anchoring in Cuban ports.

The 1992 Torricelli Law bans entry into U.S. ports of any ship that has docked in Cuba, regardless of the ship’s country of origin.

In Pérez Roque’s opinion, the United States would need to authorise maritime transport and establish normal trade procedures that allow Havana to receive U.S. tourists as a way to earn money to pay for U.S. imports.

Tourism has become the island’s principal source of income in recent years. According to tourism experts, Cuba is replacing the U.S. state of Florida as the preferred travel destination of Germans, Brazilians, Britons and Canadians.

“They would have to authorise normal economic activity between the two countries, accepting the fact that the blockade is an aberration, that the policy contradicts the interests of the North American people,” stated Pérez Roque.

Under the title, “The Need to Put an End to the Economic, Commercial and Financial Blockade Imposed by the United States against Cuba,” the UN-approved resolution makes special mention of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act.

The U.S. law intensified the embargo against Cuba, imposing sanctions against third countries that trade with the island.

The majority vote in favour of ending the embargo reflects the nearly unanimous rejection of regulations that affect a nation’s sovereignty, like the extra-territorial effects of the Helms- Burton Act that punishes non-U.S. companies engaged in trade with the Cuba.

One of the companies under the threat of sanctions is Spain’s Sol Melía, the largest hotel chain with investments in Cuba. Members of its board of directors, however, declared they are not considering abandoning their business on the island.

In an evident show of support for his compatriots, Spain’s president, José María Aznar, and his delegation plan to stay in one of the Melía hotels in Havana during the Ninth Ibero-American Summit to be held in the Cuban capital next week.

In the draft of the Summit’s final declaration the 21 Ibero- American nations call on the U.S. government to put an end to the Helms-Burton Act, saying it does not comply with United Nations resolutions.

Excerpt: