The United Nations has gone on record for the second time urging the United States to lift its 30-year economic blockade of Cuba. The vote on November 3 in the General Assembly showed a strong world majority against the US policy: 88 countries voted for the Cuba-sponsored resolution, as compared to 59 last year, when a similar call passed by a smaller margin.
Australia voted with the majority. Only Albania, Israel and Paraguay joined the US in voting against.
Cuba's acting foreign minister Ramon Sanchez-Parodi says the vote is the result of a new consensus in the international community. He also told Radio Havana that the Torricelli Law, which tightens the blockade by interfering in other nations' trade with Cuba, has backfired:
"I think that there's an increasing consciousness in the international community about the fact that the United States continues to apply this kind of aggressive and hostile measures against a country, and the international community wants to convey its message that this practice should be eliminated for good ... Perhaps more than whatever Cuba could do, the Torricelli Bill helped to create this awareness in the international community about the kind of actions and policies that the US is pursuing against Cuba."
In its resolution, the General Assembly urged nations to conform to the UN Charter and international law, which enshrine freedom of trade and navigation, by refraining from issuing or implementing legal provisions and measures like the Torricelli law.
Sanchez-Parodi said Havana is pleased by the "solid support" from Latin American and Caribbean nations: 22 countries in the region backed the resolution opposing the blockade. Ten Western European governments joined a host of nations in Asia and Africa in supporting Cuba on the resolution.
Dr Marcelino Fajardo, the Cuban consul general in Australia, told Green Left that the overwhelming majority vote "was a strong rejection of US policy. There were 30 more votes against than last year, which shows that it is not only the non-governmental organisations but governments themselves which are opposed to the blockade.
"The United States did its best to prevent this vote. The result shows that the international community is aware that the Cuban revolution is not only surviving and resisting but is also developing and asserting its potential in the world market."
The Australian vote against the US blockade was a tremendous victory, Fajardo said. "I am very grateful for the solidarity and support expressed in the thousands of signatures, the hundreds of letters and the many activities that Australian organisations, institutions and friendship societies are doing for Cuba and against the blockade. The Australian Labor government vote against the blockade was in accordance with the feelings of the Australian people."
Washington has maintained a complete economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba since 1962. Last year, the Torricelli Bill cut off US subsidiary trade with Cuba as well, seriously restricting Cuban trade with other nations.
Cuban economists say the blockade has so far cost the economy US$40 billion. Since the collapse of the socialist camp, the US policy has been seriously felt in areas such as food and medicine imports, markets for Cuban exports, shipping costs and access to international financial credits.
International political figures praised the General Assembly's adoption of the resolution. Mexico's foreign minister noted that the fact that only four nations voted against makes the international community's position clear: it favours commercial freedom and respect for international law. The Mexican ambassador in Havana, Beatriz Paredes, said the vote was a logical consequence of an obsolete policy.
Speaking in the name of 21 Ibero-American countries, Brazil's UN ambassador said that beyond the blockade, what worried those countries was the extraterritorial measures imposed by the United States.
Angola Radio called the UN vote against the blockade a significant diplomatic victory and the Joranal de Angola, the country's largest circulation newspaper, noted that Angolans cannot remain indifferent to the problems caused their Cuban brothers and sisters by the US blockade.
In Europe, the influential French paper, Le Monde Diplomatique, said that Washington's economic blockade runs contrary to the principles of free trade. It urged the US to work to normalise relations with Cuba and lift the blockade, which it called illegal.
Havana's ambassador to the United Nations, Fernando Ramirez de Estenoz, proclaimed the vote a victory for all the peoples of the South and the Third World. It affirms the right of small countries, he said, to independence and sovereignty.