U.S. efforts to impose economic isolation on Cuba expose the United States’ own political isolation. On Nov. 8, the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution for the 15th consecutive year calling for the end of the U.S.-imposed blockade against Cuba. The resolution was nearly unanimous: 183 member states voted for the resolution and 4 voted against it. Micronesia abstained.
The General Assembly passed its first resolution against the blockade in 1992, with 59 votes for Cuba and only 3 against. Since then, support for Cuba in the General Assembly has more than tripled as non-voting and abstaining members have added their voices to the debate.
Support for the United States, on the other hand, has been stagnant from the beginning. Israel, a U.S. garrison state, has been the only consistent U.S. supporter in the General Assembly in its quest to strangle Cuba. Palau, population 21,000, and the Marshall Islands, population 60,000, both Pacific islands under the domination of the United States, have voted in favor of the blockade in recent years—more a reflection of their economic dependence than political affinity with the United States. Governments ranging from staunch allies to outright puppets of the United States have rejected the blockade.
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The General Assembly vote to end the U.S. blockade of Cuba demonstrates that there is global consensus that the blockade must end. Despite reaffirming this, the resolution will have little practical consequence.
The General Assembly is the only U.N. body where all member states are represented. Yet, apart from budgetary and other administrative matters, its resolutions are non-binding. Real power is concentrated in the hands of the five permanent members of the U.S.-dominated Security Council.
Blockade is economic warfare
On Oct. 4, Granma International reported that First Deputy Foreign Minister of Cuba, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, described the 45-year-old blockade as “genocidal and aberrant.”
Among several punitive measures, Parrilla highlighted U.S. attacks against Cuban tourism and nickel, two key elements of the country’s economy. Parrilla mentioned the Inter-Agency Task Force for Cuban Nickel, created to hunt down the marketing of that mineral all over the world. A July update of the Bush policy toward Cuba anticipated the denial of visas to businesspeople who want to invest in Cuba in oil, tourism, nickel, rum and cigars.
Granma International pointed out that, “according to studies published in the United States, Cuba could receive an annual income in excess of $7 billion if the blockade was lifted and the five million tourists who currently cannot travel to Cuba should do so.”
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque, speaking to residents in the Luyanó Moderno People’s Council in San Miguel del Padrón, Havana, observed that the Cuban Revolution could have built thousands of homes more with all the money that the blockade has cost—$100 million alone would have covered all the housing requirements in San Miguel del Padrón.
The cumulative economic damage caused to Cubans by decades of blockade is over $86 billion. This figure does not include $54 billion in direct damage caused by U.S.-financed terrorist activities.
An account of how outrageously punitive the U.S. blockade is toward the Cuban people recently came to light. A thirteen-year-old Cuban boy, Raysel Sosa Rojas, was singled out and publicly humiliated during a recent awards ceremony for an international art contest. The Japanese company Nikon denied Rojas a digital camera awarded to the other winners in the competition, which focused on environmental preservation. The reason: The camera contained more than 10 percent American components and the prize would amount to a violation of the blockade.
“I never imagined that [the blockade] would be used against children who paint to protect the environment. I couldn’t believe it had gone that far,” said the young Rojas, who suffers from hemophilia and receives free medical treatment from the Cuban government. (Diario Granma, Oct. 4)
Cuban President Fidel Castro personally presented the boy with a digital camera during a ceremony in his community. Many people have decided to boycott Nikon products worldwide as a result of the shameful incident.
U.S. wants to restore Cuba’s colonial status
Although the Cuban-drafted resolution applies the common misnomer “embargo” for the purposes of deliberation in
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An April 6, 1960 document from the U.S. State Department stated that the objective of isolating Cuba is “to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.” Such a policy cannot be described as anything other than a blockade—one of the most intense ever imposed on any country.
The blockade officially began in 1962 in response to the nationalizations that put the wealth of Cuba in the hands of the Cuban people—much to the displeasure of the U.S. ruling class.
The U.S. imperialists sharply escalated the blockade after the overthrow of the Soviet Union, hoping to expedite the collapse of socialism in Cuba after its main trading partner disappeared.
The 1992 Torricelli Law placed restrictions on travel to Cuba and prohibited foreign subsidiaries of U.S. firms to trade with Cuba.
The 1996 Helms-Burton Act, enacted under former-President Clinton, punished non-U.S. corporations and investors that have economic relations with Cuba. It allowed Washington to penalize foreign companies trading with Cuba or anyone “trafficking” Cuban property formerly owned by U.S. capitalists.
In May 2004, the Bush administration’s Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba made public a 458-page blueprint for the overthrow of Cuba’s socialist government. An additional report was completed in July 2006, but only 93 pages were released to the public. A secret annex could well contain military plans against Cuba. In any case it and the entire plan spell threat to the island. The commission created an $80 million fund to be spent on activities related to the overthrow and replacement of the Cuban government.
There are certainly sectors of the U.S. ruling class that would like to see the blockade end for their own profit. During a 2004 press conference, Iowa Agriculture Secretary Patty Judge spoke against the blockade and restrictions on travel to Cuba. “When Americans can finally come to Cuba on vacation, they might want steak, and we hope that steak is sourced from Iowa,” said Judge. (The Nevada Rancher, January 2004).
But the U.S. government represents the will of the capitalist class as a whole. In that role, it seeks to restore Cuba’s colonial status and to put all of its wealth back into the hands of U.S. corporations.
Despite the severe impact of the blockade, Cuba has continued to prioritize people’s needs, guaranteeing free education, healthcare, food and homes to the population. These fundamental social programs are made possible by Cuba’s system of socialist planning and distribution—the very system the blockade seeks to destroy.
