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<h1 id="reader-title">UN Unanimously Rejects Blockade as US
Abstains for First Time</h1>
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<p>26 October 2016 <br>
</p>
<p>In a historic step toward lifting the blockade on Cuba,
the United States abstained Wednesday in the United
Nations general assembly vote unamimously calling for
the end of the Cold War measure for the 25th consecutive
year. </p>
<p>"The United States has always voted against this
resolution," said U.S. representative to the U.N.
Samantha Power. "Today, the United States will
abstain." </p>
<p>Only two countries, the United States and Israel,
abstained from the vote, while 191 of the 193 member
states in the assembly voted in favor of the
resolution. Last year, 191 states voted in favor of the
resolution. Only the United States and Israel voted
against it. </p>
<p>Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez presented the
draft resolution to the assembly, heralding the U.S.
announcement of a historic abstention as a “positive
step” in the ongoing process of normalizing relations
between the two countries after decades of resistance by
Cuban people. </p>
<p>“There is no doubt that progress has been made …
However the economic, commercial and financial blockade
persists,” Rodriguez said. “It causes harm to the Cuban
people and impairs the country’s economic development.”
</p>
<p>Rodriguez highlighted the fact that U.S. President
Barack Obama and other leaders have acknowledged the
“obsolete” nature of the blockade and the fact that it
is a “failed nonsensical and unviable policy and a
burden to all citizens that harms the Cuban people and
plunges the United States into isolation and should be
lifted.” He also argued that ending the blockade would
give "meaning, depth and soundness" to the progress
toward renewed relations that has been made so far since
the end of 2014. </p>
<p>Speaking to the general assembly, the representative of
the Caribbean community Caricom, Jamaica’s Courtenay
Rattray, stressed that “virtually the entire
international community has consistently highlighted
that this … measure is inconsistent with international
law” and called for a move to “bury the last remnant of
the Cold War in the Americas.” </p>
<p>The representative of the Community of Latin American
and Caribbean States, known as Celac, the Dominican
Republic’s Francis Lorenzo, echoed condemnation of the
blockade for going against the U.N. charter and
international law, calling the measure “unjust” and a
“major obstacle to the normal development of Cuba.” </p>
<p>But although the U.N. has been telling the White House
to nix the blockade for a quarter of a century and is
highly politically symbolic, the resolution is
non-binding, meaning it hold little weight to force
concrete action. Only U.S. Congress, where friendlier
relations with Cuba have been rebuffed by Republicans,
has the power to lift the blockade on Cuba. </p>
<p>Washington’s overtures to restore normal diplomatic
relations with the island nation proceeds in
fits-and-starts. U.S. President Barack Obama has assured
his Cuban counterpart Raul Cast that the blockade will
be lifted, but he has not specified an expected timeline
of when that might happen despite maintaining that it is
logical step in the normalization of ties. Last month,
Obama renewed the U.S. Trading with the Enemy Act,
extending the blockade against Cuba for another year.
Obama has admitted that the blockade is “hurting the
Cuban people.” </p>
<p>Cuba claims that the blockade has cost the island
nation US$4.7 billion in past year in lost potential
export revenue and trade and financial transactions and
a whopping US$753.7 billion over the past half century.
</p>
<p>Cuban officials have repeatedly insisted that ending
the blockade is an essential precursor to the full
reestablishment of U.S.-Cuba relations, which reached a
breakthrough with a historic rapprochement in 2014,
criticizing the policy as an outdated relic of Cold
War-era politics. </p>
<p>Despite the landmark reopening of foreign embassies in
Havana and Washington, commercial flights between the
two countries, and other changes, talks are ongoing and
diplomatic challenges remain. And the blockage is at the
center of the debate. </p>
<p>Cuba has also called on the U.S. to return the U.S.
naval-occupied territory of Guantanamo to the island,
end the Cold War-era migration policy toward Cubans, and
to respect Cuban sovereignty by halting all funding of
anti-government groups. </p>
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