{"id":2711,"date":"2019-12-10T11:22:12","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T11:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/?p=2711"},"modified":"2020-09-10T11:31:39","modified_gmt":"2020-09-10T11:31:39","slug":"the-2019-un-vote-against-the-u-s-blockade-of-cuba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/the-2019-un-vote-against-the-u-s-blockade-of-cuba\/","title":{"rendered":"The 2019 UN vote against the U.S. blockade of Cuba"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Trump\u2019s Washington Remains Cornered<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>The United States government does not have the least moral authority to criticize Cuba or anyone else in the area of \u200b\u200bhuman rights. We reject the repeated manipulation of this issue for political purposes and the double standards that characterize its use.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2014 Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, November 7, 2019 at United Nations General Assembly<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"747\" height=\"421\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3YgcpWz-74w?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><figcaption>Cuba &#8211; Minister for Foreign Affairs Addresses General Debate, 74th Session<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On November 7, 2019, for the 28th year in a row, the entire United Nations General Assembly, gathered in one room, voted overwhelmingly against \u201cthe Economic, Commercial, and Financial Embargo Imposed on Cuba by the United States.\u201d The final tally was 187 in favor, 3 opposed (Brazil, Israel, US), 2 abstentions (Colombia, Ukraine), 1 not voting (Moldova).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Several points should be noted about these holdouts to the overwhelming consensus of the world\u2019s constituted governments that the ultra-powerful nation-state of the United States (population over 300 million) of America should cease and desist its decades-long shameful, arrogant bullying of socialist Cuba (population less than 12 million). Speaker after speaker, to this observer, barely repressed their contempt for Washington\u2019s&nbsp; slanders of Cuba. All fully understand that Cuba is a classic and model example, among many in this Hemisphere since the end of the 19th Century, of being on the receiving end of unrelenting Yankee imperialist aggression, under a crass cover of flowery bullshit demagogy about \u201chuman rights\u201d and \u201cfreedom.\u201d As speaker after speaker declaimed from the General Assembly rostrum, \u201c28 years is Enough!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">First, let us note that while the crisis-ridden Brazilian government of Jair Bolsonaro may have added the NO vote of Brazil to those of the United States and Israel, Bolsonaro is not Brazil. There is not the slightest doubt that the public opinion of the Brazilian working class, youth, and population as a whole (likely including the \u201cprofessional\u201d diplomatic staff in New York and in the Brazilian Foreign Ministry), solidly rejects as an abomination the vote dictated by Bolsonaro and solidarizes with Cuba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Israel \u2013 and the right-wing coalition government of Benjamin Netanyahu just-hanging-on to power \u2013 is, of course, politically and militarily dependent on the United States and votes accordingly. (Netanyahu\u2019s government abstained when the US government under Barack Obama also did so in 2016.) Interestingly, however, Israel and Cuba, which have not restored diplomatic relations cut after the 1973 Middle East War, have for many years now, carried out, by all accounts, normal and even friendly bilateral trade with each other, as well as extensive people-to-people travel exchanges with no restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Finally, while fully 50 separate speakers addressed the 2-day General Assembly meeting from the rostrum or from their seats \u2013 representing their member states directly or speaking for major constituted blocs recognized by the UN \u2013 Israel, Brazil, Colombia, Ukraine, and the elusive Moldova chose not to speak at all and defend their \u201cpoint of view\u201d whatever that might be other than jerking their knee towards the United States government and the Trump Administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even regimes installed directly or indirectly by US military force such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, could not stomach being identified with Trump\u2019s Washington against Cuba. Again, as for well over a decade, Washington\u2019s EU and NATO allies voted for the Resolution presented by Cuba.&nbsp; As did both North and South Korea and even Iran and US close ally Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Why the UN Vote Matters<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The annual Resolution does not have any enforcement authority or mechanisms, is generally ignored or relegated to a back-pages note in the US capitalist media, and can be even characterized as politically toothless. Still, from Cuba\u2019s vantage point, the annual Resolution is an important material and political factor in the defense of Cuba\u2019s socialist revolution, and registers an objective marker in the relationship of political forces in the world and is a material factor in the political&nbsp;<em>limitations<\/em>&nbsp;on direct US aggression and the permanent world pressure to crush the blockade in all its forms once and for all in world public opinion. It can fairly be said that the US blockade of Cuba is universally hated around the world, including by many millions in the United States who increasingly know some or much of the truth about Cuba, including many tens of thousands from licensed and unlicensed travel to the beautiful island<em>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Above all, every year it is revolutionary, socialist Cuba that holds the moral high ground in world politics, worth all the nuclear weapons in Washington\u2019s arsenal, on this world stage<\/em>. The revolutionary diplomats at Cuba\u2019s Mission to the United Nations give great importance to this annual vote. And every year dozens of Cuba solidarity activists, mostly from the New York-New Jersey area, take seats in the 4th Floor Visitors Gallery to respectfully observe the annual event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>2018 Ruse Not Repeated<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last year in 2018 the United States carried out an elaborate diversionary ruse to dilute the political impact of the Resolution in the form of a series of amendments attacking Cuba over this or that \u201chuman rights\u201d nonsense. These fell completely flat as the EU and every other force voting for the Cuban-sponsored Resolution, refused to take the bait and Washington\u2019s political isolation and humiliation was only deepened, as they appeared unprepared and blindsided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There was some mystery as to whether Trump\u2019s UN flunkies would put themselves through the same wringer again in 2019, but at the end of the day the US representative, recruited by Donald Trump from giving commentary on a conservative cable TV news oligopoly, simply took the floor in turn after the previous 40 speakers had blasted US anti-Cuba policy, gave a subdued, lame 3-minute litany (\u201cI promise not to speak too long.\u201d), and promptly sat down. Perhaps the highlight of her time was a snarky reference to Cuba\u2019s solidarity with the \u201cformer Maduro regime\u201d in Venezuela. A few moments later she was followed on the rostrum by the&nbsp;<em>present&nbsp;<\/em>Maduro regime\u2019s Foreign Minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The US approach was simply&nbsp;<em>let\u2019s just<\/em>&nbsp;<em>get it over with<\/em>! This points to the genuine political consternation and isolation that is the political reality faced by the Trump Administration that is accelerating since the debacle of its Venezuela \u201cregime-change\u201d policy which culminated in the failure of the April 30, 2019 US-directed right-wing military coup. I will return to this decisive point in assessing the significance of the 2019 UN Cuba vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Too Much Pressure<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Day 1, November 6, there were 31 separate presentations. The first seven from recognized UN blocs: the accredited delegate from Palestine speaking for \u201cthe Group of 77 plus China;\u201d the delegate from Tunisia for the \u201cAfrican Group;\u201d Azerbaijan\u2019s representative spoke for the \u201cNon-Aligned Movement,\u201d Grenada\u2019s representative for the \u201cCaribbean Community;\u201d Singapore\u2019s for the Association of South East Asian Nations;\u201d and Uganda for the \u201cOrganization of Islamic Cooperation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump\u2019s envoys were reportedly pressuring nation-states in Latin America and the Caribbean to side with them against Cuba but, observing the several hours of discussion, it was clear to me that Hemispheric states and governments were, if anything, going out of the way to register in clear and direct language their sharp opposition to US anti-Cuba policy. Argentina, Costa Rica, and Uruguay rushed to get their statement of support for the Resolution on the record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nearly every individual member of the \u201cCaribbean Community\u201d also took the rostrum \u2013 Grenada; St. Vincent and the Grenadines; Suriname; Belize; Guyana; St. Kitts and Nevis; Jamaica; Trinidad and Tobago; Antigua and Barbuda and spoke eloquently and with some passion and sharpness about their solidarity with Cuba, all citing Cuba\u2019s internationalist medical, educational, and sports solidarity&nbsp;<em>misiones.<\/em>&nbsp;It is very clear that the US blockade of Cuba, in addition to the moral and political outrage it engenders, has a deleterious economic impact on Caribbean-wide economic integration and agricultural and industrial development and exchange for the&nbsp;<em>entire<\/em>&nbsp;Caribbean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Sharp Tone, Growing Exasperation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Having attended these discussions and votes, and written about them several times, I can say that my impression this year was that the diplomatic language was a little less diplomatic, that the<em>&nbsp;tone<\/em>&nbsp;was more than a little sharper from many African and Caribbean states, and more exasperated from others. Many noted the \u201cregression\u201d from their hopes and illusions after Barack Obama in his second term led a retreat of US policy: freed the remaining Cuban Five political prisoners and heroes; restored Washington-Havana diplomatic relations; loosened travel restrictions and air travel; and OK\u2019d Cruise Ship stops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The tone this year \u2013 and I think it was V.I. Lenin who said, \u201cTone equals politics\u201d \u2013 ranged from \u201cdeep concern\u201d to \u201cunconscionable\u201d and \u201cappalling\u201d as all lined up to \u201ccategorically condemn\u201d the \u201cillegal character\u201d of US policy which should be \u201cconsigned to the trash heap.\u201d There was less mincing of mealy-mothed words among the diplomatic gentlemen and gentleladies. Vietnam\u2019s representative spoke \u201cas a country that suffered 19 years of US sanctions\u2026we are in solidarity with the brotherly people of Cuba\u2026we demand the policy be reversed!\u201d The representative from St. Vincent and the Grenadines spoke of her country\u2019s \u201cunwavering support and solidarity with the revolutionary Cuban government; we decry this affront to the indomitable Cuban people.\u201d The Chinese representative like many speakers listed the recent, escalating measures implemented by Trump and said, in the end, \u201cbullying will only hurt the bully.\u201d Gabon spoke sharply of the \u201cnefarious\u201d blockade. Speakers vied over who could use the most condemning or disdainful phrase to register their solidarity with Cuba. (And let us not forget this is&nbsp;<em>communist&nbsp;<\/em>Cuba led by conscious revolutionary Marxists and Leninists, the political children of Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and a generation of revolutionary women and men who were combatants and fighters for socialist revolution in the Americas.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The speaker from Belize spoke of the \u201cunbreakable friendship\u201d with Cuba and Cuba\u2019s \u201cmagnanimous\u201d support in the fields of health and education \u201cwhere we have needs and Cuba has strengths.\u201d North Korea called the blockade a \u201ccrime against humanity\u201d. South Africa\u2019s representative demanded \u201cEnd this Injustice! We demand that all of it be scrapped!\u201d The Namibian delegate gave a heartfelt presentation citing Cuba\u2019s \u201csignificant contribution to African liberation and the defeat of apartheid and \u201cwinning the independence of my country.\u201d Speaker after speaker spoke in praise of Cuban and world revolutionary leader Fidel Castro. (This included a couple of places where if you praised Fidel or tried to promote his politics you\u2019d likely end up in the slammer.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As is the case each year militant statements of solidarity came from Bolivia, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Shifts in Hemispheric Politics and the Blockade<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While this represents a remarkable continuity and consensus in the so-called international community, it also registers significant new developments in the long struggle to,&nbsp;<em>once and for all<\/em>, eradicate the US economic and political war against Cuba. The anti-blockade and anti-US government tone, rhetoric, exasperation, and contempt for the ongoing US aggression was more pronounced, more bitter, and perhaps more conducive to action and deeds from past statements for the record. Events in Latin America and the Caribbean, from Haiti to Chile, are accelerating and intensifying every burning political issue and the \u201cCuba Question\u201d and the US economic and political war and sanctions has been central and volcanic for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since the last vote in 2018, and in particular over the last six months in Latin America and the Caribbean, momentous historic political developments have shifted the relationship of class and political forces in the Hemisphere to the detriment of the Donald Trump White House and the US bourgeoisie it serves (in its own peculiar style that worries more than a few in the US ruling class) and in favor of the Cuban revolutionary government and the Hemispheric working class, including inside the United States, where the class struggle is notably heating up. (It is said that the number of strikes in the US today is higher than at any time since the 1980s.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>New Political Dynamics as 2019 Closes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Washington began 2019 with blood in its mouth, full of itself, and living in its bubble of lies to the point where it believed its own bullshit. Trump and his minions were apparently convinced that quick work could and would be made of the sovereign, elected government of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela in the midst of the devastating&nbsp;<em>capitalist<\/em>&nbsp;economic contraction in that country, greatly multiplied by the collapse in oil commodity prices, mounting US sanctions; and the concurrent economic sabotage in cahoots with the Venezuelan bourgeoisie, which still controls wholesale and retail distribution networks, and much else in the Venezuelan \u201cmixed economy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With Maduro disposed of, to the likes of John Bolton, Elliot Abrams, and Marco Rubio, the path would then be clear:&nbsp;<em>Forward to the extermination of socialist Cuba!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alas for Trump and his gang by the time of the humiliating fiasco of the failed coup that was definitively registered on April 30, 2019, it was obvious that the Maduro-PSUV government was actually being considerable&nbsp;<em>strengthened<\/em>. This is among the many&nbsp;<em>unintended consequences<\/em>&nbsp;of the flop of Trump\u2019s anti-Venezuela crusade. These consequences are now continuing to unfold. As the virulently anti-Cuba and anti-Venezuela&nbsp;<em>Miami Herald&nbsp;<\/em>put it in a deliciously demoralized headline \u201cSouth America\u2019s wretched month has been great for one man: Venezuela\u2019s Maduro.\u201d The article goes on to quote a Venezuelan \u201cbusinessman and political pundit,\u201d who laments, \u201cI think people [that is, the Venezuelan capitalists and their allies] here are resigned. They feel like Maduro has survived. And now the world is distracted with the protests in Chile, Ecuador, Haiti \u2013 so many other countries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>From 1992 to 2019: History of the Vote<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1992, Cuba was reeling from the economic cataclysm of the \u201cSpecial Period,\u201d when its economy contracted virtually overnight by 35% following the collapse of the Soviet Union and its allied so-called \u201csocialist camp.\u201d Its revolutionary diplomats in New York City at the United Nations took advantage of an inadvertent lapse in the attentiveness of US UN personnel \u2013 who, in any case were cooling the champagne in anticipation of socialist Cuba\u2019s imminent implosion and evaporation under deepening US sanctions and stepped-up US-based terrorist attacks \u2013 to slip onto the General Assembly agenda the first Resolution \u201cOpposing the Economic, Commercial, and Financial Embargo Imposed by the United States Against Cuba.\u201d Precedent established, and unable to be blocked by US veto. Every year since then for now 28 years now, Washington has been utterly isolated in this annual vote in the General Assembly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/2019\/11\/the-2019-un-vote-against-the-us-blockade-of-cuba\/unnamed-483\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dissidentvoice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/unnamed-1.jpg?w=747&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-98501\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the November 2016 UN Vote, the US delegation (with Israel in tow \u2013 actually abstained in the vote against itself, making the vote formally unanimous. That was in the week before Donald Trump\u2019s narrow electoral triumph over the hapless Hillary Clinton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That had capped a process which had unfolded from December 2014 when the Barack Obama Administration, in the second half of its second term, began a retreat that partially overturned the bipartisan ruling-class consensus against Cuba. That consensus had lasted from the end of the Dwight Eisenhower Administration in 1959-60 through December 2014. In a dizzying few months Obama, with the public support of Hillary Clinton (who had been battered on Cuba at successive Organization of American States \u201cSummits\u201d from 2008-2012) Secretary of State John Kerry, and Vice-President Joe Biden, released the remaining Cuban Five heroes, engineered Cuba\u2019s removal from the State Department\u2019s notorious list of \u201cnations supporting terrorism,\u201d established formal diplomatic relations with Embassies in Washington, DC and Havana, and loosened existing travel restrictions without abolishing them. The overall \u201cembargo\u201d mandated since the 1996 Helms-Burton Law signed by then-president W. Clinton remained in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/2019\/11\/the-2019-un-vote-against-the-us-blockade-of-cuba\/unnamed-484\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dissidentvoice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/unnamed-2.jpg?w=747&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-98502\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump has steadily reversed, incrementally and with accumulation, much of the limited Obama measures without abrogating formal diplomatic relations or ending all loopholes or even direct flights from US airports to Cuban cities.(Commercial flights to cities other than Havana have been canceled but Charter Flights remain possible.) Trump used the pretext of perturbing reports of \u201csonic attacks\u201d or some other mysterious ailments supposedly afflicting US and Canadian diplomats at the beginning of his term to cut back drastically the significant people-to-people exchanges that were proving very popular with US and Cuban citizens, separated families, trade unionists, creative artists, doctors and scientists, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Virtual Coup in Venezuela<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The situation changed when the disastrous economic crisis in Venezuela by the end of 2018 led Trump and his team to think the time had come to choreograph a right-wing military coup in Venezuela with the hapless Juan Guaido installed as President. This team of Pence-Pompeo-Bolton and the dusted-off war criminal Elliot Abrams displayed an uncommon skill combining unsavoriness with incompetence with Senator Marco Rubio on the ground with \u201chumanitarian\u201d trucks on the Venezuelan-Colombian border!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the first 2 months of 2019 they organized a virtual coup that turned out to be 50% bullshit and 50% fantasy. This was fully backed by the Democratic Party Capitol Hill leadership and their lackeys in the capitalist media who went into full&nbsp;<em>Yankee imperialist mode<\/em>! All their obsession with and contempt for Donald Trump was cast aside to join him in the love fest for \u2013 let\u2019s hear the drum roll!!! \u2013 Juan Guaido and our bipartisan love for Venezuelan and Latin American democracy and human rights! Hear, Hear!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/2019\/11\/the-2019-un-vote-against-the-us-blockade-of-cuba\/unnamed-485\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dissidentvoice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/unnamed-3.jpg?w=747&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-98504\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mass May Day 2019 mobilizations in Caracas defending national sovereignty against the US-led virtual coup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Following the late-February 2019 debacle on the Venezuelan-Colombian and Venezuelan-Brazilian borders, Trump and his gang doubled down and organized a&nbsp;<em>virtual&nbsp;<\/em>coup that was supposed to culminate on May Day with Maduro hopping on the last flight to Jose Marti International Airport in Havana and Juan Guaido installed in Miraflores. Instead the mobilized Venezuelan working class dominated the streets on May Day, Nicolas Maduro\u2019s political position was greatly strengthened in the working class, in the population, and in the Venezuelan Army with his stalwart defense of national sovereignty. The army officer corps was deeply insulted by Trump and Pompeo who though they could throw around some dirty US money to buy off Venezuelan patriots who Washington had previously slandered as drug dealers and worse! For Trump \u2013 and you can be sure he was enraged at his minions for the humiliation \u2014 the virtual coup became a humiliating reality check. What to do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump and Pompeo quickly pivoted to blaming revolutionary Cuba for their own debacle. (Bolton was also soon sent packing.) Cuba was accused of having 20,000 soldiers and spooks in the country and that was why Maduro was still in office and not living the life in a Cuban ocean resort! Cuba actually has 20,000 medical personnel and educators, and sports trainers in Venezuela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This, among other things is an egregious insult to the Venezuelan Army and neighborhood-based organized militias that mobilized continuously to defend national sovereignty culminating in the defeat of the virtual coup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/2019\/11\/the-2019-un-vote-against-the-us-blockade-of-cuba\/unnamed-486\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dissidentvoice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/unnamed-4.jpg?w=747&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-98505\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cuban Doctors in Venezuela<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The anti-Cuba measures since then have been coming fast and steady, US- and world public opinion be damned! Cuban-Major League Baseball Deal \u2013 annulled. Cruse Ship stops in Cuba (very popular with US citizens, and Cuban small business owners, and a growing source of foreign exchange for Cuban health care and education) \u2014 cancelled. \u201cPeople-to-People\u201d Exchange \u2013 eliminated. Then there was the new Trump first that even the solidly anti-Cuban Administrations of William Clinton and George W. Bush wouldn\u2019t do. That is, ending the waiver of Title III of the blockading Helms-Burton Act signed into law by Clinton in 1996. The way is now open for frivolous lawsuits in US courts over property legally nationalized by the revolutionary Cuban government between 1959-1961. At the time, that is over 60 years ago, Washington \u2013 which utterly dominated the socially oppressive and brutally unequal Cuban economy \u2013 rejected offers of fair compensation to affected companies. Companies based in other countries settled without much difficulty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Instead the John F. Kennedy Administration was committed to a CIA-directed mercenary invasion of Cuba in April 1961 and, when that failed panned a direct US invasion that was only averted with the settlement of the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We are now seeing the accelerating consequences of Trump and company\u2019s Venezuelan fiasco in the rapid shift in \u2013 to use bloated academic jargon \u2013 the political&nbsp;<em>paradigm&nbsp;<\/em>in Latin America and the Caribbean from the uprisings in Haiti and Chile to the return of the Peronist party in Argentina and even the freeing of Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva on November 8 in Brazil. It seems certain that the so-called Lima Group stitched together to prop up Juan Guaido cannot have too many more days on this planet. This shift takes place amidst ongoing assaults on the working class under the whip of the International Monetary Fund and the concentrated summits of world capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This then was the background for this year\u2019s vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">2020 approaches with Donald Trump\u2019s Washington on its heels in Latin America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/2019\/11\/the-2019-un-vote-against-the-us-blockade-of-cuba\/unnamed-487\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dissidentvoice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/unnamed-5.jpg?w=747&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-98506\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Ike Nahem is a longtime revolutionary socialist activist and organizer. He is a founder and organizer for the New York-New Jersey Cuba Si Coalition and the lead organizar for the 1st and upcoming 2nd National Conference for the Normalization of US-Cuba Relations on March 20-22 in New York City. Ike has done Cuba solidarity work as his main political activity for decades. He is a retired Amtrak Locomotive Engineer and proud member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, a division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and is a member of Railroad Workers United. His many articles and essays have been reproduced in Dissident Voice, MRZine, Counterpunch, Pambazuka News, and other journals and online magazines. Ike will be giving public classes on the lives of Fidel Castro and Malcolm X at the People\u2019s Forum in New York City in January and February 2020. Ike can be reached at&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"mailto:ikenahem@gmail.com\">ikenahem@gmail.com<\/a><em>&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/author\/ikenahem\/\">Read other articles by Ike<\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Source :<a href=\"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/2019\/11\/the-2019-un-vote-against-the-us-blockade-of-cuba\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/2019\/11\/the-2019-un-vote-against-the-us-blockade-of-cuba\/\"> Disadent Voice<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trump\u2019s Washington Remains Cornered The United States government does not have the least moral authority to criticize Cuba or anyone else in the area of<a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/the-2019-un-vote-against-the-u-s-blockade-of-cuba\/\"> [&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101011,"featured_media":2458,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2992,"url":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/foreign-minister-of-cuba-presents-report-on-the-impacts-of-the-united-states-blockade-in-2020\/","url_meta":{"origin":2711,"position":0},"title":"Foreign Minister of Cuba presents report on the impacts of the United States blockade in 2020","author":"Editorial Team","date":"October 22, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, Bruno Rodr\u00edguez Parrilla, presented this Thursday, at a press conference, the Cuba Report on the impact caused by the US blockade policy during the last year. Due to the complex epidemiological situation at the global level and in particular in the US, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Facts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Facts","link":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/category\/cuba\/facts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/bruno-rodriguez-bloqueo-cuba-2-580x367_0.jpg?fit=900%2C569&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/bruno-rodriguez-bloqueo-cuba-2-580x367_0.jpg?fit=900%2C569&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/bruno-rodriguez-bloqueo-cuba-2-580x367_0.jpg?fit=900%2C569&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/bruno-rodriguez-bloqueo-cuba-2-580x367_0.jpg?fit=900%2C569&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3381,"url":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/cuba-withstands-most-costly-year-in-the-blockades-history\/","url_meta":{"origin":2711,"position":1},"title":"Cuba withstands most costly year in the blockade\u2019s history","author":"Editorial Team","date":"December 21, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"For the first time, damages caused by the genocidal U.S. blockade of Cuba surpassed five billion dollars in a year\u2019s time For the first time in the history of the genocidal U.S. economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba, the damages and losses caused surpassed a total of five billion\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Featured&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Featured","link":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/category\/news\/featured\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_6171-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_6171-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_6171-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_6171-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_6171-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2997,"url":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/cuba-withstood-the-most-expensive-year-in-the-history-of-the-blockade\/","url_meta":{"origin":2711,"position":2},"title":"Cuba withstood the most expensive year in the history of the blockade","author":"Editorial Team","date":"October 23, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"For the first time in the history of the genocidal policy of the economic, commercial and financial blockade of the United States against Cuba, the accounting losses on the Antillean archipelago exceeded 5 billion dollars in one year, the Foreign Minister of Cuba, Bruno Rodr\u00edguez Parrilla Foto:\u00a0Falco In the annual\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cuba&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cuba","link":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/category\/cuba\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/f0180983.jpg?fit=700%2C370&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/f0180983.jpg?fit=700%2C370&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/f0180983.jpg?fit=700%2C370&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/f0180983.jpg?fit=700%2C370&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1224,"url":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/spain-requests-the-united-states-not-to-prevent-access-of-medical-supplies-to-cuba\/","url_meta":{"origin":2711,"position":3},"title":"Spain requests the United States not to prevent access of medical supplies to Cuba","author":"Editorial Team","date":"April 5, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Every day the pressures on the United States government become stronger to demand the lifting of the blockade against Cuba, Spain now joins this demand, through its Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha Gonz\u00e1lez Laya, the clear open support of the Spanish State to the efforts of the Secretary General of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cuba&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cuba","link":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/category\/cuba\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/Atalayar_La-ministra-espan%CC%83ola-de-Asuntos-Exteriores-Gonza%CC%81lez-Laya-750x450-1.jpg?fit=750%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/Atalayar_La-ministra-espan%CC%83ola-de-Asuntos-Exteriores-Gonza%CC%81lez-Laya-750x450-1.jpg?fit=750%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/Atalayar_La-ministra-espan%CC%83ola-de-Asuntos-Exteriores-Gonza%CC%81lez-Laya-750x450-1.jpg?fit=750%2C450&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/Atalayar_La-ministra-espan%CC%83ola-de-Asuntos-Exteriores-Gonza%CC%81lez-Laya-750x450-1.jpg?fit=750%2C450&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3482,"url":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/cuban-foreign-minister-condemns-hypocritical-and-cynical-qualification-of-cuba-as-state-sponsor-of-terrorism\/","url_meta":{"origin":2711,"position":4},"title":"Cuban Foreign Minister condemns &#8220;hypocritical and cynical qualification of Cuba as State sponsor of Terrorism&#8221;","author":"Editorial Team","date":"January 12, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodr\u00edguez Parrilla, just a few minutes ago, condemned from his profile on the social account Twitter the \"hypocritical and cynical qualification of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism,\"\u00a0announced this Monday by the United States government. Rodr\u00edguez Parrilla described the act as a\u00a0\"political opportunism\", an intention\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Featured&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Featured","link":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/category\/news\/featured\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/0-bruno.jpg?fit=748%2C498&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/0-bruno.jpg?fit=748%2C498&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/0-bruno.jpg?fit=748%2C498&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/0-bruno.jpg?fit=748%2C498&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7715,"url":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/cubas-foreign-minister-us-hostility-towards-cuba-hurts-both-countries\/","url_meta":{"origin":2711,"position":5},"title":"Cuba\u2019s Foreign Minister: US Hostility Towards Cuba Hurts Both Countries","author":"Editorial Team","date":"October 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Cuba\u2019s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodr\u00edguez sat down with BT\u2019s Rania Khalek following the UN General Assembly to discuss why so many countries oppose the U.S. blockade, how U.S. official hostility towards Cuba hurts both countries and his own personal history volunteering in the liberation struggle of Angola against racist apartheid.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Featured&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Featured","link":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/category\/news\/featured\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screenshot-2022-10-05-at-23.03.20.png?fit=741%2C414&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screenshot-2022-10-05-at-23.03.20.png?fit=741%2C414&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screenshot-2022-10-05-at-23.03.20.png?fit=741%2C414&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screenshot-2022-10-05-at-23.03.20.png?fit=741%2C414&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3xdTY-HJ","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/26th-july.jpeg?fit=474%2C346&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101011"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}