Cuba: US Economic Blockade Remains Unchanged

CUBA, September 30, 2010.-  The Cuban permanent mission to the United Nations reiterated on Wednesday that the government of the United States has no intentions to change its policy of economic blockade against the Caribbean nation.

In a press release entitled “The Government of President Obama: Continuity of the Policy of Blockade against Cuba”, the Cuban diplomatic mission notes that the White House refuses to comply with resolutions passed by the UN General Assembly demanding the end of the genocidal economic siege.

“Washington’s almost 50-year-old financial, commercial and economic blockade of Cuba violates elemental norms of the international law and the principle of equal sovereignty of the states,” the note reads.

“Obama has failed to live up to the expectations he created with his speech regarding the demand by the international community and sectors of the US society to put an end to this unjust and arbitrary policy,” the text continues and adds that, as the US President, Obama has prerogatives that allow him to modify significant aspects of the US policy toward Cuba without the participation of Congress.

The document points out that the extraterritorial Helms-Burton and Torricelli acts, which contributed to stiffen the blockade against Cuba, are still in force.

In this respect, the note insists that there have been more sanctions against and persecution of foreign companies involved in financial transactions with Cuba.

It also lists some of the measures that Obama could have taken such as the approval of licenses to authorize numerous operations and the possibility to eliminate the prohibition that bans Cuba from using dollars in its international transactions.

He could also authorize the import of medicines and other medical products of Cuban origin, eliminate the ban on Cuba to transport people between the two countries, and significantly facilitate the travel of American citizens and foreign residents in the United States to Cuba.

Since 1991, the UN General Assembly has condemned the US blockade of Cuba. In 2009, 187 nations supported a Cuban resolution demanding the end

of this aggressive policy while only three countries voted against it and two abstained. (Cubaminrex-Cuban News Agency)