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Related: About this forumUS abstains from UN vote to condemn Cuba embargo for the first time
US abstains from UN vote to condemn Cuba embargo for the first time
US ambassador Samantha Power argued that what remains of congressional embargo has been mostly ineffective, as other member states passed resolution
Julian Borger World affairs editor
Wednesday 26 October 2016 14.59 EDT
The US abstained for the first time on Wednesday in a UN vote denouncing the continuing congressional embargo on Cuba.
The Obama administration has relaxed some of the half-century-old sanctions on Cuba over the last two years, a process that culminated in a presidential visit to the Caribbean island state in March and the resumption of commercial flights to Havana. But the Republican-dominated Congress has refused to lift the bulk of the trade restrictions, saying the communist government has not done enough to improve human rights.
At a session of the UN general assembly to debate an annual resolution calling for the lifting of the embargo, the US ambassador, Samantha Power, took to the lectern to make the same argument the administration has been making in Congress that the embargo has been backfiring for years.
For more than 50 years, the United States had a policy aimed at isolating the government of Cuba. For roughly half of those years, UN member states have voted overwhelmingly for a general assembly resolution that condemns the US embargo and calls for it to be ended, Power said.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/26/cuba-embargo-us-abstains-united-nations-vote
LBN:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141607791
Judi Lynn
(160,211 posts)The Latest: Cuba organizes vote-watching party on US embargo
Updated 5:29 pm, Wednesday, October 26, 2016
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1:15 p.m.
Cuba organized a vote-watching party on the campus of the University of Havana, where students and government supporters followed the events on a hours-long special live state news broadcast projected onto a giant screen.
The tone of the coverage was triumphant, calling the U.S. abstention on the U.N. vote a historic victory for Cuba but cautioning that it was meaningless without Congressional action.
"The blockade is still in force but this means that there's been a change in attitude at the highest levels of U.S. government and politics," said Raul Palmeiro, a 21-year-old law student and president of the university's official Student Federation.
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The General Assembly resolution was overwhelming approved Wednesday by a vote of 191-0 with the United States and Israel abstaining. Diplomats in the assembly chamber burst into applause as the results appeared on an electronic board.
More:
http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/The-Latest-US-abstains-in-UN-on-Cuba-embargo-for-10414767.php