Evo Morales Reaffirms Bolivia's Support for Cuba vs. U.S. Blockade

[Judi Lynn]

Evo Morales Reaffirms Bolivia's Support for Cuba vs. U.S. Blockade

La Paz, Nov 12 (Prensa Latina) President Evo Morales today reaffirmed Bolivia''s support for Cuba in the struggle against the economic and financial blockade imposed by the United States on the Caribbean island for more than 50 years.

The president posted on his Twitter account @evoespueblo: 'We reiterate our solidarity with the sister Republic of Cuba, which for more than 50 years has heroically faced the U.S. criminal blockade, hardened by a government determined to impose its arrogance, pride and racism at the expense of world peace and the people's peaceful coexistence.'

Morales criticized the measures adopted by Washington and described them as 'the worst attack on the principles of sovereign equality of the States.'

He also called for non-intervention and non-interference by the United States in internal affairs, because 'they violate the rights to freedom of commerce and navigation,' he said.

More:
http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?o=rn&id=20928&SEO=evo-morales-reaffirms-bolivias-support-for-cuba-vs.-u.s.-blockade

[EX500rider]

1. The word is embargo, not blockade.

There would be no ships or planes allowed into Cuba if it was a blockade.

[GatoGordo]

3. But that doesn't fit the Stalinist narrative

Companies in every nation are free to deal with Cuba. If they do, they cannot do business in the United States. Hence the "US" embargo.

Factor in the value of Cuban economic output and their farcical currency exchange rates, and it basically comes down to a self imposed embargo.

[Judi Lynn]

2. U.N. votes against Cuba blockade

By Cheryl LaBash
November 8, 2017

New York — For the 26th consecutive year, Cuba’s resolution, “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba,” was placed for debate and vote before the 193 member countries of the United Nations General Assembly on Nov. 1.

Many people, including Cuban Americans, had signed up to sit in the U.N. gallery in solidarity with socialist Cuba. The audible applause and cheers of observers, and of U.N. delegates representing every corner of the world, punctuated the presentation of Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla.

No one was surprised by the final vote of 191 to 2, when only the U.S. and its client state Israel opposed ending the unilateral, genocidal and extraterritorial U.S. blockade of the much smaller Cuba.

Rodríguez Parrilla sharply rebutted the “disrespectful, offensive, and interventionist statements” of U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley. She repeated Trump’s June 16 worn-out allegations of supposed human rights violations in Cuba as an excuse to intensify the ­blockade.

More:
https://iacenter.org/2017/11/10/u-n-votes-against-cuba-blockade/


Bloomberg:

U.S. Votes Against UN Resolution Condemning Cuba Embargo
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (EDITH M. LEDERER)
November 1, 2017, 12:12 PM CDT Updated on November 1, 2017, 2:52 PM CDT

United Nations (AP) -- The United States voted against a U.N. resolution condemning America's economic embargo against Cuba on Wednesday, reversing last year's abstention by the Obama administration and reflecting worsening U.S.-Cuban relations.

Israel joined the United States in opposing the embargo resolution, which was overwhelmingly approved in the 193-member General Assembly by a vote of 191-2. That was the same vote as in 2015.

Last October, then-President Barack Obama's administration abstained for the first time in 25 years on the embargo resolution as the U.S. leader and Cuban President Raul Castro moved forward with the historic warming of relations between the two countries.

More:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-01/urgent-us-votes-against-un-resolution-condemning-us-embargo-on-cuba

[Judi Lynn]

4. Anyone who isn't attempting disinformation knows about the global impact of the embargo.

The right-wing propaganda machine succeeds only when people are not motivated to learn the truth about US power over the lives of Cuban people through the crushing embargo/blockade. People who have bothered to ask questions know exactly why every year the UN General Assembly unanimously, or minus 1 or 2 US dependent countries, strongly condemns the US embargo against the Cuban people.

~ ~ ~


The U.S. Embargo Against Cuba and the
Diplomatic Challenges to Extraterritoriality

EXTRATERRITORIALITY
The U.S. embargo is not limited to unilateral measures of the sort
described above. The embargo is also extraterritorial: it interferes in Cuba’s
trade with companies located in third countries. The Torricelli and HelmsBurton
laws greatly increased the extraterritorial impact of the embargo,
and they came at a time when Cuba’s economic situation was particularly
precarious. Eighty-five percent of Cuba’s trade had been with the Eastern
bloc, and in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba made
drastic changes in its economy. In 1991, Cuba rapidly began establishing
new trading partners, focusing on Canada, Mexico, Europe, and Latin
America. Thus, the extraterritorial measures imposed by the United States
were particularly damaging at the juncture when Cuba was working as
quickly as possible to establish new trade relations.
In 1992, Congress passed the “Cuban Democracy Act,” introduced
by Senator Robert Torricelli.6
Since 1975, foreign subsidiaries of U.S.
corporations had routinely been given licenses to trade with Cuba, as long
as the subsidiary functioned independently of the parent corporation and
no U.S. goods or U.S. dollar transactions were involved.7
The Torricelli
law prohibited these licenses, with the result that foreign subsidiaries
were treated the same as U.S. corporations, with violators subject to the
same penalties as U.S. companies. This constituted a clear international
law, which holds that “a company is ordinarily considered to be a national
of the state under the laws of which it is organized.”8
In addition, the
Torricelli law imposed restrictions on shipping: any vessel that enters Cuba
to provide goods or services, regardless of the country of origin, cannot
stop at a U.S. port for 180 days; otherwise, both the ship and its cargo are
subject to confiscation. This applies even to goods that the United States
considers permissible such as Cuban imports of food from third countries.
The Torricelli law also prohibits third countries from selling goods
to the United States that contain any amount of Cuban materials or any
materials that have passed through Cuba.9
For example, no metal products
can be sold to the United States that
contain even trace amounts of Cuban
nickel, one of Cuba’s major exports.
Likewise, no Belgian chocolate may
be sold in the United States unless the
Belgian government provides assurances
to the U.S. government that the
chocolate contains no Cuban sugar,
an export that is critical to the Cuban
economy.10
In 1996, the Helms-Burton Act,
known as the “Libertad Act,”11 added
other extraterritorial provisions. Title
III of the act stipulates that foreign
companies that invest in Cuban properties
that were nationalized by the
Cuban state after the Revolution are
subject to suit by the original owners,
if they are now U.S. nationals, in U.S.
courts.12 Thus, a former Cuban citizen
who owned a plantation in Cuba in
the 1950s could now sue a Spanish hotel chain that built a hotel on that
land in 2010, if the ex-Cuban is now a U.S. citizen. In addition, Title IV
provides that the officers and executives of companies using or investing in
those Cuban properties, and their families, may be barred from entering
the United States.13 The Helms-Burton Act also prohibits the import of
any goods that are of Cuban origin, in whole or in part, or were manufactured
or produced in Cuba, in any part, or were ever located in or transported
from or through Cuba. These restrictions apply not only to goods
imported into the United States, but to transactions that take place entirely
outside the United States.14

. . .

IMPACTS OF THE EXTRATERRITORIAL MEASURES

ETC.

http://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1019&context=philosophy-facultypubs

[GatoGordo]

5. In other words, Cuba is free to trade with anyone it wants to

providing that that entity wants to put up with the hassle of trading with them.

Cuba has its rules. The companies and nations that trade with Cuba must abide by them.

The United States has its rules. The companies and nations that trade with the US must abide by them.

The "embargo" is of Cuba's own making. Cuba has nothing anyone wants. You can thank Karl Marx for that.

[Zorro]

6. Hey they've got mangos! I like mangos.

But I can get them elsewhere. Sorry, Cuba.

[EX500rider]

7. Cigars & rum!!

[GatoGordo]

8. I don't drink nor do I smoke, but

I have friends and acquaintances who do who are aficionados. Cuban cigars are not SUPERIOR the way they were in the 1950's and 60's. The leaf can be grown nearly anywhere in the northern Caribbean and the Cuban rollers have either died off or fled. Dominican cigars are said to be the new superior.

I haven't heard anything about Cuban rum other than it is very very inexpensive but rationed to Cubans. I wonder if alcoholism is nonexistent?