BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS
UNITED NATIONS - Condemning Washington's embargo against
Cuba for the seventh consecutive year, the United Nations
General Assembly adopted a resolution October 14 titled
"Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial
embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba."
The vote was 157 in favor, 2 against, and 12 abstentions - the largest majority yet. Last year a similar resolution passed 143 to 3 with 17 abstentions.
"Each of these decisions has been historic," said Cuban foreign minister Roberto Robaina, who introduced the document at the UN General Assembly. "The first resolution was adopted at a time when a triumphal intoxication over the demise of the USSR and Eastern Europe was sentencing the Cuban revolution to death and the bets for the imminent fall of the government in Havana were as frequent as the bags being packed and trips booked for a feast of vultures that would supposedly devour the remains of Cuban socialism....
"Cuba has not only endured. Cuba and its people have managed to survive the so-called `end of history' and the harassment of the mightiest power ever."
Only the Israeli regime voted against the resolution this time along with U.S. government representatives. The government of Uzbekistan, which last year joined Tel Aviv and Washington in voting no, while it was seeking financial aid from U.S. imperialism, abstained.
All of Washington's imperialist allies in Europe, who are also competitors, as well as those in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Japan voted for the resolution the Cuban government presented. The only abstentions from Latin America came from El Salvador and Nicaragua; and from Africa from Morocco and Senegal. Representatives of five former Soviet republics also abstained, as well as the south Korean government.
In his speech to the United Nations, Robaina detailed many of the effects of Washington's economic war against the Cuban people. He cited a 1997 report by the American Association for World Health -a U.S. organization of well-known medical doctors and experts. "The U.S. embargo has caused a significant rise in suffering - and even deaths - in Cuba," that report said. "Few other embargoes in recent history... have included an outright ban on the sale of food. Few other embargoes have so restricted medical commerce as to deny the availability of life-saving medicines to ordinary citizens."
Announcements earlier this year that Washington would ease travel restrictions and shipments of food and medicines to Cuba were "just a publicity stunt," Robaina said. "Three months ago, three chartered flight operators were authorized to fly to Cuba, but two of them have seen their licenses removed just recently."
At the conclusion of his speech, the Cuban foreign minister asked delegates at the UN assembly to approve the resolution he introduced "on behalf of the 11 million Cubans who do not plead, but rather demand, on their feet, an end to this dirty war, and who do not accept any disgraceful assistance, for they know they can rise and walk on their own."
Earlier in his remarks, the Cuban leader elaborated on the so-called U.S. assistance. "Over the last few days, U.S. government spokespeople have been engaged in a campaign of accusations against us as we have refused to receive emergency food assistance that, albeit channeled through the World Food Program, would be identified, monitored and conditioned by the United States," Robaina said.
"To accept crumbs from our executioner while the blockade becomes increasingly tight and merciless would not be proper for a people with dignity. José Martí taught us that poverty can go away, but not dishonor." Martí is Cuba's national hero.
Robaina took particular aim at the misnamed Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, also referred to as the Helms- Burton law or Libertad Act, which president William Clinton signed in March 1996. The legislation substantially escalated Washington's economic war on the Cuban people. The Clinton administration's aggressive use of the law has had an adverse impact on the Caribbean nation's economy, slowing down foreign investment and credits to Cuba.
Robaina pointed to a statement by the head of the Cuba bureau of the U.S. State Department who said, "Since the passage of the [Helms-Burton] law, 19 firms from more than six countries have changed their investment plans in Cuba or have pulled out their investments from that country... The Cuban government has encountered major difficulties in obtaining financing and attracting potential investors, and interest rates have increased up to 22 percent."
The actual damage has been much higher than described by the U.S. official, the Cuban foreign minister added.
U.S.-EU conflict over Helms-Burton
The passage of the Helms-Burton law also registered an
intensifying offensive by the U.S. rulers against their
imperialist allies, with whom they also compete for domination
of the world's markets, especially in Europe and Canada.
Title III of the law allows Cuban-American and other U.S. businessmen whose property was expropriated by workers and peasants after the 1959 revolution in Cuba to sue in U.S. courts anyone investing in those properties. European Union (EU) officials charged that this and other provisions show an "extraterritorial reach" of the U.S. legislation and are an infringement by Washington on the rights of these capitalist powers to trade with whomever they choose.
The EU filed a complaint in 1997 with the World Trade Organization (WTO) charging that the Helms-Burton law violates international trade rules. Washington vehemently objected and refused to attend the hearings of a WTO panel on this matter. At the same time, no company investing in Cuba has been sued yet. The Clinton administration has repeatedly waived Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, using the threat to implement it as a bludgeon against Washington's competitors.
The European Union dropped its legal challenge to the U.S. legislation after the "Understanding with Respect to Disciplines for the Strengthening of Investment Protection" reached between EU and U.S. officials May 18.
The accord would exempt foreign companies that invested on targeted properties in Cuba before May 18, 1998, from being sued under the Helms-Burton legislation. But any expansion or renewal or leases on those past investments would be fair game. And the EU would have to inform U.S. authorities of any new investments made after the May 18 date that would trigger penalties under the Helms-Burton law. In exchange, Washington would waive Title IV of the law, which bars executives of companies with investments in expropriated properties in Cuba from obtaining travel visas to the U.S. Using this provision, Washington has already denied visas to over a dozen top officials of foreign companies, including executives of the Canadian enterprise Sheritt International Corp., which has investments in nickel mines in Cuba.
Albright's letter to Helms
The "Understanding" requires approval by U.S. Congress
before it can be implemented. The Clinton administration has
been pushing for such a vote. In an August 3 letter to Senate
foreign relations committee chairman Jesse Helms, one of the
main sponsors of the Helms-Burton law, U.S. secretary of state
Madeleine Albright praised the Understanding as extending the
reach on the so-called Cuban Liberty Act.
"Through the U.S.-EU Understanding, the European Union has now joined us in telling investors to keep `hands off' property that is illegally expropriated," Albright said in her letter to Helms. "The EU has acknowledged that this policy should apply to properties illegally expropriated by the Cuban government. This means that for the first time in Castro's long reign, the EU has officially recognized the illegality of his expropriation of U.S. property. Their acknowledgment is part and parcel of the Understanding. This is an extraordinary vindication of the principles of the Libertad Act."
Albright assured Helms that "if the EU does not meet its commitments, the Libertad Act will remain a powerful tool for advancing our policy goals. You have my commitment that if the Understanding is not honored, I will not hesitate to revoke a Title IV waiver."
Capitalists in Europe competing with U.S. businesses and their spokespeople have tried to dismiss Albright's interpretation of the latest accord, indicating the trade conflict will drag on. Hermenegildo Altozano, for example, whose law firm in Madrid represents Spanish businesses with investments in Cuba, said the EU cannot impose the terms of the Understanding on EU member countries since that would infringe on their sovereignty.
The September 6 issue of the Cuban weekly Granma International published Albright's letter to Helms in its entirety with the following comment: "The Understanding reached May 18 between the United States and the European Union - qualified by the government of Cuba as confusing, contradictory, and threatening to many countries - constitutes yet another step in the United States' attempts to internationalize the principles of the Helms-Burton Act."
In his October 14 speech at the United Nations, Robaina addressed the same point, stating: "The U.S. has certainly designed a blockade that, as a vile medieval cudgel, has managed, with a slow and pyrrhic success, to bring about innumerable shortages for 11 million human beings, and has greatly prevented our country's normal development."
Washington, however, Robaina added, "has been absolutely unsuccessful in its objective of toppling the Cuban revolution and inciting our people to rise up against its leaders, and the political and economic system we have freely chosen."