This week, the United Nations General Assembly voted to condemn the American embargo on communist Cuba, prompting a sharp response from the Obama administration and dividing two members of the Florida congressional delegation.
On Tuesday, 188 members of the 193 country U.N. General Assembly voted against the embargo. Only Israel stood with the United States. The Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau abstained.
Speaking for the U.S. delegation, Ambassador Ronald Godard, the U.S. senior area adviser, took to the floor of the General Assembly to defend the embargo.
The United States conducts its economic relationships with other countries in accordance with its national interests and its principles, Godard said. "Our sanctions toward Cuba are part of our overall effort to help the Cuban people freely exercise their human rights and fundamental freedoms, and determine their own future, consistent with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the democratic principles to which the United Nations itself is committed. We therefore stand in opposition to this resolution.
The Cuban government uses this annual resolution in an attempt to shift blame for the islands economic problems away from its own policy failures, Godard added. The Cuban government now publicly recognizes that its economic woes are caused by the economic policies it has pursued for the last, past half-century. We note and welcome recent changes that reflect this acknowledgment, such as those that allow greater self-employment and liberalization of the real estate market. But the Cuban economy will not thrive until the Cuban government permits a free and fair labor market, fully empowers Cuban independent entrepreneurs, respects intellectual property rights, allows unfettered access to information via the Internet, opens its state monopolies to private competition and adopts the sound macro-economic policies that have contributed to the success of Cubas neighbors in Latin America.
The United States remains a deep and abiding friend of the Cuban people, Godard insisted. The Cuban people continue to receive as much as $2 billion per year in remittances and other private contributions from the United States. This support has made possible -- was made possible -- by U.S. policy choices. By the Cuban governments own account, the United States is one of Cubas principal trading partners. In 2013, the United States exported approximately $359 million in agricultural products, medical devices, medicine and humanitarian items to Cuba. Far from restricting aid to the Cuban people, we are proud that the people of the United States and its companies are among the leading providers of humanitarian assistance to Cuba. All of this trade and assistance is conducted in conformity with our sanctions program, which is carefully calibrated to allow and encourage the provision of support to the Cuban people.
Godard maintained the Obama administration was working to expand travel between the two nations, saying the United States places the highest priority on building and strengthening connections between the Cuban people and the people of the United States. Godard also called for expanding communications between the two nations.
Pointing toward the Castro regimes imprisonment of Alan Gross on espionage charges for helping the Cuban Jewish community get Internet access, Godard echoed President Ronald Reagans famous demand that Soviet Russia tear down the Berlin Wall at the end of the Cold War.
The United States calls on Cuba to release Mr. Gross immediately, allow unrestricted access to the Internet, and tear down the digital wall of censorship it has erected around the Cuban people, Godard said. This resolution only serves to distract from the real problems facing the Cuban people, and therefore my delegation will oppose it. Though Cubas contributions to the fight against Ebola are laudable, they do not excuse or diminish the regimes treatment of its own people. We encourage this world body to support the desires of the Cuban people to choose their own future. By doing so, it would truly advance the principles the United Nations Charter was founded upon, and the purposes for which the United Nations was created.
U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., a leading congressional Republican on foreign affairs, came out swinging at the United Nations General Assembly after the vote.
For the 23rd time, the representatives at the U.N. General Assembly have demonstrated their disconnection from the realities in Cuba by ignoring gross human rights violations and the lack of fundamental freedoms for the Cuban people as a result of Castros tyrannical regime, Ros-Lehtinen said on Tuesday. The international community should focus its efforts on being a voice for pro-democracy forces in Cuba and condemn the abuses perpetrated by the regime of Havana.
The vote at the United Nations General Assembly negligently overlooks the duplicitous behavior of the Castro regime at the international stage when a shipment of military equipment originating from Cuba was intercepted in Panama destined for North Korea, in violation of several U.N. Security Council Resolutions, Ros-Lehtinen added. We commend and thank our close friend, the democratic state of Israel, for joining us in voting against this senseless resolution.
On the other side of the aisle, this week U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., doubled down on her opposition to the embargo.
The U.S. is failing to support and capitalize on economic reforms under way on the island, Castor insisted. Normalizing U.S. relations with Cuba could lead to expansion in trade, jobs and improved human rights. Tampa Bay can lead the way as a gateway to Cuba and Latin America. Direct flights from Tampa to Cuba have already united families and generated millions of revenue for our community since their inception in 2011."
Castor called for supporters to urge other Florida policymakers to turn the page on the Cold War policies of the past.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
