JAMAICA’S Parliament on Tuesday approved a United Nations resolution condemning the prolonged United States economic embargo against Cuba.
Minister of state for culture, gender, entertainment and sports, Alando Terrelonge, reminded the House of Representatives that the Government, as has been the case with all previous Jamaican Administrations since 1992, supports Cuba in its efforts to survive the economic blockade.
Although the resolution was passed a week after 184 of the 193-member United Nations’ General Assembly voted in favour, with only the United States and Israel voting against, members of the local Parliament gave full support to the resolution which overwhelmingly condemned the American economic embargo on Cuba for the 29th year.
This response from the US means President Joseph Biden chose to maintain former President Donald Trump Administration’s vote against the resolution last year, and a refusal to return to the Obama Administration’s 2016 decision to abstain. Three countries — Colombia, Ukraine, and Brazil — abstained this time.
Describing Cuba as a “friend to humanity”, Terrelonge recalled that, for decades, the US embargo against Cuba has caused much financial and humanitarian harm to the people of Cuba, and has resulted in a great injustice “that must be described as a global travesty to the people of Cuba”.
He added: “For decades the United Nations has voted and continuously voted more than 20 times that this unlawful and illegal blockade be dismantled. Notwithstanding, the United States of America and Israel were the sole two nations during the most recent vote of June 23, 2021, that voted for the continuance of the blockade.”
He added that at some point, “the international community must mature beyond seeing differences in political ideology as valid reasons to label sovereign neighbours, as with the case of the US and Cuba, as terrorists or sponsors of terrorism”.
Opposition spokesman on Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Lisa Hanna, criticised the United States for “intensifying” the embargo over the years.
“The embargo has not allowed the full potential of our relationship with Cuba to flourish,” she said.
She added that ending the embargo was not only a US/Cuba issue, but was also crucial to the national interests of other Caribbean countries, many of whom have benefited from Cuba’s generosity. She suggested that the Biden Administration rethink its position on the issue.