On Hallowe’en, the United Nations once again condemned the United States trade embargo against Cuba. It was the 16th such vote since 1960, when corporate America realized that Fidel Castro’s socialist revolution wasn’t quite what they had in mind.
Ever since, President Dwight D. Eisenhower introduced the embargo, the U.S. has been flexing its muscles to try to scare the island nation, about 120 km off the coast of Florida, into a return to capitalism.
The vote was 184-4 with one abstention. Only the U.S., Israel, Palau and the Marshall Islands opposed the non-binding resolution with Micronesia abstaining. A resolution condemning the embargo first passed in 1992, with the support of 59 countries. Votes against the embargo rose to 179 in 2004, 182 in 2005 and 183 in 2006. This year Nicaragua voted for the resolution; last year it failed to vote at all.
It’s getting tiresomely predictable and painfully obvious that the U.N. condemnation of the American trade embargo against Cuba isn’t working. It has hurt the Cuban people financially, but steadily failed to dampen the spirit of the Cuban Revolution.