NEW YORK – The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries today urged an end to the decades old United States trade and economic embargo against Cuba.
Barbados Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Joseph Goddard, speaking on behalf of the 14 independent CARICOM countries, said the region has been backing the call for more than two decades for an end to the embargo Washington imposed on the Caribbean country after Fidel Castro came to power in 1956.
“While in some parts of the world, twenty-first birthdays are especially commemorated, the twenty-first year of adoption of the annual resolution on the Cuban embargo, should, instead give this Assembly pause for reflection.
“The embargo has persisted for too long in spite of the unambiguous reprove of an overwhelming majority of member states, as demonstrated by the annual adoption of the resolution before us,” Goddard told the United Nations General Assembly debate on the “Necessity of ending the Economic, Commercial and Financial Embargo imposed By the United States against Cuba”.
Goddard said that the regional grouping is aligning itself with the statements of Algeria on behalf of the G77 and China, the Islamic Republic of Iran on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and Chile on behalf of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), calling for an end to the embargo. (CMC)
