GRANMA INTERNATIONAL 1998. ELECTRONIC EDITION. Havana, Cuba 

HISTORIC DEFEAT BY UNITED STATES IN GENEVA

Attempt to isolate Cuba is failing;
blockade is running aground

BY RODOLFO CASALS (Granma International staff writer)

THE defeat suffered by the United States in the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva will be remembered for a long time to come. It fell like a bucket of ice-cold water on the anti-Cuba circles in Washington and Miami who advocate a poorly executed policy of economic war and total isolation aimed at destroying the Cuban Revolution.

For seven years, since 1990 - when the socialist bloc disappeared - the United States has been imposing, through pressures and blackmail, a resolution condemning Cuba for alleged violations of civil liberties and, since 1992, the designation of a special rapporteur on human rights in Cuba. That rapporteur always based his reports on documents supplied by the State Department and anti-Cuba organizations in the United States.

On January 30, in its annual report on the human rights situation around the world - except in its own country - the State Department once again condemned Cuba for alleged violations and, in line with that idea, a few weeks later in Geneva the United States once again presented a proposal to the UN Human Rights Commission for another condemnation of Cuba.

But as these years passed, the U.S. resolution had been losing support, as the world became more and more knowledgeable about what really goes on in Cuba, and the fact that the U.S. blockade is the only massive and flagrant violation of human rights on the island.

Thus, on the most recent vote on this resolution, on April 21 of this year, 19 countries rejected the U.S. proposal, 18 abstained and only 16 voted in favor.

STATEMENT BY FOREIGN MINISTER ROBAINA

Cuban Foreign Minister Roberto Robaina noted that this vote goes to the very heart of the United States' Cuba policy, and that it is a great setback for the plans of the powerful against the poor. It was a triumph of justice and truth, he said, and the people's resistance, their strength and loyalty to principles played an important role in this victory.

"All those years when Cuba was condemned, a part of the world believed what the Commission said. Today we call on the whole world to evaluate the result of the voting," the foreign minister commented.

He reiterated that Cuba has always had its doors wide open, so that people could see what has been accomplished, and even though it took years to defeat the maneuver against Cuba in Geneva, the results are clear. An opprobrious and unjust mechanism has been dismantled.

NANCY IS SAD

Cuba's victory in Geneva caused unconcealed upset and resentment within the U.S. circles of power. The head of the U.S. delegation to the Commission, Nancy Rubin, stated that she was very sad; the State Department deplored the fact that, as it put it, some members of the Commission have chosen to turn their backs on the suffering of the Cuban people; and the undersecretary for inter-American affairs, Jeffrey Davidow, admitted that his government was very disturbed by the vote and would make that feeling known.

The three Cuban-American congresspeople reacted angrily to the vote and tried to find a scapegoat. Robert Menéndez, for example, criticized the Clinton administration for not pressuring the Latin American countries more during the recent Americas Summit in Santiago, Chile. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Díaz-Balart accused the nations which opposed the resolution, or abstained from voting, of slander and cowardice; and the Cuban American National Foundation labeled the vote a disaster for humanity.

However, in almost all the world's capitals the opinion was that the voting result was a slap in the face for the anti-Cuba mafia; that the hard line policy against Cuba is losing support day by day; that the policy of isolation is failing and that the blockade is running aground.

Furthermore, the decision made in Geneva took from the United States the only argument it had within the UN to counterpose the General Assembly's yearly condemnation of the economic blockade against Cuba, and the special rapporteur on Cuba is now out of work.

DEALING WITH ISSUES OF REAL SIGNIFICANCE

In the opinion of the president of the Human Rights Commission, South African Jacob Selibi, the vote also demonstrated that a small country can raise itself up on its own feet and face a more powerful country. He went on to say that, without a doubt, this vote would help make it possible for that UN body to concentrate on truly important issues that must be urgently solved in the world, such as poverty and universal access to development.

Selibi told the press that most of the delegates felt that Cuba's victory was historic and that it would lead to changes. Selibi personally frustrated the United States' attempt to postpone the voting on its resolution for 24 hours, in order to exert more pressure on the weakest countries and avoid the defeat which could be foreseen. The Cuban delegation also considered this a victory for the Commission, and expects to be viewed with greater credibility now.

In the first four months of this year, the United States has met with failure upon failure in its Cuba policy.

During his historic visit in January, Pope John Paul II publicly condemned the blockade, calling on the world to open itself up to Cuba and for Cuba to open itself up to the world. At that time, the international community lauded Cuba's decision, for strictly humanitarian reasons and upon the Pope's request, to release hundreds of counterrevolutionary and common prisoners.

A few weeks later, Guatemala reestablished diplomatic relations with Cuba - bringing the number of countries which have diplomatic relations with Cuba to 165 (out of a total of 185 countries in the UN). Likewise, the Dominican Republic raised its relations with Cuba to the embassy level. Diplomatic ties with Spain were normalized and at the Americas Summit in Santiago, Chile - where the Canadian prime minister made it clear that he planned to visit Cuba - the United States was criticized for its opposition to Cuba becoming a full member of the Inter-American System.

The United States notes with pain that numerous official, commercial and parliamentary missions are traveling more and more frequently to Cuba. From January to April of this year, visitors included the presidents of Cape Verde and Panama; the prime minister of St. Kitts and Nevis; the vice president of Iran; the foreign ministers of Suriname, Ecuador, Ukraine, Haiti, Andorra and the Dominican Republic; Democratic and Republican members of U.S. congress; the presidents of the parliaments of Malawi and Zimbabwe; the deputy prime ministers of Dominica, Viet Nam and Saint Lucia; and the deputy foreign ministers of Italy, Turkey and Belize. In addition, for the first time since the start of the  blockade, a U.S.-Cuba business encounter met in Havana to analyze the prospects and potential of Cuba's economy and market.

Votes on resolution in Human Rights Commission

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