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News > Latin America

Bolivia: Ending Blockade on Cuba of 'Primary Importance'

  • Cuban and U.S. flags set up prior to U.S. President Barack Obama's speech to the Cuban people in Havana Mar. 22, 2016.

    Cuban and U.S. flags set up prior to U.S. President Barack Obama's speech to the Cuban people in Havana Mar. 22, 2016. | Photo: Reuters

Published 4 October 2018
Opinion

Bolivia's ambassador to the United Nations Sacha Llorenti says the Cuban blockade must end and will be voted on at the Security Council.

Bolivia is once again calling for the elimination of the United States' economic blockade of Cuba, and says it will vote to lift the measure when the United Nations Security Council votes on the issue Oct. 31.

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Bolivia’s permanent representative to the United Nations Sacha Llorenti said Wednesday that ending the nearly 60-year blockade on Cuba is of utmost importance for his country.

Bolivia will host the U.N. Security Council meeting at the end of next month and Llorenti says the vote, while not on the agenda, is a sign of respect for multilateralism and a condemnation to unilateral sanctions, the ambassador added.

President of the United Nations General Assembly for the 73rd session Maria Fernanda Espinosa also said this week that the measure should be voted on since the majority of member states declared that they were against the blockade during the general assembly meeting held in September.

During the annual September meeting held in New York, 191 world leaders voted to end the blockade on Cuba, while the United States and Israel were again the only nations to abstain.

Bolivian President Evo Morales said during his general assembly speech that his country “rejects in the clearest and most energetic way the illegal, inhuman and criminal economic and financial blockade” against Cuba by the United States.

Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro expressed “solidarity with the heroic people of Cuba” referring to the six-decade-long blockade on the Caribbean island.

If the United States votes against the measure, as it historically has, the economic blockade that has cost the country over US$ 130 billion over the past six decades, will continue.

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