On Friday, China urged the United States to ‘heed the call of the international community’, by lifting its blockade and sanctions against Cuba ‘immediately’, after the United Nations General assembly voted on Thursday to lift the blockade on the Caribbean island.
The vote saw 65 votes in favour, seven against and 12 abstentions.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a press conference that the ‘brutal blockade of more than 60 years’ has caused ‘deep suffering to the Cuban people’.
Guo said the United Nations vote to lift the blockade ‘once again reflects the broad support of the international community for the just struggle of the Cuban people to defend their national sovereignty and oppose foreign interference and the blockade’.
‘It also shows, once again, that unilateralism and bullying are unjust and unpopular.
‘China has voted since 1992 in favour of resolutions opposing the US blockade.’
China remains firm in defending international justice and will continue to strongly support the Cuban people in their opposition to foreign interference and in their pursuit of development suited to their national conditions,’ Guo said.
The non-binding resolution, which Cuba has presented annually since 1992, has in recent years received near-unanimous support from the international community. Havana views the yearly UN backing as a diplomatic victory, even though it has no practical effect.
The President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, said this Thursday that the best help after Hurricane Melissa hit the island ‘is to lift the economic blockade that has been in place for more than 60 years’.
He told a rally in Caracas: ‘The United States government has offered help to Cuba.
‘But they must lift all measures of persecution against Cuba today.
‘We were suffering a lot with Melissa’s passage through the territories of Jamaica and Cuba.
‘Solidarity is the tenderness of peoples. And we have to impose solidarity.’
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil said that 26 tons of medical, food and infrastructure supplies were flown to Cuba aboard a Conviasa airline flight, while another 20 tons were delivered to Jamaica.
Preparations are also underway for the departure of a ship carrying more than 3,000 tons of additional assistance to Cuba.
The vessel is expected to set sail in the coming days as part of the ongoing cooperation effort.
The aid delivery takes place within the framework of the 25th anniversary of the Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement signed by former presidents Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, which laid the groundwork for the later creation of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) organisation.
Gil said: ‘It is an agreement of brotherhood, an example of how relations between states should be.
At the Maiquetia airport, during the send-off of the humanitarian shipment, Cuban Ambassador Jorge Mayo Fernandez thanked Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, stressing that the Bolivarian nation’s solidarity with Cuba has been ‘permanent and systematic’.
He also noted that Venezuelan humanitarian assistance is crucial for eastern Cuba, where recovery from previous weather events has been hindered by the US ‘policy of blockade and suffocation’.
Ambassador Mayo Fernandez stated: ‘While the empire pressures and threatens the peoples of our America, sister Venezuela crosses the Caribbean with ships and planes of solidarity – planes of love.
‘No threats or aircraft carriers travel from Venezuela.
‘Food and medicine travel from here. That is the example all nations of the world should follow.’
So far, during its passage through the Caribbean, Hurricane Melissa has caused over 60 deaths in Cuba, 50 deaths in Jamaica, four in Panama, one in the Dominican Republic and 30 deaths in Haiti.
- Iran’s Foreign Ministry has welcomed the adoption of a United Nations General Assembly resolution condemning US economic sanctions against Cuba, denouncing Washington’s continued enforcement of ‘illegal and inhumane’ measures on the island nation.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said the sanctions have systematically targeted the fundamental rights of the Cuban people and obstructed the country’s development.
Baghaei said: ‘The unjust US sanctions against Cuba, which, for more than six decades, have targeted the fundamental rights of the Cuban people and the development of this country, are not only a blatant violation of the principles of the United Nations Charter and international law, but, due to their impact on the Cuban people’s enjoyment of fundamental human rights, constitute a crime against humanity.’
Expressing solidarity with the government and people of Cuba in the face of US ‘intimidation and pressure’, Baghaei said the overwhelming support for the resolution was a clear indication of the international community’s rejection of America’s ‘bullying and lawlessness’.
He said the damage inflicted on Cuba as a result of the sanctions create an international responsibility for the US government, which, he said, must be held accountable for committing ‘criminal acts’.
- Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement has said it supports Venezuela in its resistance against the United States as the US Navy continues to attack Venezuelan boats in the Caribbean Sea of the coast of Venezuela.
João Pedro Stédile, co-founder and a director of Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) said: ‘US attacks from the air have killed dozens of crew members of boats alleged to be carrying illicit drugs.
‘US accusations against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro that he is a top-level drug dealer, serve as a pretext.
‘The US government now offers a $50 million (£30.1 million) reward for his capture.
‘The allegation that he heads the drug-dealing Cartel de los Soles is false.
‘The cartel doesn’t exist, according to a United Nations report.
‘A US coup plotter recently claimed the CIA created the cartel.
‘Venezuela’s government is training militia troops by the millions.’
Venezuelan defence minister Vladimir Padrino López announced on 21st October that Venezuela’s military will cooperate with Colombian counterparts to fight narco-trafficking.
Relations between the two nations are quickly improving after the election of Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
Stédile added: ‘The United States has been threatening Venezuela for quite some time.
‘The process was accelerated by the Trump administration – a mixture of madness and fascism.
‘He thinks that, with brute force, he can overthrow the Maduro government and hand it over to María Corina Machado on a silver platter.
‘Part of this tactic was awarding her the Nobel Prize.
‘The United States is making a tragic mistake because it is basing its actions solely on information from the far right.
‘Never before has the Maduro government had so much popular support.
‘It is time for Lula’s government to take more decisive action and show more active solidarity with Venezuela.
‘If the United States is exerting all this military pressure to try to recover Venezuela’s oil, we put are support behind the Venezuelan government.
‘Brazil’s Landless Worker’s Movement was born from the concrete, isolated struggles for land that rural workers were developing in southern Brazil at the end of the 1970s.
‘Brazilian capitalism was not able to alleviate the existing contradictions that blocked progress in the countryside.
‘Little by little, the MST began to understand that winning land was important, but not enough.
‘They also need access to credit, housing, technical assistance, schools, healthcare and other needs that a landless family must meet.
‘The MST discovered that the struggle was not just against the Brazilian latifundio (big landowners), but also against the + economic model.’