• News
  • Sport
  • TV
  • Radio
  • Education
  • TV Licences
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
  • SOUTH AFRICA
  • POLITICS
  • BUSINESS
  • SPORT
  • AFRICA
  • WORLD
  • SCI-TECH
  • LIFESTYLE
  • FEATURES
  • OPINION
Home World

Escalating US aggression against Cuba a concern for SA

7 November 2019, 7:49 AM  |
Sherwin Bryce-Pease Sherwin Bryce-Pease |  @SABCNews
FILE PHOTO: U.S. and Cuban flags hang on the terrace of a restaurant in downtown Havana.

FILE PHOTO: U.S. and Cuban flags hang on the terrace of a restaurant in downtown Havana.

Image: Reuters

FILE PHOTO: U.S. and Cuban flags hang on the terrace of a restaurant in downtown Havana.

“South Africa has noted with concern the escalation of United States aggression against Cuba and the region and the rolling back of the previous US administration’s policy engagement with Cuba.”

That was the message delivered by the country’s envoy to the United Nations during the annual two-day debate in the General Assembly on the Necessity of Ending the Economic, Commercial and Financial Embargo imposed by the United States on Cuba.

The annual resolution receives overwhelming support in the General Assembly and a similar result is expected when the Assembly votes on the resolution on Thursday.

An embargo – 6 decades in existence – and described in the General Assembly as an economic noose around Cuba’s neck. As country after country implored the United States to change its policy, that has affected Cuba’s Sustainable Development Goal aspirations and bilateral trade and investment between Pretoria and Havana, Ambassador Jerry Matjila explained:

“South Africa has noted with concern the escalation of US aggression against Cuba and the region, and the rolling back of the previous US Administration’s policy of engagement with Cuba. South Africa condemns the activation, as announced on 3 April 2019, of Title III of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, which allows legal action through US courts for reparations following the nationalisation of properties in Cuba in 1959. The intensification of the extraterritorial application of the embargo through the activation of Title III of the Helms Burton Act is strongly rejected by South Africa as third countries are increasingly discouraged to pursue normal trade and investment opportunities with Cuba.”

In addition to the embargo the Trump administration has allowed US citizens to file lawsuits against Cuban and Foreign companies over property seized during the Cuban revolution, under legislation waived by previous presidents.

It has sanctioned nearly 200 Cuban military run companies and hotels, its banned trips by US cruise ships and recreational vessels to the country and recently suspended commercial flights to 9 Cuban destinations excluding Havana

Palestine’s envoy and the current Chair of the Group of 77 plus China, Riyad Mansour says, “The Group of 77 and China would like to express our deep concern about the prolonged negative effects that the economic sanctions and travel restrictions have had on Cuba and its people. From April 2018 to March this year, the impact of the US embargo on Cuba’s foreign trade amounts to more than 4 billion US dollars. Limited foreign investment and difficult access to development credits translate directly into economic hardship and humanitarian impacts for the people of Cuba. The country’s socio-economic reforms have also been hampered by the embargo.”

Grenada’s Ambassador Keisher McGuire for the Caribbean Community says, “We view Cuba as an integral part of our Caribbean civilization which threatens no-one. Caricom continues to support the sovereign right of Cuba to choose its own path in a manner it deems beneficial to its social and economic development. The embargo imposed against Cuba violates international law and is an anachronism, an aberration in the world of today.”

Russia accused the United States of threatening the whole system of international relations through what it called discriminatory practices.

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Punkin says, “These acts undermine the pillars of global and regional stability and raises force as a diktat, as a norm of international relations, American style. The question lies in the following – who will become the next insubordinate party so to speak. For life amid sanctions today is a reality not merely for Cuba and not merely for Russia but essentially for the a third of countries worldwide.”

The Assembly is expected to hear from both Cuba and the United States Thursday when the GA is due to vote on the resolution.

Last year’s vote passed with 189 countries in support and two against but remains an unenforceable text as it requires a change in domestic US legislation.

Share article
Tags: CubaUnited StatesThe United NationsJerry Matjila
Previous Post

MEC applauds PMB high court for Mpungose sentence

Next Post

R363 billion made in investment commitments for SA

Related Posts

One of the tanks supplied by NATO countries.

Ukraine says new tanks will serve as ‘iron fist’ in counter-offensive

3 February 2023, 9:02 PM
[File Image] : Hands with bracelets.

Indian police arrest 1 800 men in crackdown on underage marriage

3 February 2023, 12:08 PM
British fighter jets in the air.

‘No magic wand’ in Ukraine war, says UK’s Wallace on question of supplying jets

2 February 2023, 9:00 PM
Javeline anti-tank missiles are displayed on the assembly line as U.S. President Joe Biden tours a Lockheed Martin weapons factory in Troy, Alabama, US May 3, 2022.

US readies $2 billion-plus Ukraine aid package

1 February 2023, 10:42 AM

Calls for police reform ring out across United States in aftermath of Tyre Nichols’ death

31 January 2023, 10:08 PM
People and rescue workers gather amid the damages, after a suicide blast in a mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan January 30, 2023.

Families search for loved ones after Pakistan mosque blast kills 100

31 January 2023, 3:40 PM
Next Post
President Cyril Ramaphosa officially opened the country's second investment conference at the Sandton Convention Centre.

R363 billion made in investment commitments for SA

Most Viewed

  • 24hrs
  • Week
  • Month
  • Registration at Unisa closes on Friday, but management says no need to panic
  • Gas leak shut, isolated in Pretoria North
  • King of Bacardi music ‘Vusi Ma R5’ killed in Soshanguve
  • Committee wants to halt planned demolition of North West hospital
  • Bapedi kingdom commemorates Kgosi Mampuru II, still hoping to find his remains
  • Parts of the Northern Cape to be exempted from rolling blackouts
  • VIDEO | St Benedict College’s Matric learner gets 11 distinctions
  • Limpopo matriculant from child-headed household attains diploma pass
  • Registration at Unisa closes on Friday, but management says no need to panic
  • Female circumcision practice thriving in Eastern Cape
  • ‘Country in a crisis because Ramaphosa does not have courage to confront opponents’
  • ANC to appeal cadre deployment ruling
  • Three nabbed for possession of crayfish worth millions
  • Julius Malema’s firearm trial postponed
  • EFF takes over Speaker position in Ekurhuleni

LATEST

Council Speaker, Nomazizi Maputle.
  • Politics

Angry opposition parties stage a walkout from a council meeting in Kimberley


File image of basic services
  • Politics

Internal party squabbles in council a cause for our suffering: Schweizer Reneke residents


Unemployed men wait on a street corner in the hope of getting casual work.
  • SONA 2023
  • Politics

SA citizens will be wasting time listening to SONA: Dawie Roodt


[FILE IMAGE] A vial of measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and an information sheet is seen at Boston Children's Hospital in Boston.
  • Sci-tech

37 measles cases confirmed in Gauteng, five in the Western Cape


One of the tanks supplied by NATO countries.
  • World

Ukraine says new tanks will serve as ‘iron fist’ in counter-offensive


University of Mpumalanga.
  • South Africa

Parliament’s Portfolio Committee visits University of Mpumalanga 


Weather

  • About the SABC
  • Contact Us
  • Jobs
  • Advertise
  • Disclaimer
  • Site Map

SABC © 2023

No Result
View All Result
  • SOUTH AFRICA
  • POLITICS
  • BUSINESS
  • SPORT
  • AFRICA
  • WORLD
  • SCI-TECH
  • LIFESTYLE
  • FEATURES
  • OPINION

© 2022

Previous Sibusiso Mpungose leaving the Pietermaritzburg High Court. MEC applauds PMB high court for Mpungose sentence
Next R363 billion made in investment commitments for SA