Cuba wants help

Cuba wants help

Seeks Caricom's support for removal from US list of terrorist nations

Friday, March 28, 2014



GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) — Cuba has asked the Caribbean Community

(Caricom) countries to provide strong support for its exclusion from the

"spurious list of state sponsors of terrorism" that is drawn up annually

by the United States.



Newly appointed Cuban Plenipotentiary Representative to the Guyana-based

Caricom, Julio Cesar Gonzalez Marchante, said that Havana expected the

15-member grouping to be vociferous as it has been in condemning the

decades-old trade embargo placed by Washington against the

Spanish-speaking Caribbean country.



"Our country is sure we can expect the same strong support to demand to

be excluded from the spurious list of state sponsors of terrorism yearly

presented by the State Department of the United States.



"The arbitrary inclusion of Cuba in this listing is intended to justify

the blockade against Cuba and it is time to change this failed and

hostile policy that has caused much damage and unnecessary suffering to

our people," the diplomat said.



He said Havana was fully appreciative of the Caribbean for the "strong

and consistent rejection of the economic, commercial and financial

blockade against Cuba and its traditional support for the resolution on

the subject presents our country each year to the United Nations General

Assembly".



Earlier, Caricom Secretary General Irwin La Rocque renewed a call for

Washington to end the embargo.



"Caricom knows well the value of unity on the international front, given

that co-ordination of foreign policy is one of the pillars of our

integration movement. We have, as a bloc, joined with like-minded states

to both advance and protect our interests and support causes and

initiatives of priority concern to us.



"This is why we have consistently supported United Nations resolutions

aimed at ending the US embargo on Cuba and will continue to do so," La

Rocque said.



Washington imposed the trade and economic embargo against Havana in

1960, two years after the former president Fidel Castro overthrew the

Batista regime.



The embargo is enforced mainly with six statutes and the United States

has consistently voted at the United Nations against the removal of the

embargo.



The Cuban diplomat said that his country was excited and encouraged

about the Cuba-Caricom summit scheduled for Havana on December 8, saying

it would allow for the continued exchange of common issues and deepening

the existing relationship.



"The Caribbean countries can always count on eternal friendship,

selflessness, gratitude and full support of their Cuban brothers," he said.



Source: Cuba wants help - News - JamaicaObserver.com -

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Cuba-wants-help_16360755