The Embargo Is Aggression of the Worst Kind

Susan Rice, the African-American ambassador of the United States to the United Nations, was represented last Tuesday before the General Assembly by the same deputy ambassador that in 2005 represented the ultraconservative John Bolton: Ronald D. Godard.* Why change the spokesperson if the task is to repeat the same arguments to validate the same criminal blockage against Cuba?

“The United States of America, like all Member States, has the sovereign right to conduct its economic relationship with another country,” said Godard. In 2005, Godard presented the same allegation. He said this again in 2008 when, after the lash of various hurricanes, Cuba rejected the assistance that the United States offered.

Half-truths and lies serve the needs of liars, and the construction of allegations derived from manipulated notions is an old tactic used by those who sustain illegitimate power.

The support of the lies and deviousness comes from imperialist pushiness. The embargo doesn’t constitute an exercise of sovereignty, but instead constitutes aggression against Cuba and other countries — first by punishing other countries and today by punishing the businesses that negotiate with Cuba. What right does the U.S. have to legislate for the rest of the world?

Proclamation 3447, which established the embargo, was issued in February 1962, and in January of the same year Cuba was expelled from the Organization of American States (OAS). In 1964, the member states of the OAS — with the exception of Mexico —severed relations with Cuba. The United States converted the OAS into a platform to apply the blockade.

Barack Obama is committed to aggression and subjugation. This is why he has validated with his signature — for two consecutive years — the document that renews the blockade. He never changed the discourse. Almost two years since arriving in the White House, the old seal of the extreme right is evident, and he can’t oblige the movement to hide itself.

The promise of change is shown to be what it is: a fraud.

*Editor’s Note: Ronald Godard is Ambassador and Senior Area Advisor for Western Hemisphere Affairs to the United Nations.