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STORY: GA / CUBA EMBARGO
TRT: 2.35
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / SPANISH / NATS
DATELINE: 13 NOVEMBER 2012, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
13 NOVEMBER 2012, NEW YORK CITY
2. Zoom in General Assembly
3. Zoom in, Bruno Eduardo Rodríguez Parrilla, Foreign Minister of Cuba walks up to the podium
4. Wide shot, delegates
5. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Bruno Eduardo Rodríguez Parrilla, Foreign Minister of Cuba:
“There is no legitimate or moral justification to keep in place this blockade, anchored in the cold war. It is just the weapon of choice of an isolated, violent, arrogant and increasingly shrinking minority which profits electorally from it; spurns the calls of the majority and does not give up, faced with the unflinching determination of the Cuban people to decide their own destiny.”
6. Med shot, Cuban delegation
7. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Bruno Eduardo Rodríguez Parrilla, Foreign Minister of Cuba:
“President Obama has the opportunity of starting a new policy towards Cuba, different from that of his 10 predecessors, during more than half a century. Surely it will be difficult, and he will face hard obstacles, but the President of the United States has the constitutional powers that would allow him to listen to public opinion and to generate the necessary dynamics through executive decisions, without having to go though Congressional approval.”
8. Wide shot, audience applause
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Ronald Godard, United States Senior Area Advisor for Western Hemisphere Affairs:
“While we note and welcome Cuba’s recent changes to allow greater self employment and liberalize the real estate market, Cuba still has one of the most restrictive economic systems in the world. Irrespective of US policy, it is unrealistic to expect the Cuban economy to thrive until the Cuban Government opens State monopolies to private competition, fully empowers Cuban entrepreneurs, respects intellectual property rights, allows unfettered access to the internet, and adopts the sound macro economic policies that have contributed to the economic success of many of Cuba’s neighbouring countries in Latin America.”
10. Tilt up, voting board
11. Med shot, voting results
12. Pan right, audience applause
For the 21st consecutive year at the United Nations, the General Assembly today (13 November) adopted a resolution calling for an end to the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States against Cuba.
By a vote of 188 in favour to three against (Israel, Palau and the United States) with two abstentions (Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia), the Assembly reiterated its call to all States to refrain from promulgating and applying laws and measures not conforming with their obligations to reaffirm freedom of trade and navigation.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, told the Assembly during the debate that preceded the vote that “there is no legitimate or moral justification to keep in place this blockade, anchored in the cold war.”
He said the blockade “is just the weapon of choice of an isolated, violent, arrogant and increasingly shrinking minority which profits electorally from it; spurns the calls of the majority and does not give up, faced with the unflinching determination of the Cuban people to decide their own destiny.”
Rodríguez Parrilla said the last four years of US President Barack Obama’s administration has witnessed a tightening” of the blockade, which has been in place for over half a century.
He stated that now that he has been re-elected, President Obama “has the opportunity of starting a new policy towards Cuba, different from that of his 10 predecessors, during more than half a century.”
He acknowledged that “it will be difficult, and he will face hard obstacles, but the President of the United States has the constitutional powers that would allow him to listen to public opinion and to generate the necessary dynamics through executive decisions, without having to go though Congressional approval.”
The US delegate, Ronald Godard, said that his country, like others, determined the conduct of its economic relationships with other States based on its best interest. With regards to Cuba, the priority of President Obama’s administration was to empower Cubans to determine their own future.
Godard said that irrespective of US policy, it was “unrealistic” to expect Cuba to thrive unless it opened its monopolies, respected international property rights and allowed unfettered access to the Internet, among other things.
