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Who the hell would vote for the
blockade?
Even Hillary Clinton’s spokesman is wondering.
WHICH are the only two countries that voted on the
side of the United States at the UN on the blockade
against Cuba?
In a
press conference after the condemnation of that U.S.
aggression against the island for the 18th year
running, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly was
left speechless by a question put to him by a
journalist.
When
Kelly couldn’t respond to the above question,
journalists suggested that maybe it was the Solomon
Islands or Micronesia.
During the exchange between Kelly and an
unidentified journalist, Kelly was asked to remind
the journalists which two countries had voted
against the Cuban resolution and comment on their
votes.
Kelly said he thought one was Palau but didn’t know
the other one.
The
journalist suggested that it was Micronesia or
Israel. Kelly was left with only one way out: the
usual anti-Cuban rhetoric. He began, “All
right. Well, let me give you the guidance on this.
The United States believes it has the sovereign
right to conduct economic – its economic
relationship with Cuba as determined by U.S.
national interests.”
“Sanctions on Cuba are designed to permit
humanitarian items to reach the Cuban people, while
denying the Cuban Government resources that it could
use to repress its citizens.”
He
argued that the United States has exported $717
million to Cuba over the last year. “Sanctions are
one part of the United States policy approach to
Cuba”…
A
journalist interrupts him: “But, I mean, you have no
opinion on the fact that the rest of the world
thinks that this is a bad way to go?”
Kelly: “Well…”
Journalist:
“That the whole world – I mean, Palau
notwithstanding – excuse me.”
Kelly: “This – it seems to me to be an annual
exercise that –”
Journalist:
“It’s an annual exercise to tell you that the rest
of the world thinks –”
Kelly (even more taken aback): “-- seems to be –
kind of has inertia from the Cold War. The
suggestion that we’re not assisting Cuba is just
false. I mean, we are one of the major providers of
humanitarian assistance to Cuba.”
One
has to understand that for Kelly, the sales of
agricultural products to the island paid for in cash
by Cuba, count as “humanitarian assistance” on the
part of the U.S. government.
The rest of the conversation becomes lost in the
usual profusion of attacks against Cuba and a
strange discussion about human rights given by a
nation that still has not closed Guantánamo and in
which more individuals, especially African-Americans
and Latinos, are incarcerated, without mentioning
the massive unemployment that forces millions of the
State Department spokesman’s fellow countrymen to
sleep on the street. (JGA)
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