Cuba calls for lifting of trade embargo

Mr. Felipe Perez Roque (AP Photo)

Monday, September 29, 2003

NEW YORK, New York: Cuba's Foreign Minister, Mr. Felipe Perez Roque, appealed to a Harlem church yesterday for help in lifting of the trade embargo against his country.

The Associated Press quoted Mr. Roque as saying the blockade has cost the Caribbean nation $72 billion in the last 42 years. 

"The blockade is a major obstacle to our development. (It) prevents and curtails our development," Perez Roque told a sympathetic audience of more than 800 people, many of whom repeatedly interrupted with chants of "Viva Cuba."

In a 75-minute speech the minister told congregants that the Cuban people do not hold any hatred against the American people. 

The embargo was imposed by the United States in 1961 to punish Cuba's Fidel Castro then a Soviet ally. The United States has also imposed sanctions on companies that do business in the communist island. 

Entertainer, Jamaican-born, Mr. Harry Belafonte, introduced the minister to the audience, saying, "So far things don't look so good. But I think the more we display our willingness to be open...more people will support the idea." 

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