US gets Cuban roast, says Castro should be terminated

Cuban Foreign Minister, Mr. Felipe Perez Roque
(AFP PHOTO: DENNIS CALLAHAN-FGS)

Wednesday, November 5, 2003

NEW YORK, USA (AFP): In what has become an annual event in the august halls of the United Nations, the General Assembly on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to end the US economic embargo against Cuba.

Only the United States, Israel and the tiny Marshall Islands voted against ending the four-decade-old trade and travel sanctions. The resolution passed 179-3 with two abstentions.

US representative Sichan Siv cited one of the most famous movie lines of California governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger, saying the Cuban people should tell President Fidel Castro: "Hasta la vista, baby."

But an angry Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque took the floor at the assembly to blast the US embargo, slapped on Havana in 1961 after the Bay of Pigs invasion. He said it was tantamount to genocide.

"The blockade is a cruel and absurd policy that finds no support within or outside the United States," Perez Roque said. "The crime being committed against Cuba today could very well be committed against any other country tomorrow."

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