U.N. General Assembly calls on U.S. to end Cuban trade embargo

UNITED NATIONS -- The U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday urged the United States for the 12th straight year to end its 42-year-old trade embargo against Cuba.

The resolution, which is not legally binding, passed overwhelmingly with only Israel and the Marshall Islands joining the United States in voting against.

Ambassador Sichan Siv, the U.S. representative to the U.N. Economic and Social Council, told the assembly the embargo was a bilateral issue and accused Cuba of trying "to blame its economic woes on the United States and to divert attention from its abysmal human rights record."

When the United States challenged the Castro government to permit "free and fair elections to the National Assembly" and open its economy and allow independent trade unions, Siv said, "the Cuban government carried out a brutal crackdown last March," sentencing 75 opposition members to up to 28 years in prison.

'Hasta la vista, baby!'

"The best day for Cuba is when the Cuban people open their ears and hear the truth. It's when they open their eyes and see freedom. It's when they open their mouth and say 'Viva Cuba libre!'" -- or "Long Live Free Cuba," he said. "Cuba's best day is when the Cuban people have terminated Castro's evil, communist, dictatorial regime and said to him 'Hasta la vista, baby!'" -- or "'Bye, Bye baby!"

Trailed by other U.S. officials, Siv then walked out of the General Assembly chamber.

Despite the strong words, this year's vote came amid some signs of a thaw in ties between the neighboring nations. U.S. officials and business people have stepped up trips to the communist island, and U.S. lawmakers are backing legislation to allow Americans freer travel to Cuba. But the Bush administration has indicated it will oppose any travel measure.

Speaker after speaker in the General Assembly debate opposed the embargo, and Cuba's Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque departed from his prepared text to denounce the "low-grade" attack and "crude tone bereft of respect" used by Siv.

"Cuba does not emulate such methods," Perez Roque said, adding that the General Assembly "deserves that representatives of countries behave in this chamber in accordance with a minimum of rules of respect and good upbringing."

The Cuban minister then went out to refute what he claimed were "15 lies" in Siv's statement, including denying that the embargo was a bilateral issue and declaring that "the United States has no moral authority or right to judge the human rights situation in Cuba."

"It should deal with the terrible human rights violations occurring in this country and those that it triggers elsewhere in other countries," Perez Roque said.

Cuba has been under a U.S. trade embargo since Fidel Castro defeated the CIA-backed assault at the Bay of Pigs in 1961. Americans are barred from traveling to the Caribbean island nation except with a government waiver.

Creating a small opening in the trade embargo, the U.S. Congress in 2000 year legalized sales of food to the communist island for the first time since 1961.