Away From Non-Binding UNGA Resolutions, the EU Follows the United States Narrative on Cuba by Ms Ramona Wadi!
(2021-08-11 at 22:56:58 )

Away From Non-Binding UNGA Resolutions, the EU Follows the United States Narrative on Cuba by Ms Ramona Wadi!

If the EU truly prized democracy, it would lobby for an end to the illegal blockade and United States interference, Ramona Wadi writes.

Why does the United States illegal blockade on Cuba conveniently disappear from the EUs narrative in the context of the protests against shortages in the country, and in which dissidents have been funded by the United States?

At the United Nations, where the blockade is routinely condemned through non-binding resolutions which of course allow the United States complete impunity over extending its violations against the island, the Political Coordinator for the United States Mission, Rodney Hunter, defended the sanctions as "one sent of tools in Washington,D.C.s broader effort towards Cuba to advance democracy, promote respect for human rights, and help the Cuban people exercise fundamental freedoms."

Not a single EU member state voted against the United Nations General Assemblys resolution to end the blockade last June. Yet since the protests in Cuba commenced, the EU has quietly dissociated itself from the stance it takes at the United Nations, treating the protests and the illegal United States blockade as unrelated, despite United States memorandums since the early days of the Cuban revolution stating that crippling the island economically was one imperialist method to bring about governance change in Cuba.

The EUs High Representative Josep Borrells statement is testimony to the chosen narrative which the bloc has now adopted. There is no mention of the 243 restrictive measures imposed on Cuba by the Donald Trump Administration, which did its best to slander Cuba at the height of the coronavirus pandemic and when the islands medical brigades were offering their help across the globe, including in Italy.

Neither does Mr. Borrell mention the fact that United States President Joe Biden has chosen to retain all the sanctions imposed by the previous administration and added more of its own, not to mention the refusal to remove Cuba from the United States state sponsors of terrorism list.

This despite the fact that in January this year, the EU appealed to Joe Biden to take a different stance with Cuba than Donald Trump - at a time when diplomats were still under the impression that Joe Biden would follow in Barack Obamas footsteps as regards United States foreign policy towards Cuba.

Is it surprising that Cubans are protesting?

Definitely not, but for the United States and the EU to impose their narrative excluding the decades-long illegal blockade does not aid the Cuban people.

And the truth is, the United States and the EU care little for democratic representation but fully endorse non-democratic measures to force countries into subjugation. That Cuba has survived against all odds has put a toll on the population, but that toll is directly linked to the blockade which almost no government wants to talk about now.

Spontaneous protests need no external funding and Cubans affected by shortages have differentiated between their grievances and the foreign interference, funded under specific programs by the United States Not to mention the media manipulation of the protests narrative by using imagery taken from the 2018 May Day rallies in Cuba, as even Reuters has confirmed.

If the reporting was not able to produce the correct images, what is missing from the narrative about the Cuban protests? The Cuban narrative itself - that of the people who have resisted against all odds - was absent from mainstream media reporting, keen as it is to promote yet another purportedly democratic narrative, now that the Arab Spring hype has long declined.

The question of whether the EU really wants an end to the blockade on Cuba naturally arises. Considering the non-binding nature of United Nations General Assembly resolutions, governments are not held accountable for their fluctuating policies.

If the United States determines, and funds, Cuban dissidents to stage discontent, the EU follows suit in its narrative.

It is noteworthy that the EU, despite its purported policy of peace and human rights, kept silent about the calls emanating from Miami urging for United States foreign military intervention against Cuba.

If the EU truly prized democracy, it would lobby for an end to the illegal blockade and United States interference, rather than partake in the United States-funded misrepresentative narrative against Cuba.

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