21 YEARS – UN General Assembly Vote on The Embargo Against Cuba

This week’s UN General Assembly vote on “the need to end the embargo against Cuba” marked the 21^st straight time that the world turned out in support of the small island.

The vote on Tuesday, November 13, 2012 went as follows: 188 votes to END the embargo, 3 votes to KEEP the embargo (U.S., Israel and Palau) and 2 abstentions (The Marshall Islands and Micronesia).

This is what 21 years of votes against the embargo looks like on a graph:

The trend line (in red) indicates the increasing support for Cuba.

Below is another view. The red lines indicate votes to end the embargo. 

Below is a more exciting view… the dark yellow area represents abstentions to the vote. For some reason few countries would rather not vote on this issue.  Over the years this trend has decreased, as more nations are willingly to voice their disapproval of the embargo.

The small red squares along the bottom indicate votes to KEEP the embargo.  In between are the waters of hope and common sense.

Variations of this graph appear at the end.

I vaguely recall my 10^th grade algebra teacher (Mr. Gonzalez) claim that “numbers are beautiful…” I wonder what he’d think about the Totals below.

Over the 21 years in which this measure has been proposed at the United Nations, the General Assembly has cast 3,300 votes to End the Embargo, 63 votes to Keep It, with 308 Abstentions.

A U.S. child born on the day the first vote was cast can now walk into a bar and order a legal drink. The embargo itself is a bit older.

On October 19, 1960, after the new Cuban Government under Castro nationalized properties belonging to U.S. citizens and corporations, a partial economic embargo was imposed on the island. In February and March of 1962 President Kennedy made it the official foreign policy against Cuba that has now outlasted 10 U.S. Presidents and 5 decades of human/political evolution.

The table below shows the actual vote as it was cast year by year.

Year by Year Count

End It Keep It Abs 1992 59 3 79 1993 88 4 57 1994 101 2 48 1995 117 3 38 1996 137 3 25 1997 143 3 17 1998 157 2 12 1999 155 2 8 2000 167 3 4 2001 167 3 3 2002 173 3 0 2003 175 3 2 2004 179 4 1 2005 182 4 1 2006 183 4 1 2007 184 4 1 2008 185 3 2 2009 187 3 2 2010 187 2 2 2011 186 2 3 2012 188 3 2 Totals 3300 63 308

 

Americans tend to support ending the embargo whenever they’re asked.

Just about every religious and humanitarian agency in the world has called for an end to the embargo against Cuba.

If only President Obama would listen.