国产热热热精品,亚洲视频久久】日韩,三级婷婷在线久久,99人妻精品视频,精品九热人人肉肉在线,AV东京热一区二区,91po在线视频观看,久久激情宗合,青青草黄色手机视频

Global Biz

Cuba says US embargo has toughened under Obama

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-09-16 09:21
Large Medium Small

HAVANA - The US trade embargo against Cuba has gotten tougher under US President Barack Obama, not more lenient as many had expected when he took office, a top Cuban official said on Wednesday.

Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, in the Cuban government's annual update on the 48-year-old embargo, said the United States is levying bigger fines, applying sanctions more firmly and pursuing embargo-busting financial transactions more vigorously under Obama.

Related readings:
Cuba says US embargo has toughened under Obama Cuban leader sees no improvement in Cuba-US relations
Cuba says US embargo has toughened under Obama Fidel Castro says US magazine misinterpreted his words

"The embargo policy in the last two years, which is to say under the government of President Obama, has not changed at all," Rodriguez said in a press conference. "In some aspects, it has even hardened."

In terms of US policy toward Cuba, Obama had performed "below expectations that had been created in the international community and American public opinion," Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said the embargo has cost Cuba $751 billion over the years, adjusted for inflation and the changing value of the dollar.

"It is, without any doubt, the primary obstacle to the economic development of our country," he said.

The United Nations is scheduled to hold its annual vote on a resolution condemning the embargo on October 26. Last year, only three countries - the United States, Israel and Palau - voted against the measure.

The embargo, said Rodriguez, "is a museum piece of the Cold War. It is, moreover, a failed policy."

The embargo was fully imposed in 1962, with the aim of toppling the Cuban?government put in place by Fidel Castro after he took power in a 1959 revolution.

The embargo prohibits most trade with Cuba, with exceptions for agricultural products and medicine.

Obama spoke early on of improving relations with Cuba, but insisted the embargo - which Cuba calls a "blockade" - would stay in place until the Caribbean island improved its human rights and released political prisoners.

He has eased the embargo slightly by removing restrictions on Cuban Americans traveling to the island and the amount of money they can send to their family members in Cuba.

There has been more leniency, too, in granting of licenses for visits by US performers and academics, but progress has stalled since Cuba detained a US contractor in December on suspicion of espionage.

The contractor, Alan Gross, remains behind bars in Cuba, without formal charges. The US says he was not a spy, but was in Cuba installing Internet services for Jewish groups.

Rodriguez was questioned about Gross, but he responded only that the embargo is a unilateral act by the US and must be lifted immediately and without conditions.

西华县| 滦平县| 怀仁县| 阿拉善右旗| 德昌县| 开封市| 阿拉善盟| 繁峙县| 岫岩| 巫山县| 华安县| 石家庄市| 泗洪县| 新宾| 汝阳县| 北京市| 津市市| 黎城县| 肇庆市| 抚宁县| 泸溪县| 阿拉善盟| 长武县| 如东县| 聂拉木县| 寿宁县| 榕江县| 顺义区| 黄山市| 平乐县| 临西县| 平阴县| 大邑县| 阿图什市| 乌兰浩特市| 万州区| 伊通| 固阳县| 浙江省| 海口市| 日土县|