Venezuelan seat in the UN General Assembly floor. Photo: Misión Verdad.
On Friday, November 4, the president Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, decried that “we have the right to speak, but not the right to vote in the United Nations as a result of the sanctions,” in reference to the vote on the latest resolution against the US blockade of Cuba at the UN General Assembly where Venezuela could not vote. President Maduro demanded that UN Secretary General António Guterres intervene so that Venezuela can have access to its blocked resources and pay the membership quotas, to allow the country to regain its voting rights at the United Nations.
“I have already asked the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, to solve this problem for Venezuela,” he said. “It is an obligation, a duty of the UN Secretary General to resolve the matter so that Venezuela, having resources, having the money, can have access to the bank account to pay [our quotas], and have the right to vote at the UN.”
Since January this year, Venezuela has lost its right to vote in the UN General Assembly due to a delay in the payment of quotas, as a result of the freezing of Venezuelan bank accounts abroad due to the illegal US and European blockade.
President Maduro Celebrates Cuba’s Victory at United Nations
In this regard, the Venezuelan president pointed out, “The sanctions prevent us from having access to the bank accounts to fulfill our commitments and pay our quotas, our obligations in the UN, and this has put us out of the voting system.”
Always in solidarity with Cuba
The Venezuelan president made the comment in reference to Venezuela’s inability to exercise its right to vote on the draft resolution “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba” at the United Nations General Assembly. The resolution was approved on Thursday, November 3, with 185 votes in favor, and only the US and Israel againt. This was the 30th time that the US blockade on Cuba has been condemned at the UN General Assembly.
Although Venezuela could not vote on the resolution, President Maduro pointed out that Venezuela fully exercised its right to voice its demand for the end of the criminal US policy of economic blockade, which is an act of genocide against the population of Cuba.
“Venezuela stood there with its truth, its Bolivarian voice to say: We are with Cuba! We are against the 60-year-long criminal blockade that has martyred, tortured and persecuted Cuba!” said President Maduro.
He also congratulated the Cuban people and Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel for their moral, diplomatic and political victory at the UN.
“It is a victory that gives Cuba and our countries full and absolute reason to demand that the US empire must cease its criminal mechanisms of persecution and torture against the peoples of Cuba, Venezuela and the world,” Maduro added.
The Venezuelan president stressed that US and European imperialism “persecutes our countries to the last bank account, to the last spare part that we need for medical equipment,” with the aim of turning it into a “political weapon to impose conditions on countries.”
However, “nobody can twist the arm of the peoples of Bolívar, Martí, Fidel and Chávez,” President Maduro concluded.
(RedRadioVE) by Victoria Torres
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SC
