Cuba's moment onstage at the UN

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez took the floor today at the United Nations and, to no one’s great surprise, devoted half of his speech time to a discussion of Cuba’s relationship with the United States.

Through Rodriguez, Cuba again called for normalization of US-Cuba relations. The Foreign Minister affirmed the hope that Barack Obama’s election elicited in the international community, and called upon him to follow through on these international expectations and on the promises he has made: by doing away with the “wet foot-dry foot” policy; returning the island’s territory at Guantánamo Bay; ending funding to Radio and TV Martí; and, ultimately, scrapping the travel ban, and sitting down with Raúl for “respectful, arm’s length dialogue.”

The address was much less aggressive toward the United States than the many years of Cuban speeches before the General Assembly and similar international bodies. Instead, Rodriguez simply argued that as yet, the Obama administration has not followed through with significant concrete actions on promises for change, dialogue and cooperation.

[A month from today, on October 28, the UN General Assembly will vote on the Cuban-initiated resolution against the US embargo.]

The full text of today’s speech is here.