BRAZIL: (SOME) PARLIAMENTARIANS SIGN PETITION

UNCLAS BRASILIA 001542 E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL BR CU SUBJECT: BRAZIL: (SOME) PARLIAMENTARIANS SIGN PETITION AGAINST CUBAN EMBARGO ¶1. Seventy-five Brazilian federal deputies signed and forwarded to this Embassy a petition addressed to the U.S. Congress asking it to "intercede with representatives of the UN General Assembly to suspend the financial, commercial, and economic blockade imposed on Cuba, a matter voted on in the General Assembly on October 29, 2008." The petition arrived together with a nearly identical petition signed by 85 Brazilian federal deputies and two senators, including the president of the senate, addressed to "representatives of the United Nations," presumably the US Mission to the UN. ¶2. Unofficial Embassy translation of the petition to the U.S. Congress follows: (Begin text.) Petition We, Brazilian parliamentarians - the under-signed ) ask the National Congress of the United States of America ) to intercede with representatives of the UN General Assembly to suspend the financial, commercial, and economic blockade imposed on Cuba, a matter voted in the Assembly on October 29, 2008. Cuba, which already is going through difficult conditions because of the almost half century long North American blockade, has been forced to put into practice a series of internal counter-measures in the face of the flagrant violation of the human rights of 11 million Cubans, affecting even those who live in the United States, besides the rights of the United States citizens themselves. This scandalous and arrogant interference in the affairs of an independent country harms the fundamental principles of the sovereignty of nations and the self-determination of peoples inscribed in the UN Charter. With the certainly that we will be heard, we are sending this document with numbered pages and signed by all. (End text.) ¶3. Unofficial Embassy translation of the petition to UN representatives follows: (Begin text.) Petition We, Brazilian parliamentarians - the under-signed ) ask the representatives of the United Nations Organization ) UN ) that the resolution requesting the end of the financial, commercial, and economic blockade imposed on Cuba, approved in the UN Assembly this past October 29, 2008, by 185 of the 192 members of the UN, be carried out in practice. The fulfillment of this decision is based on the principles of the sovereignty of nations and the self-determination of peoples inscribed in the UN Charter. With the certainly that we will be heard, we are sending this document with numbered pages and signed by all. (End text.) ¶4. Post is forwarding the petition addressed to Congress to the House Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs and the petition addressed to "representatives of the UN" to the IO Bureau, with copies to WHA/BSC. ¶5. Most of the signatories are from the Workers' Party, which has 80 of the 513 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and is the lead party in the government coalition, others are from smaller leftist parties, and a few are from the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (center-left, opposition). SOBEL