Venezuela urges end to U.S. trade embargo against Cuba

CARACAS, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- Venezuela on Wednesday urged an end to the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, calling the decades-old policy "economic terrorism."

During a UN General Assembly debate on lifting the U.S. economic, financial and trade sanctions against Cuba, Joaquin Perez Ayestaran, Venezuela's acting ambassador to the UN, called on countries to vote in favor of the resolution that calls for ending the blockade.

The "illegal, criminal, cruel and inhuman" blockade "inflicts death, pain and indiscriminate suffering on an entire people," resulting in "clear crimes against humanity," he stressed.

Underscoring the global reach of the blockade, Perez Ayestaran noted that the U.S. policy affects any country or company that wants to trade with the Caribbean nation.

"This policy affects the entire international community in violation of the norms of international law and the multilateral trading system," he said.

According to Cuban official data, the U.S. embargo has cost the Cuban economy a total of 154.2 billion U.S. dollars since 1962 when it was first imposed.