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BRAZIL, December 17, 2008.Members of the Brazil-Cuba Group this Wednesday presented to Clifford Sobel, the U.S. ambassador, a document signed by 73 senators and 224 federal deputies, expressing the unconditional support of the National Congress for ending the economic blockade of Cuba. The document will be channeled to the U.S. president-elect, Barack Obama. "In that statement, we reiterate the decision approved by 185 of 192 members of the United Nations in the General Assembly on October 29. The salute to that decision is based on the principles of national sovereignty and self-determination established in the Charter of the United Nations," says the text, whose signatories are headed by the president of the Senate, Garibaldi Alves (PMDB-RN). The president of the Brazil-Cuba Parliamentary Group, Federal Deputy Vanessa Grazziotin, says that Brazilian parliamentarians are taking advantage of this time, with the election of a new U.S. president whose principal campaign slogan was change. That is why the group has brought together, beyond party interests, parliamentarians who defend national self-determination and democracy and who are against measures that penalize the Cuban people as a whole. Senator Joao Pedro (PT-AM) affirmed that there is no doubt that the blockade has not resolved any political problems; on the contrary, all it has done is to aggravate Cuba’s problems. The parliamentarian, who collected signatures from his colleagues, highlighted the mass adherence to the document, borne out by the fact that 73 out of 81 senators signed it. (Cubaminrex- Granma Internacional) |