R 011909Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY BRASILIA
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 3004
INFO AMEMBASSY ASUNCION 
AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES 
AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO 
AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO 
AMCONSUL RECIFE 
AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO 
AMCONSUL SAO PAULO 
USMISSION USUN NEW YORK

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