00:00Welcome back to From the South and let's go to the US once more as the nation is entering
00:05its final stretch ahead of midterm elections.
00:08For that purpose we have a special guest, Jill Clark Golub, coordinator of America's
00:14Without Sanctions, a project of sanctions skill.
00:17Hello Jill and welcome to From the South.
00:21Hello Alejandra, nice to be here.
00:23Should the midterm elections be seen as a potential turning point for US in foreign policy?
00:33I think it is an interesting moment.
00:39We have a time where Donald Trump is having one of the lowest approval ratings of an American
00:47president in recent times and that's saying a lot because we've had a lot of unpopular
00:53presidents recently.
00:56And at the same time, the Democrats see some division within their party.
01:03And there's really been a changed political atmosphere here in the United States since
01:11the genocide on the Palestinian people began to be live streamed following October 7th, 2023.
01:20And the Democratic Party has very deep ties to the Israeli lobby and to the Zionists.
01:30But now at this point, a majority of Democrats, and it's even more pronounced amongst young
01:36people, does not want to be sending any weapons to Israel.
01:42And that's created a bit of a schism in the Democratic Party.
01:45So I don't think that it's a slam dunk that the Democrats will have huge wins.
01:53And there have been some political setbacks on the Senate side, but I do think there are
02:00there are poll watchers and those who are watching, you know, the public opinion polls.
02:07I'm not talking about the voting polls because that hasn't started yet, but they do believe
02:12that the Democrats have a very good chance of winning majority in the House of Representatives
02:17of the U.S. Congress.
02:19But is that really going to bring about a change in foreign policy vis a vis Latin America?
02:27Well, that remains to be seen.
02:29And the other very extreme example that has moved the American people has been the increased
02:37criminality of the United States blockade on Cuba, which is also being called a genocide by many experts.
02:46And there has been, as has been widely reported, you may know, there has been a doubling of the infant
02:53mortality rate in Cuba because of Trump's escalated sanctions starting around 2018 during his first term.
03:03But unfortunately, President Biden did not lift some of those, including the very damaging designation
03:10and spurious designation as a state sponsor of terrorism.
03:14So we'll see if that will really change.
03:18But there is a growing number of members of Congress who see this cruelty and demand that our government stop
03:25this.
03:26And they will, of course, have a bigger microphone if they win the majority.
03:30But the others in the Democratic Party who really advocate for the status quo, well, will need to keep working
03:39on them.
03:39And it's not it's not certain by any means, but it will be easier to have a bigger microphone in
03:49talking about condemning the blockade on Cuba and demanding that it be lifted.
03:54Precisely about Cuba earlier this week, the island achieved a diplomatic victory at the United Nations in spite of diplomatic
04:03pressures imposed by the U.S.
04:06130 countries, the majority of U.N. member states voted in favor of Cuba, in support of Cuba in the
04:14face of the consequences that the island suffers because of the U.S. economic blockade.
04:19How do you think this outcome at the United Nations is going to affect or deeply affect the already unpopular
04:27image of Donald Trump in the face of the midterm elections?
04:33Unfortunately, and I'm ashamed to say this as a U.S. citizen, I don't think it's going to affect it
04:39very much.
04:40To the great chagrin of the United States government, led by the executive branch and enthusiastically followed by the legislative
04:53branch, the Congress, believes that international law or I should say behaves as if international law only applies to other
05:01countries and the United States is above it.
05:04And this has been the way the United States has treated other countries going back to even before the dawn
05:13of the 20th century.
05:14What's happened with Donald Trump and Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth is that they are more brazen about their complete
05:22disregard for international law.
05:24And this is something that was raised at a recent shadow hearing convened in Congress about the illegal and immoral
05:36aspects of the U.S. blockade on Cuba.
05:39And Susanna Daly, the president of the National Lawyers Guild, brought to the attention of the members of Congress that
05:47this flagrant disregard for international law leaves anyone in the U.S. government who has any level of complicity.
05:57In other words, if they are not stopping, trying to stop the blockade on Cuba, trying to stop the extrajudicial
06:03executions in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, then they one day could be held to account when we,
06:11as we hope there will be, an accounting for all of these international criminals.
06:16But no, the general public does not expect the United States to respect international law, and that is not the
06:28biggest problem for Trump these days in terms of voting for Congress.
06:33Also, speaking about international law, the use of major unilateral sanctions on other sovereign countries and economic blockades as well,
06:44rises serious concerns regarding the United Nations, under the United Nations Charter.
06:50How Congress, or what role should Congress play in making or holding the executive branch accountable for the impact, the
07:01consequences of the application of these unilateral sanctions?
07:05This has a very important responsibility for demanding that the executive branch respect international law and respect the United Nations.
07:15This administration has been in a full-front attack, not only on international law, but on multilateralism and the United
07:26Nations system that upholds that international law.
07:30Congress must act so that even American citizens, American ships can navigate waters with, so we don't resort to a
07:41system of outright piracy,
07:43which is really what the United States is doing under the Trump administration.
07:49So, yes, Congress has an important role to play, and I should say that it is a violation of the
07:55United Nations Charter, so a clear violation of international law to impose unilateral coercive measures.
08:01But the United States is relying on these more and more, and these measures are as deadly as armed conflict.
08:10And the biggest study that was ever done on this found that as many people die from unilateral coercive measures
08:18as from armed conflict.
08:20And it's some 540,000 people a year, and over half of those are children under age five.
08:28So this is truly a moral dilemma for our country to be complicit in this, and it must stop, and
08:35every member of Congress should be working on stopping these illegal measures and the illegal and criminal blockade on Cuba.
08:42And the threats against all the other countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, not just Nicaragua and Mexico and
08:49Brazil, but all countries who are working under duress and threats of tariffs and sanctions and outright military action if
09:03they don't do what this current government, U.S. administration, is telling them to do.
09:09Thank you, Yil, very much for your time here from the South and also helping us understand what is the
09:14stake in the midterm elections and the possible outcome, how it is going to affect as well the relationship of
09:21the U.S. with the global South.
09:22So thank you very much.
09:24Thank you. Bye-bye.
