For the 29th time, the United Nations General Assembly passed an annual resolution with an overwhelming 184 votes in favor and 2 votes against, calling on the United States to end the nearly 60-year embargo against Cuba.
After Fidel Castro led the revolution, the properties of American citizens and companies were nationalized. Thereafter, the United States imposed sanctions on Cuba in 1960. Nearly two years later, US President John F. Kennedy imposed an embargo.
Since 1992, the United Nations General Assembly has voted on this resolution in support of Cuba every year. The resolution will be passed every year, but in 2020, due to the outbreak of the new crown pandemic, no vote was taken.
In the voting on Wednesday, only Israel and the United States voted against the resolution. The other three allies of the United States: Ukraine, Colombia and Brazil abstained. Brazil maintained the same position as the United States in the 2019 vote.
Cuba described the embargo as “a systematic violation of the rights of the Cuban people.”
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla said during the UN General Assembly vote, “This constitutes an act of genocide…Sanctions are like a virus, suffocating and dead, and it must stop. The motherland or death! We! Will win.”
Since it was first proposed in 1992, this resolution is not legally binding and unenforceable. The UN member states have passed this resolution with an overwhelming advantage. The resolution has received up to four votes against it in history, including the United States and the United States. Israel, they have been voting simultaneously with the United States.
Cubans face unprecedented difficulties
The member states once again stated that the blockade violates international law and the UN Charter.
In their speeches, several delegations pleaded for sympathy and solidarity during the new crown pandemic, saying that this has brought unprecedented difficulties to Cubans.
“This constitutes an act of genocide… Sanctions are like a virus, suffocating and dying. It must stop.”
Bruno Rodríguez, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba
Many people expressed the hope that the United States and Cuba can work together to repair the reconciliation that began under the Obama administration but was destroyed during the time of former President Donald Trump.
In 2016, the United States achieved a historic reconciliation with Cuba under the leadership of former President Barack Obama, and the United States abstained in the UN annual vote for the first time. Former Cuban President Raul Castro and then President Barack Obama formally resumed diplomatic relations in July 2016.
However, the diplomatic relationship between the two countries deteriorated with Trump’s admission to the White House in January 2017, and has not changed under the leadership of President Joe Biden.
U.S. defends its policy
In opposing the resolution and upholding the Trump administration’s position, the United States defended its policy and stated that the sanctions are “in Washington’s broader efforts to promote democracy, promote respect for human rights, and help the Cuban people exercise their fundamental freedoms. Set of tools”.
Rodney Hunter, the political coordinator of the U.S. Permanent Mission to the United Nations, stated during the poll that “Cubans, like everyone else, should have the right to freedom of speech, assembly, and culture.”
Hunter stated at the UN General Assembly, “We encourage this institution to support the Cuban people in determining their own future.”
The blockade did not succeed in overthrowing the Communist regime in Cuba.
Only the U.S. Congress can vote to end the embargo, and Havana claims that the embargo has caused billions of dollars in damage to its economy.
Padilla said that the embargo is damaging Havana’s ability to obtain medical supplies and is causing major difficulties in obtaining equipment to fight the new crown pandemic. He also talked about the obstacles Cuba faced when trying to buy ventilators last year.
Cuba, which is already struggling in a severe economic recession, forced the country to close its tourism borders due to the outbreak of the new crown pandemic last year, and tourism is the country’s main source of income.
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