The UN General Assembly approved this Thursday by an overwhelming majority a resolution to demand the end of the US economic and commercial embargo against Cuba that has already exceeded six decades, which only two countries opposed: the United States and Israel.
This call, which has been made annually for 31 years, received on this occasion 187 votes in favor, two against and only one abstention, that of Ukraine, a result even more overwhelming than last year, when there were three abstentions and the same negative votes.
When the voting was completed and the results appeared on the Assembly’s giant screen, many of the delegates present burst into applause.
The Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez, who spoke just before the vote before the Assembly, denounced that the blockade “violates the right to life, health, education and well-being of all Cuban men and women,” and constitutes “a act of war in time of peace.”
Criticism of the embargo as unilateral, anachronistic and harmful to the population
The Assembly holds a specific session every year to request the end of this embargo imposed in 1962 and that prevents Cuba from making transactions in dollars, marketing products that cross the United States and that have a minimum percentage of 10% of parts made in that country, as well as using the North American financial system.
But the countries that yesterday and today have intervened in the Assembly in support of Cuba – many of them solid allies of the United States in the world – insisted that the embargo is a unilateral measure, since it has not been decided by the Council of Security, it involves interference in other states and ends up punishing the Cuban population above all, rather than its Government.
The magnitude of the support that Cuba receives in this matter is manifested in the fact that eight groups of different countries – Latin American, African, Islamic, Group of 77 plus China, among others – have presented particular motions this year rejecting the blockade, and then some intervene individually.
However, it also highlights the irrelevance of the General Assembly -beyond the symbolic value-, which has been approving a practically similar resolution for 31 years without this having managed to make any dent in US policy towards the Caribbean island.
Biden could reverse Trump’s decisions with a single signature
Rodríguez regretted that the Joe Biden Administration has not changed the embargo policy one bit, which was toughened by his predecessor Donald Trump, by including Cuba on his list of countries sponsoring terrorism.
“If he had wanted, a single signature would have been enough,” lamented the chancellor, who underlined his country’s will to strengthen the relationship with the United States and also recalled that nothing in Cuba’s policy harms the United States, nor to their political system or their companies.
According to the most recent estimates by Cuban authorities, the embargo caused an impact of 4.8 billion dollars between March 1, 2022 and February 28, 2023.
The accumulated damages since 1962, when the embargo came into force, exceed 159,000 million dollars, according to the Cuban Government, which also points it out as one of the “impediments” to the country’s development. With EFE
