UN General Assembly condemns the US economic embargo of
Cuba for a 32nd year
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. General Assembly voted
overwhelmingly Wednesday to condemn the American
economic embargo of Cuba for a 32nd year after its foreign minister
strongly criticized the Biden administration and expressed hope a new president
would end it.
The vote in the 193-member world body was 187-2, with only
the United States and Israel against the resolution, and one abstention. It
tied the record for support for the Caribbean nation first reached in 2019 and
again last year.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez blamed the U.S.
government’s “maximum pressure policy” aimed at depriving Cuba of the imported
fuel it relies on for a
widespread blackout this month, including when Hurricane
Oscar lashed the island.
“President Joseph Biden’s administration usually claims that
its policy is intended to ‘help and support the Cuban people,’” he said. “Who
would believe such an assertion?”
General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, but
they reflect world opinion, and the vote has given Cuba an annual stage to
demonstrate that the U.S. stands apart in its decades-old efforts to isolate
the Caribbean nation.
Cuba has struggled with one of the worst economic
and energy crises in its history. Besides waves of blackouts, citizens
are frustrated over food
shortages and inflation. Hundreds of thousands have migrated, many headed
to the United States.
The embargo was imposed in 1960 following the revolution led
by Fidel Castro and the nationalization of properties belonging to U.S.
citizens and corporations. Two years later, it was strengthened.
In July 2016, then-Cuban President Raul Castro and
then-President Barack Obama officially
restored relations, and that year the U.S. abstained on the resolution
calling for an end to the embargo for the first time. But Obama’s successor,
Donald Trump, sharply criticized Cuba’s human rights record, and in 2017 the
U.S. again voted against the resolution, and it has ever since.
U.S. deputy ambassador, Paul Folmsbee, told the assembly
that the United States strongly supports the Cuban people’s pursuit of a future
that respects human rights and fundamental freedoms.
“Sanctions are one element of our broader effort to advance
democracy and promote respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in
Cuba,” he said.
He noted that about 1,000 political prisoners have been
unjustly detained in Cuba, more than at any point in Cuba’s recent history.
Folmsbee said U.S. sanctions exempt food, medicine and other
basic goods and that the U.S. exported nearly $336 million in agricultural
products and authorized additional humanitarian exports last year.
In May, the U.S. lifted
some financial restrictions against Cuba in an effort to boost private
businesses on the island. That included allowing independent entrepreneurs to
open and access U.S. bank accounts online to support their businesses as well
as steps to open up more internet-based services and expand private companies’
ability to make certain financial transactions.
Rodriguez said that under Biden’s presidency, Cuba has lost
more than $16 billion and that measures announced in the last year “as alleged
palliatives” to the embargo are not effective.
Noting next week’s U.S.
presidential election, the Cuban minister said the winner will have the
opportunity to decide whether to continue “the inhumane siege measures of the
last six decades” or heed an increasing number of Americans and an overwhelming
majority of nations “and allow our country to develop its true potential and
capabilities.”
Rodriguez said Cuba will defend its “right to build an
independent, socialist future.”
But he also said Cuba is willing “to hold a serious and
responsible dialogue and move on towards a constructive and civilized
relationship” with the new U.S. administration.
