The UN General Assembly passed a new resolution by an overwhelming majority on Thursday calling for an end to the US embargo against Cuba, imposed 60 years ago. The only ones who voted against were the United States and Israel.

This appeal, which has been made every year for three decades and always goes on with an overwhelming majority, received on this occasion 185 votes in favor, 2 against and 2 abstentions, from Brazil and Ukraine.

A year ago the resolution was passed with 184 votes in favor, 2 against (USA and Israel) and 3 abstentions (Colombia, Ukraine and United Arab Emirates).

In 2016, during the rapprochement between Cuba and the United States during the Barack Obama administration, the United States even abstained and allowed the document to be adopted without opposition. But he went back to “no” with Donald Trump’s Republican government and until now he has held him hand in hand with Democrat Joe Biden.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, presenting the text, denounced Thursday that the blockade is a “deliberate act of economic warfare” and that it has a similar effect to that of “a permanent pandemic, a constant hurricane”.

Imposed in 1962 at the height of the Cold War by the then President of the United States John F. Kennedy, the blockade which was progressively tightened to the point of suffocating the Communist regime.

Rodríguez also stressed that since 2019, when the Trump government tightened sanctions, this policy has “an extreme, more cruel and inhumane dimension, to deliberately inflict the greatest possible harm on Cuban families”.

“We do not attribute to the blockade all the difficulties that our country faces today, but those who deny its very serious effects and do not recognize that it is the main cause of the hardships, shortcomings and suffering of Cuban families would be false,” he said. she insisted.

Message to Joe Biden

Cuban foreign minister used the UN loudspeaker to send a message to Biden, who has so far not done so he pushed for major changes to his predecessor’s policies In this compound.

“The current US government does not have its own policy towards Cuba. It acts out of inertia and continues the inhuman policy of maximum pressure established during Donald Trump’s presidency,” he criticized.

Cuba, he said, is willing to “move towards a better understanding” with the United States and “to develop civil and cooperative relations, based on mutual respect and without undermining our sovereignty”.

The American delegation, which took the floor to explain its negative vote, assured that its policy seeks to support the “Cuban people in their search for freedom, prosperity and a future with more dignity”.

In this regard, Washington denounced the repression of the opposition by the Cuban government, which urged them to “listen” to the citizens and allow them to “determine their own future”.

As usual, Cuba has received messages of solidarity from dozens of countries, in particular from Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.

The black list

In this year’s debate, in addition to repeated claims about the injustice and illegality of the embargo, many countries have placed particular emphasis on the the need for Cuba to be removed from the US list of terrorist sponsoring statesat a time when Washington is re-examining the issue.

Cuba was removed from that list in 2015, in the thaw phase experienced during the Obama administration, but returned in 2021 under the Trump administration.

Rodríguez denounced that this “lethal measure” is totally unjust and inadmissible and that it is exponentially increasing the so-called country risk and forcing people to pay much higher prices for any imported goods.

For this he asked Biden to correct Trump’s action, as “it would be morally correct and compliant with the law”.

Source: EFE and AFP

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