In one of the last breaths of Jair Bolsonaro’s diplomacy, the Brazilian government abstained on Thursday from discussing a resolution at the UN condemning the US embargo on Cuba. The text was ratified by 185 countries, marking the 30th year that a resolution was passed against the White House’s measures against Havana.
Only two governments abstained: Brazil and Ukraine, a country currently under full US influence and advocating sanctions against Russia. Two other countries vote against the resolution: the United States and its ally Israel.
Every other government in the world – left or right – has voted against the decades-long US blockade of the island. Even Bolsonaro allies like Hungary, Poland or Saudi Arabia voted against the embargo. The Italian government, dominated by the far-right, also voted against US actions against the island.
If Brazil has traditionally voted against the embargo, the direction of Brazilian diplomacy changed with Bolsonaro’s coming to power. Brasília began to fully align with Donald Trump’s position. In 2019, for example, Brazil was one of three countries that voted against the resolution.
With the fall of the American government, Itamaraty took some distance on some issues. But when it came to Cuba, he refused to give up and began to abstain.
For 2023, the prediction of Latin American diplomats is that Brazilian diplomacy will undergo a radical transformation in voting patterns at the UN, continuing the traditional Itamaraty line and approaching positions like the European Union or Latin America when the island is treated in another country. Caribbean.
The embargo was enforced in 1960 after the revolution in Cuba led by Fidel Castro that nationalized American assets. In 2016, Barack Obama re-established official relations with Havana, and that year the White House abstained from voting at the UN. However, Trump’s coming to power spoiled the whole rapprochement.
Now facing the election, Biden reiterated Trump’s vote.
Before the vote, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said that since 2019, the U.S. government has “deliberately scaled up our country’s siege to an even more brutal and humane dimension in order to cause the greatest possible harm to Cuba.” families”.
The damage to the Cuban economy in the first 14 months of the Biden administration is estimated at US$6.35 billion.
source: Noticias
