UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday condemned the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba for the 34th year, even as Washington campaign to influence the outcome led to a number of countries voting against the resolution or not making the decision for the first time.
The vote was 130 to 17, with 25 abstentions – a notable result decrease in support compared to last yearwhile more than 160 countries supported the measure and only 12 abstained. Although these UN General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, they reflect world opinion.
For the first time in 34 years, Western countries such as Germany, Italy and Latvia were among those who abstained from voting. Bosnia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Lithuania, Morocco, North Macedonia, Paraguay and Slovenia were among the member states that voted no, many for the first time.
It marks a stunning shift in international support at a time when the small island country is facing difficult times. breakdowns, shortages and others worsening financial problems as the Trump administration seeks to force changes to Cuba’s political system by intensifying an already punitive economic campaign. President Donald Trump raised again last week the specter of American military interventionsaying U.S. warships could stop in Cuba when returning from the war in Iran.
“A great power is attacking a member state of this organization with an economic war,” Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said before the vote. “Cuba is not a threat. The blockade is a threat.”
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz told member countries that “your vote today is the only thing stopping the corrupt and kleptocratic communist regime from using this body and your vote for another propaganda victory at the expense of the Cuban people.”
Tensions between Washington and Havana have spread fiery public quarrels at the United Nations. On Tuesday, Waltz and Rodríguez got into an argument on the General Assembly floor as they debated the embargo resolution.
Shortly after Waltz began criticizing the socialist government, Rodríguez walked to the podium where the U.S. envoy was addressing the room and called him a liar while trying to get a point of order from the official presiding over the session.
“This individual needs to get away from this podium. He is not going to intimidate me in the United States of America,” Waltz said as U.N. security and staff tried to intervene. “Do you understand who you’re dealing with? This is America. Back off.”
In an article on X, Rodríguez reminded Waltz where he was making his remarks, saying he was at the UN and not a national security meeting at the White House.
“With its blatant lies to the UN General Assembly, the US government has launched yet another desperate attempt to justify its economic aggression against Cuba and its criminal energy blockade,” he continued.
A week earlier, a similar interaction between Waltz and his Cuban counterpart, Ernesto Soberón Guzmán, took place before a U.S.-organized panel with Cuban dissidents and former prisoners who sought to highlight allegations of oppressive behavior by the island’s government.
All of this reflects a clear break with the traditional diplomatic decorum expected at the UN and the new phase of contention between the United States and Cuba.
The U.S. embargo against Cuba was first imposed in 1960 after Fidel Castro led a revolution that toppled dictator Fulgencio Batista and nationalized property owned by U.S. citizens and businesses.
As a result, this Caribbean country has spent decades dealing with the dire consequences of long-standing economic and financial problems and is now pushed to a breaking point after Trump announced in late January that he impose tariffs on any country that sells or supplies oil to Cuba.
The warning actually cut off fuel to the islandleading to widespread power outages that impact basic services such as water supply and internet and telephone services.
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Associated Press writer Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed to this report.
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