This Thursday (2), the UN General Assembly approved a resolution to demand the end of the United States’ economic and trade embargo against Cuba, which has now exceeded six decades. With 187 votes in favor, the measure was approved by the majority and was opposed by only two countries: the USA and Israel. There was also one abstention from Ukraine.
After the vote, the Americans reiterated that the embargo aims to “advance democracy and promote human rights and freedoms” in the Caribbean country, in the words of Richard Mills, deputy US ambassador to the UN.
Mills insisted that his country “stands decisively alongside the Cuban people” in the pursuit of fundamental freedoms, but the embargo remains in force to promote the reform of a system in which there are “around a thousand political prisoners”, 700 of them arrested in the historic protests July 2021.
Furthermore, he criticized the Cuban regime for preventing independent experts from entering the island to study the situation of human rights, and particularly freedom of expression and religion.
Historical question
Since 1992, the UN General Assembly has held a specific session annually to request the end of this embargo imposed in 1962. It prevents Cuba from carrying out transactions in dollars, selling products that cross the USA and/or that have a minimum percentage of 10% of parts manufactured in that country, as well as using the American financial system.
For Bruno Rodríguez, Cuban Foreign Minister, the blockade “violates the right to life, health, education and well-being of all Cuban men and women” and constitutes “an act of war in times of peace” .
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