The UN General Assembly approved this Wednesday, one more year and by an overwhelming majority (187 votes for, 2 against -USA and Israel- and 1 abstention -Moldova-) a resolution without binding effects against the American sanctions against Cuba, which have lasted for 62 years and dealt a heavy blow to the island’s economy.
“President Joseph Biden, with surprising mimicry, left the coercive regime of his predecessor (Donald Trump) intact and applied, aware of its devastating consequences“, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla said from the podium of the United Nations, just before the vote.
The resolution entitled “Need to end the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America on Cuba”, and presented annually, is reaffirmed in “the sovereign equality of States, non-intervention and non-interference in internal affairsand freedom of international commerce and navigation.
In his speech to the General Assembly, Rodríguez Parrilla defined the sanctions against Cuba as “inhumane measures” and “typical of extreme economic warfare” with which the United States seeks to send a warning to “any nation that dares to firmly defend its sovereignty and build its own future.” “Let Cuba live in peace,” declared the Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs, mixing English and Spanish under the intrepid gaze of the only representative of the American delegation present in the room.
On the other hand, if yesterday the most energetic demonstrations of support for the Cuban cause came from Russia, members of the Non-Aligned Movement or the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), today it is Iran which has spoken out. with greater vehemence against the United States. The blockade of Cuba “is a threat to multilateralism. Sanctions are a method to achieve small national goals that threaten international peace and security,” Iranian Ambassador to the UN Amir Saeid Iravani said.
The margin of support enjoyed by Cuba on this occasion is identical to that obtained last year, but with the abstention of Ukraine. The resolution was accompanied this year for a very critical and detailed report of the General Secretariat of the United Nations.
This document, which was developed throughout this year, includes strong responses against the American blockade in Cuba by more than 180 countries and 35 international institutions, among them Unicef, the United Nations World Food Program, the United Nations Development Program and the World Health Organization.
Washington decreed first sanctions against Cuba in 1959, shortly after the triumph of the revolution on the island, but the first series of major measures took place in 1962, under the presidency of John F. Kennedy (1961-1963). Since then, they have been expanded and intensified several times, such as with the Helms-Burton Act (1996) or the 240 measures of the Trump administration (2017-2021), which the Biden administration has practically kept intact.
Cuba suffers shortages of food, medicine and fuel; prolonged daily power outages; galloping inflation; increasing dollarization and the deterioration of public services such as education and health. In its annual report on what is called a blockade on Cuba (and in the United States, an embargo), Havana estimates that the cost of sanctions between March 2023 and February 2024 amounted to 5,056.8 million dollars, without however detailing how this is done. his calculations.
