Credit: UN Photo / Evan Schneider /    United Nations General Assembly during the vote to end the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba Nov. 7, 2019.  The resolution was adopted 187 in favour, 3 against and 2 abstentions.

By Gary Raynaldo   /  DIPLOMATIC TIMES

UNITED NATIONS  –   NEW YORK  –  Since 1962, the United States has maintained a crippling economic embargo on Cuba. The UN General Assembly on Thursday called for an end to the decades-old US blockade on Cuba. Among the 193-Member States, the UN voted overwhelmingly 187-3  in favor of ending the embargo.  As expected, the US and its ally Israel voted against it. A new negative vote came from the far-right government of President Jair Bolsonaro’s Brazil,  with Colombia and Ukraine abstaining.  This was the 28th time that the 193-nation assembly has issued the call to lift the embargo imposed. The vote has been made every year since 1992.  

“Like all nations, we get to choose which countries we trade with. This is our sovereign right. So, it is worrying that the international community, in the name of protecting sovereignty, continues to challenge this right.”

-Kelly Craft, the US Ambassador to the UN

U.S. Blockade Is ‘an act of genocide’:  Cuban Foreign Minister

Credit: UN Photo /  Evan Schneider /   Bruno Eduardo Rodríguez Parrilla, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Cuba, addresses the United Nations General Assembly during the vote to end the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba Nov. 7, 2019. 

Cuba’s Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, reported that in recent months Washington has begun to “escalate aggression”, including by preventing international fuel shipments to the island, scaling down consular services, and attacking national programmes that support other developing countries.

“The blockade has caused incalculable humanitarian damages. It is a flagrant, massive and systematic violation of human rights,” he charged. “It qualifies as an act of genocide under Articles II (b) and (c) of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted in 1948. There is not one single Cuban family that has not suffered the consequences of this.”

-Bruno Eduardo Rodríguez Parrilla, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Cuba.

The embargo is rooted in the Cold War, when Fidel Castro and his revolutionaries seized power.  The General Assembly does not have the power to end the embargo, only the U.S. Congress does. Cuba uses the annual favorable UN vote as a PR campaign against the U.S. to expose its isolation on the issue.

The 15 members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) highlighted Havana’s support to the region. Cuba has deployed medical professionals to distressed areas, including those affected by natural disasters, among other initiatives.   Keisha McGuire, Grenada’s Ambassador to the UN, recalled that the country was among the first to assist The Bahamas in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian in September.  She characterized the embargo as “an anachronism and aberration” in an era when global cooperation is critical to address common challenges such as climate change.