UN votes to condemn embargo of Cuba despite US lobbying push
US points to increase in abstentions in General Assembly as evidence that push to isolate Cuba is slowly succeeding.
The United Nations General Assembly has again voted in favour of a resolution condemning the United States’s economic embargo of Cuba despite a push by US officials to peel off support.
The resolution passed on Wednesday with 130 countries in favour and 17 opposed, including the US and Israel. Another 25 countries abstained, including countries such as Germany and Italy, that had previously voted in favour. The General Assembly has voted to condemn the embargo annually for more than three decades.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said in a social media post after the vote that the US was “once again isolated in its attempt to continue strangling the Cuban people”.
That economic campaign has also been accompanied by a US diplomatic push to further isolate Havana, an effort that US officials said is apparent in the uptick in countries that abstained during Wednesday’s vote. Cuban officials accused the US of threatening countries with tariffs, visa restrictions and other penalties if they voted to condemn the embargo.