United Nations overwhelmingly calls for end to U.S. embargo on Cuba

Israel joined the United States in voting no. While such resolutions are non-binding, they can carry political weight.

Worldwide celebrities have flocked to Cuba in recent months to experience the attractions of an island previously off-limits, but which is now open to the world after renewing relations with the United States last July.

“The Cuban president reiterated for Cuba and the United States to be able to have normalized relations, the blockade or embargo that has caused damages and hardships to the Cuban people and affects the interests of American citizens must be lifted and the territory occupied by the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo should be returned to Cuba”, said Rodríguez Parrilla on September 29th. The resolution welcomes the renewed ties and recognises Mr Obama’s “expressed will” to end the embargo.

When it first passed in 1992, it received 59 yes votes, three votes against and 71 countries abstained.

“If Cuba believes that this exercise helps get things moving in the direction that both governments have indicated they want, they are wrong”, said Godard.

He said it was “unfortunate” that Cuba chose to introduce a resolution whose text “falls short of reflecting the significant steps that have been taken and the spirit of engagement President Obama has championed”. Last year’s tally was 191-2 in favour of Cuba with only Israel siding with the US.

He said it is “a unilateral act of the United States and should be lifted unilaterally, without asking anything in return”.

Obama administration officials have said often since December that the blockade is a failed policy, but it was put in place by the US Congress, and legislators must be persuaded to lift it.

Cuba’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez, told the general assembly on Tuesday that the embargo is “a flagrant, massive and systematic violation of the human rights of all Cubans”.

The United States has lost each vote by increasingly overwhelming and embarrassing margins.