US Expected to Vote Against UN Resolution to Lift the Embargo

Today there is a vote at the United Nations which calls for an end to the United States embargo against Cuba. The U.S. is expected to further isolate itself from the global community with a vote against the U.N. resolution.

For the 26th year in a row, Cuba will present the resolution to end the ‘failed U.S. Economic, Commercial and Financial Blockade against Cuba.’

The U.S. embargo affects all sectors of Cuban society and the economy.  It has had widespread consequences for the Cuban people.  It is a flagrant attack on human rights.  It negatively affects the rest of the world in trade and commerce because of its extraterritorial reach.  It denies Americans their rights to travel freely and it negatively affects U.S. business interests.

In September of 2015, Raul Castro, in addressing the United Nations, called for an end to the American blockade against Cuba,

“… the main obstacle to our country’s economic development, while affecting other nations due to its extraterritorial scope, and hurting the interests of American citizens and companies,” adding that “such policy is rejected by 188 United Nations members states that demand its removal.”

On the day of U.N. vote in 2015, 191 member nations demonstrated their support for Cuba.  Only two countries singled themselves out by voting against the resolution, the U.S. and Israel.

Last year, 191 out of 193 member nations repeated their support for the U.N. resolution.  But for the first time in 26 years, the U.S. and Israel abstained from voting.  The reason for the abstention was an acknowledgement by the American government that the policy against Cuba had failed to achieve its goals and had only served to further isolate the U.S.

There is resounding global support to end the blockade against Cuba.  China, Cuba’s largest trade partner has also denounced the failed policy.  The Chinese government firmly believes the blockade only serves to hinder Cuba’s development.

Russia, also a big player in the Cuban economy, expressed the same support for Cuba. Russia’s parliament called on the U.S. to end its blockade against Cuba in a very strong statement,

“stop the vicious economic and political pressure on the Republic of Cuba, lift its trade, economic, financial and maritime blockade without any preconditions, and bring to an end the attempts to violate the sovereignty of the Republic of Cuba and meddle into its domestic affairs.”

Support in the U.S. to lift the embargo against Cuba is growing and more than 63% of Cuban Americans support lifting the embargo and engaging with Cuba.

Ten U.S. Senators have written a letter to Trump requesting he direct the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. to repeat the abstention of last year. The letter urged the President,

“A move once again, to defy the international community by voting “no” would neither reflect the will of the American people, nor would it represent the voices of the hundreds of U.S. companies, universities, state and local agencies, and cultural institutions that have already started to engage with and invest in Cuba.”

The entire world knows that the blockade is a massive, flagrant and systematic violation of the human rights of the Cuban people. Today, a Twitter storm begins as a campaign of protest against the blockade/embargo with the hashtags: #NomasBloqueo, #Niunpasoatras and #UnblockCuba.