AFP Editorial Office
The UN General Assembly began to analyze this Wednesday a new resolution presented by Cuba that demands “an end to the economic, commercial and financial blockade” imposed by the United States 60 years ago.
The draft resolution “Need to end the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba” expresses its “concern” about the maintenance of the economic embargo and its “negative effects on the Cuban population.”
Cuba defends the “sovereign equality” of the States, the “non-interference in their internal affairs” and the “freedom of international trade and navigation” to demand that this embargo imposed in February 1962, in the midst of the Cold War, by the then President John F. Kennedy.
In a report prepared by the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, at the request of the General Assembly as Cuba demands in each resolution, he concludes that “the continuation of the financial and commercial blockade of the United States against Cuba is incompatible with an international system based on in the rule of law”.
“It is based rather on the exercise of political and economic power,” he says.
This is the 30th resolution presented by Cuba since 1992 against the US embargo. Only in 2020 there was no resolution due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the first resolution of 1992 only 59 countries voted in favor, but now almost all members of the UN support it, with the exception of the United States and Israel, which are usually the only ones who vote against.
In 2016 alone, Washington abstained. And that as a consequence of the rapprochement policy of the administration of Democratic President Barak Obama, who reestablished relations with the Cuban regime in 2015.
But the American opening with the island was short-lived. With the confrontation with Cuba as part of US domestic policy, during his term, Republican Donald Trump introduced nearly 250 new sanctions and declared the communist country a sponsor of terrorism.
Despite his campaign promises, his successor, Democrat Joe Biden, Obama’s former vice president, maintains these sanctions with the exception of some changes in visas, travel and remittances to the island.
