M
Blond bow has unleashed an aggressive campaign of falsehoods and bullying to achieve votes against Cuba in the United Nations General Assembly. One week before the annual vote on the blockade of Cuba, the Secretary of State has launched a diplomatic offensive to try to move the board: not so much to add “noes” as to transform affirmative votes into abstentions or absences.
A State Department cable, leaked to Reuters and dated October 2, reveals the strategy: link the resolution on the blockade with the war in Ukraine and present Cuba as a threat to regional peace. The document, distributed to dozens of embassies, instructs US diplomats to pressure governments to oppose the resolution, based on the accusation that between 1,000 and 5,000 Cubans would fight alongside Russian forces. “After North Korea, Cuba would be the largest contributor of foreign fighters,” the text maintains.
The objective is explicit: significantly reduce affirmative votes at the UN; “no” is “preferred”, but abstentions or non-participation also work. In statements to the press this Wednesday in Havana, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla showed a facsimile copy of the State Department document and stated that congressmen of Cuban origin have sent additional letters in which, in a threatening tone, the vote is conditioned on other aspects of the bilateral relationship. Unmistakable gestures from neighborhood bullies.
The offensive comes in a context of tightening sanctions after Trump’s return to the White House, who does not tolerate the fact that last year the resolution was approved by 187 votes in favor, with the United States and Israel against and Moldova abstaining. This precedent shows the countercurrent nature of the maneuver in progress.
Havana’s response has been categorical: Cuba is not part of the armed conflict in Ukraine nor does it participate with military personnel “there or in any other country.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made public the details of criminal actions for mercenarism related to that front: nine proceedings (2023-2025) against 40 defendants; eight trials and five convictions totaling 26 people, with sentences of five to 14 years; three cases pending sentencing and another in process. The Foreign Ministry maintains a policy of “zero tolerance” against mercenarism, trafficking and the participation of nationals in conflicts abroad.
Meanwhile, the Caribbean is militarized under the pretext of the “fight against drugs.” Washington extrajudicially murders crew members aboard ships, reinforces its naval presence and tests rules of engagement that increase the intensity of the use of force. The blackmail campaign against governments to hit the Cuban resolution is not a separate chapter, but rather the narrative coverage of that escalation that also opportunistically uses a diplomatic operation to divert attention from the deep suffering that the blockade causes to the Cuban people.
Confirmed as Secretary of State in January, Marco Rubio has placed Cuba at the center of his hemispheric agenda. Among its measures stands out the repeated use of visa restrictions against foreign officials whom it accuses of participating in the alleged “coercive labor export scheme” of the Cuban medical missions. Rubio has done everything possible to criminalize one of the most recognized cooperation programs on the island.
The Secretary of State has also amplified controversial narratives in the past – such as hypotheses about the external causes of the so-called “Havana syndrome” – that the US intelligence community considers “very unlikely” following interagency evaluations in 2023 and 2025. The contrast between that evidence and political rhetoric illustrates the method: loading the media climate with fallacious national security allegations to weaken support to the resolution.
But historical arithmetic is stubborn. Since 1992, the General Assembly has approved by overwhelming margins the call to end the blockade, and in 2024, the score was 187-2-1. With this precedent, the most likely scenario is that the resolution will pass again with a very large majority, even if Washington manages to overcome some abstentions or absences.
If history is any guide, the pronouncement overwhelming of the assembly will be repeated again.
