The UN General Assembly on Thursday practically unanimously condemned the embargo imposed by the United States on Cuba, an initiative that the island promotes on an annual basis to demand the end of a measure that dates back to 1958 and which, according to Havana, has intensified in recent years.
The Cuban official media have boasted of a «resounding victory», since 185 countries voted in favor of a resolution that only the United States and Israel voted against. Ukraine and Brazil abstained.
This is the thirtieth time that Cuba has drawn the attention of the international community with this symbolic gesture, which has no direct political repercussions. On an annual basis, it serves to defend its political positions before the UN body in which all member states are represented.
The Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodriguez, has alleged before the Assembly that the «blockade» has caused damages to the island amounting to more than 150 billion dollars, of which more than 6.3 billion dollars correspond to the first fourteen months of the mandate of the current U.S. President, Joe Biden.
The Cuban government has denounced in recent months that Biden has not reversed the hardening of policies undertaken by his predecessor, Donald Trump, and even intensified certain measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rodriguez has estimated that more than 80 percent of the Cuban population was born after the embargo was implemented and that, despite the «inhuman» pressures, it «will never give up» its political system. «Cuba is constantly renewing itself, and what remains immovable, anchored in the past and isolated is the blockade,» the minister pointed out.
