Ben Norton

For the 32nd consecutive year, the entire world voted at the UN General Assembly to demand an end to the illegal US embargo against Cuba.

The United States and Israel opposed the international community in a vote of 187 to 2, on the resolution titled “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba”.

Just one country abstained: Moldova, a former Soviet republic that now has a pro-Western government that is seeking to join the European Union and NATO.

Ukraine did not vote. In 2023, Kiev had abstained.

Venezuela expressed strong support for the resolution, but is unable to vote. Venezuela lost its voting rights because it cannot pay UN membership fees, due to illegal US unilateral sanctions against it, and because Washington and numerous European countries stole Caracas’ foreign exchange reserves.

Afghanistan is not able to vote in the General Assembly either, due to unpaid UN fees. Like Venezuela, Afghanistan suffers from unilateral US sanctions, and Washington unlawfully seized billions of dollars from its reserves.

If Venezuela and Afghanistan had not been denied their voice at the UN due to illegal US sanctions, the vote would have been 189 to 2.

There are 193 member states of the United Nations.

One surprise in the October 30 vote was that the far-right government of Argentina supported the resolution. This was because the South American nation’s Foreign Minister Diana Mondino had disobeyed orders and joined the rest of the international community in endorsing it.

Argentina’s avowedly pro-US President Javier Milei, a self-declared “anarcho-capitalist”, fired Mondino in rage and condemned Cuba. He then appointed his US ambassador as the new foreign minister.

The BBC noted that this act of protest by Mondino “was the first time since Milei’s arrival in office that Argentina has not aligned itself with the US and Israeli governments”.

#BREAKING
UN General Assembly ADOPTS resolution on the necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States against Cuba

Result of the vote:
In favor: 187
Against: 2 (Israel, US)
Abstain: 1 (Moldova) pic.twitter.com/LMmYjRhCWR

— UN News (@UN_News_Centre) October 30, 2024

In the 2023 vote on the same resolution in the UN General Assembly, the tally was nearly identical: 187 to 2, with only the US and Israel in opposition.

In 2023, Ukraine had abstained, whereas Moldova did not vote.

In 2022, the vote was 185 to 2, with two abstentions, from Ukraine and Brazil – which at the time was led by far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.

Cuba has suffered under illegal US sanctions and a blockade for six decades.

Washington’s stated goal in waging economic war on Cuba is to bring about “hunger, desperation, and overthrow of government”.

This was revealed in a 1960 State Department cable, titled “The Decline and Fall of Castro”.

In the document, a top State Department official admitted that the “majority of Cubans support [Fidel] Castro”, referring to the leftist leader who came to power in a 1959 revolution against US-backed right-wing dictator Fulgencio Batista.

“There is no effective political opposition” to the new revolutionary government in Cuba, the State Department admitted.

It therefore concluded, “The only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship”.

The State Department insisted “that every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba”.

Washington’s strategy, according to the document, is to make “the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government”.