UN votes overwhelmingly to condemn US embargo on Cuba
The United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly voted to condemn the US economic embargo against Cuba, calling it punitive and outmoded.
The General Assembly passed the resolution on Thursday by a vote of 187 to three, marking the 28th consecutive year that the world body frowns on the embargo.
The United States and Cuba severed relations in 1961 during the Cold War. Cuba has been under a US economic blockade for over 60 years.
In 2015, the US, under former President Barack Obama, restored diplomatic relations with Cuba. However, his successor, Donald Trump, began to partially roll back the historic rapprochement as soon as he took office in early 2017.
Trump has even tightened the blockade over the past few years. Most recently, it slammed more sanctions on Havana to try preventing it from receiving oil from Venezuela -- another target of Washington’s hostility.
The Thursday vote was only nixed by Israel and Brazil, now led by Jair Bolsonaro, whose ultra-conservatism and alliance with Trump has won him the title “the tropical Trump.”
Addressing the General Assembly, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said there had been "an escalation in aggression against Cuba" under Trump, whose government, he said, "does not hide its intention to economically asphyxiate Cuba and increase the damage, shortages, and suffering of its people."
Havana says the embargo has caused it $138 billion in economic damage.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Kelly Craft, repeated Washington’s claims against the island country, accusing it of abuses against its own people, and of sowing regional instability.
The General Assembly’s resolution, however, denounced the embargo as "anachronistic" and "inhumane."
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