October 29, 2025 — Belly of the Beast

In the face of ramped-up U.S. pressure, the overwhelming majority of countries voted for the 33rd time this Wednesday to condemn the U.S. embargo against Cuba at the United Nations.

165 nations voted in favor of the resolution opposing the embargo, while seven voted against. 12 abstained.

World leaders speak out

Representatives from around the world took to the General Assembly podium on Tuesday and Wednesday to support Cuba and denounce U.S. sanctions.

“The resolution must be implemented immediately and effectively,” said China’s Ambassador to the UN. “It is outrageous that the United States, instead of ending its sanctions against Cuba, has doubled down by putting Cuba on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.”

The embargo “remains a clear violation of the UN charter and international law,” Barbados’ Ambassador to the UN said in representation of the 14 members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). “For more than three decades, the General Assembly, guided by the charter, has spoken with clarity and consistency. This embargo must end.”

On behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement, which encompasses 121 countries, Iraq’s delegate said that “the direct and indirect damage inflicted by the embargo against Cuba is enormous. It affects all sectors of the economy, including public health, nutrition, agriculture, energy systems, as well as trade, investment, tourism and banking.”

“Thanks to the efforts made by Cuba, many countries have developed their scientific and technical potential,” said Uganda’s representative on behalf of the G77 and China group of nations. “We appeal to the international community to step up in its effort calling for the elimination of the embargo, not just to improve Cuba’s prospects, but also to help all members of the global community in their quest to fully realize their economic and social development.”

Watch our video of Latin American representatives speaking at the UN about U.S. policy toward Cuba.

U.S. tries to gaslight Cuba

Every year, nearly every country votes in favor of the UN resolution to condemn the embargo with only the U.S. and Israel consistently opposing it.

This year, the Trump administration intensified efforts to pressure nations to turn against Cuba.

In the run up to the vote, Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez accused the Trump administration of a campaign to coerce other countries into opposing the UN resolution.

Rodríguez quoted a “threatening” letter sent by the U.S. “blackmailing” several heads of state.

The letter, he said, sends the message: “If you don’t do what we are asking you to do, you will be sanctioned.”

Trump has ratcheted up the U.S. government’s long-standing policy of waging economic war on Cuba to bring about regime change.

During his first term, Trump imposed a barrage of sanctions against Cuba, targeting international investment and the island’s main sources of foreign currency like remittances, tourism and its medical missions. Joe Biden maintained the most powerful measures, which have played a central role in the country’s deepening economic crisis.

Since taking office for a second time, Trump has doubled down on the Cold War-era policy toward Cuba.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has pressured countries into leaving Cuba’s international medical cooperation program, which brings in billions of dollars every year.

The Trump administration has also kept Cuba on its “State Sponsor of Terrorism” list, resurrected a black list of entities off limits to U.S. investment, and imposed a partial travel ban on Cuban nationals.

The Ukraine excuse

Earlier this month Reuters reported that the State Department had sent a cable to dozens of U.S. missions directing its diplomats to urge governments to oppose the resolution by claiming that Havana had sent 5,000 troops to fight with Russia in Ukraine. This number seems to stem from unconfirmed Ukrainian intelligence reports and has not been independently verified.

While Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has confirmed that there are Cubans fighting in the war, his government has “categorically rejected” any involvement.

Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the Cuban government had taken steps to “neutralize recruitment” in Cuba and convicted 26 people of Ukraine-involved mercenarism since 2023, with sentences ranging from five to 14 years in prison.

Following the UN vote, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister said on X that his government had decided to close its embassy in Havana.

Mic check – Cuba calls out U.S. ambassador on General Assembly floor

During his intervention at the UN, U.S. Ambassador Michael Waltz called on the world to side with the U.S. in opposing the resolution and said he was going to “set the record straight” and “correct the fake news.” He then proceeded to deliver one false statement after another.

Waltz claimed that Cuba “supports terrorist organizations,” that it is “propping up” cartels that traffic “people, drugs and weapons” and “has undermined democracies” in the Western Hemisphere. There’s no credible evidence to substantiate any of these claims.

Waltz also denied there was a U.S. “blockade” (as the embargo is known in Cuba and other parts of the world) against Cuba. This is not unusual. U.S. officials and politicians have vacillated between asserting a blockade doesn’t exist and justifying their hard-line policies that have cut Cuba off from the rest of the world.

The U.S. embargo’s stated purpose of blocking Cuba from having normal economic relations with the world is not only real, but codified into a vast set of laws and regulations.

During Waltz’s speech, Bruno Rodríguez raised a point of order, cutting him off mid-sentence.

“This is the UN General Assembly, not a Signal chat,” he said.

Watch a video of Waltz’s speech and Rodríguez’s intervention.

United Nations, Oct 28 (Prensa Latina) The U.S. blockade against Cuba returns to global scrutiny today at the UN General Assembly with the debate on the draft resolution calling for lifting the longest economic blockade in history.

Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez is leading the Cuban delegation in New York to “participate on October 28 and 29 in the discussion and vote on the General Assembly’s draft resolution, which calls for an end to the United States blockade against Cuba,” he wrote on his account on the social network X.

“We will defend the #TruthOfCuba and the international community, which the U.S. government is trying to manipulate and change under unprecedented pressure,” he said.

His corrupt political clique fears being isolated once again by the overwhelming UN condemnation of its economic strangulation and suffering measures against the Cuban people, warned the foreign minister, who used the hashtag #TumbaElBloqueo (TumbaTheBlockade).

This will be the thirty-fourth time a proposal arguing for the need to end the embargo, imposed more than six decades ago by successive Democratic and Republican administrations, without distinction, will be debated.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the global forum of 193 countries will examine and vote on the document presented by the Caribbean nation, which argues the worsening impact of this policy of suffocation on its population.

The international community has unequivocally rejected the blockade, which last year was supported by only two countries, the United States and its ally Israel, compared to an overwhelming majority of 187 others who opposed it.

According to official data, the blockade has caused damages of $7.556 billion in the last year, a 49 percent increase compared to the previous period.

Its devastating impact can be measured in the daily lives of the Cuban population and in the island’s economic planning, which sees its access to medical equipment, food, communications technology, transportation, and fuel, among other items, severely limited.

Added to this, as Rodríguez recalled, is Cuba’s reinstatement to the arbitrary and unilateral list of state sponsors of terrorism and the application of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, which aggravate financial and commercial persecution.

According to the list of speakers circulating here—which may be subject to change—representatives from at least 49 countries and groups, such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the Caribbean Community, will take the podium of the General Assembly today. Debate and voting will continue tomorrow.

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Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Fernández de Cossío stated on Facebook that almost all UN member states will vote in favor of the largest of the Antilles

october 27, 2025 — Granma

“The U.S. government knows that the vast majority of the international community supports the need to end the blockade.”

This was stated with certainty by Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, member of the Political Bureau and Minister of Foreign Affairs, prior to the presentation, debate, and vote on October 28 and 29 at the UN on the draft resolution demanding an end to this genocidal policy against the island. “It will be a victory for the peoples, for international law, and a great victory for the Cuban Revolution and for Cuba,” he said.

Regarding the anxiety reflected by the White House in this regard, he said that it will “once again receive the punishment of absolute isolation, singling out, criticism, and direct appeals from governments around the world to lift the blockade.”

Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío said on Facebook that almost all UN member states will vote in favor of Cuba because they are determined to promote strict respect for the purposes and principles enshrined in the UN Charter.

They will support the resolution, he says, because they understand the danger of allowing a superpower to dictate to each country what kind of relationship it can have with Cuba or other states. Furthermore, “because he knows Cuba, its history of peace, solidarity, and cooperation; its enormous efforts to defend and rebuild the country despite the unequal aggression to which it is subjected; and because he does not believe in the falsehoods promoted by the Secretary of State and his mafia-like machinery of defamation and intimidation.”

by Bharat Dogra26/10/2025 — COUNTERCURRENTS.ORG

Despite increasing demands from many parts of the world and repeatedly from the United Nations for ending the USA sanctions and embargo against Cuba, these now exist in such a comprehensive and extreme form that it makes more sense to speak of a US blockade of Cuba, not just embargo.

This blockade has resulted in billions of dollars being lost for Cuba in terms of loss of trade and economic opportunities. In fact this loss has now exceeded a trillion dollars. On the other hand the loss of trade opportunities has also been costly for several US trading interests.

An even bigger loss of Cuba has been in terms of denial of imports of essential needs like food and medicine. The crisis for Cuba was the most extreme at the time of the disruption of wider trade links following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The COVID times and its aftermath have been particularly difficult too. 

Despite all this, hats off to the determination and hard work of the Cuban people that the latest recorded infant mortality, child mortality rate and life expectancy of people are the same in Cuba compared to the USA. While the infant mortality rate in the two countries is between 5 and 6, the under-five child mortality is between 7 and 8, the life expectancy in both countries is around 78 years. The Human Development Index ranking of Cuba in the latest year 2023 is in the high human development category.

The USA-imposed longest ever embargo on Cuba has continued for almost six and a half decades with very limited relaxations for short durations. For over three decades the United Nations General Assembly has been regularly passing resolutions against the USA blockade or embargo for its violation of UN charter as well as international law. It has been common for over 90 per cent of member countries to support this resolution. European Union countries, Canada and other allies of the USA also join and support such resolutions. (The only major country which time and again supports the USA on this issue is Israel).

The expression of such massive international opposition to the blockade of Cuba must have been adequate reason for ending the blockade, but the USA has continued the blockade by passing several laws for this over the years. This has happened despite the fact that several important voices even within the USA have been in favor of lifting the embargo, and some surveys suggest that more US citizens favor a reduction of restrictions on business and travel. At least two US Presidents, Jimmy Carter and Barak Obama, expressed their opposition to embargo, but could introduce only limited relaxations. Whatever they could achieve was moreover hastily undone by their successors. Trump in his first tenure made the embargo more restrictive than before, leading to more problems for Cuban people.

Former Secretary of State George P. Shultz said that this policy (of embargo and isolation) is ‘insane’. Another prominent political leader and a Democratic Presidential candidate George McGovern sated bluntly—It is a stupid policy. Several business leaders in the USA have spoken against it. Several leading human rights groups inside and outside the USA including the Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Inter-American Commission on Human Rights have expressed their opposition to the blockade.

Legal luminaries have also commented on the illegality of the embargo in the context of international law. To give one example Paul A. Shenyer and Virginia Barta have written in a paper titled ‘The Legality of the US Economic Blockade of Cuba Under International Law ( Western Reserve Journal of International Law), “ Whatever view is adopted, either that of coercion or aggression, it is quite evident that the imposition of the US economic blockade of Cuba constituted an illegal act…If there still remains doubt as to the illegality of the economic blockade  under the traditional view, there is no doubt that the blockade is a fragrant violation of the contemporary standard which is founded on economic principles and sovereign equality between states.”

The USA has defended its embargo largely on the basis of the events nearly six decades back when Cuba nationalized some USA refinery companies without giving compensation (and later nationalized some other US property also). Hence the USA has been mentioning claims towards Cuba of around six billion dollars or so. However the wider context of this should be seen carefully before coming to any hurried conclusions.

The USA had then taken hostile action against the new socialist regime, its close neighbor, by stopping oil supplies. Cuba then got crude oil from the Soviet Union, but the US owned refineries in Cuba refused to process Soviet oil! It is in this situation that Cuba nationalized these refineries. The USA arbitrarily refused to accept Cuban sugar imports although Cuba was predominantly depending on this export in its trade. Keeping in view all these factors the USA should have withdrawn this blockade a long time ago. Instead Trump made this even more restrictive. This led to increasing difficulties in obtaining medicines and food and also disrupted electricity supply in several parts of the country.

Some critics of Cuba’s socialist system have used these difficulties to falsely allege that the regime has failed in meeting basic needs of people. In fact in recent years the agro-ecology approach of Cuba to increase food production in ecologically protective ways has attracted international praise and appreciation, including at UN/FAO level. However the fact that at one time Cuba had become a one-crop land and had become highly dependent on imports, implies that despite several successes, it takes time to achieve self-reliance in diversity of foods needed, particularly when a big and powerful neighbor is creating problems all the time. Similarly despite the widely admired successes of Cuba in health sector, shortages in terms of specific medicines are likely to occur in trade blockade conditions.

The blockade applies not just to US businesses but also to other businesses having commercial links with US. There are several examples of trade contracts of other countries or businesses belonging to other countries being scrapped following US pressures. Oil exploration in Cuba also could not take place due to such pressures despite the interest shown by important companies. Hence a big source of potential income was denied to Cuba. 

Clearly the increasing difficulties Cuba is facing in meeting some basic needs are a reflection of unjust actions taken against this small country by its giant neighbor. Let us also not forget that despite these problems Cuba’s doctors have served about 40 countries at the time of special difficulties and disasters.

Hence there is a very strong case now for the USA to respect all the numerous UN General Assembly resolutions and lift the longest ever embargo against Cuba. No more!—this blockade should go away and never return.

Santo Domingo, Oct 25 (Prensa Latina) The Dominican Campaign of Solidarity with Cuba reaffirmed today its strongest rejection of the economic, commercial, and financial blockade imposed by the United States against that Caribbean nation, which it describes as a “sister.”

Three days before the United Nations General Assembly debates and votes on the resolution calling for an end to the embargo, the Campaign urged member states to maintain their firm commitment to justice, respect for international law, and the dignity of the people.

In a statement provided to Prensa Latina, the group described this as “a true economic war that includes trade restrictions, financial pressure, and persecution against companies and countries that choose to maintain relations with the island.”

“The blockade harms the lives of the Cuban population and is the primary weapon used by successive U.S. administrations for more than six decades to damage Cuba economically and its development,” he said.

This unjust and criminal blockade directly affects the daily lives of the people, hinders the modernization of the island’s productive infrastructure, and limits the provision of essential services for social well-being, he warned.

The Cuban people, with exemplary heroism, have known how to defend their sovereignty and their right to self-determination, achievements achieved through the struggle and blood of thousands of worthy men and women, he added.

He pointed out that the United Nations (UN) has heard the blockade against Cuba on more than 30 occasions, and the international community has always voted overwhelmingly in favor of lifting it.

However, the United States continues to ignore the will of the people of the world, he denounced.

He maintained that if the majority of nations vote in favor of Cuba on October 29, as has historically happened, “that sovereign decision must be respected, otherwise the moral and political authority of the UN would be compromised before humanity.”

jha/mpv

FM Rodriguez blames Washington of using fake arguments to maintain the economic blockade.

October 23, 2025 (teleSUR) On Wednesday, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez accused the United States of intimidating third countries to vote against the resolution that Cuba presents every year at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to lift the U.S. blockade against his nation.

He asserted that Cuban government has reliable information on the daunting U.S. carries against countries in Latin America and Europe. In recent years, the non-binding resolution presented by Cuba has enjoyed widespread support among UN member states, with only the U.S. and Israel being against it.

According to Rodriguez, the U.S has attempted to coerce allied countries. Mechanisms such as visa deprivation, trade tariffs or repercussions among their private companies, have been used.

The Cuban diplomat also accused U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio of operating through emissaries to avoid support for the Cuban proposal.

The text reads, “Cuba denounces a ‘media poisoning campaign’ by the U.S. ahead of the UN vote against the blockade. Cuba has information about the ‘intimidating and deceptive pressure’ the U.S. government exerts on several states, especially in the Americas.”

Rodriguez mentioned that in letters met by the Cuban government, the U.S claims with “arguments that no one believes” that the island is a threat to international peace and security.

Despite this, the Foreign Minister remarked that the Cuban resolution will overcome with an overwhelming majority and that “It will be a great victory for the revolution.”

The UN General Assembly resolution 79/7 is scheduled to be debated and voted on October 28 and even though it has no practical effect, Cuba views the annual international support as a diplomatic victory.

Colombo, Oct 24 (Prensa Latina) The Sri Lankan organization Bolivarian Solidarity today reaffirmed its strong condemnation of the United States’ attempt to subvert the UN vote on the Cuban resolution demanding an end to the economic, commercial, and financial blockade.

In a letter signed by its secretary, Jeewantha Jayatissa, and delivered to Prensa Latina, the Sri Lankan organization urged the global anti-imperialist community, friends of Cuba, and advocates of justice everywhere to stand united once again to defeat Washington’s attempts to sabotage the will of the international community.

He also called for reaffirming solidarity with the Cuban people and their Revolution.

He specified that international reports indicate the United States will again try to avoid, through pressure and blackmail, another resounding defeat at the United Nations when the 33rd annual vote on the Cuban resolution calling for an end to the genocidal siege takes place on October 28 and 29.

Bolivarian Solidarity of Sri Lanka recalled that last year the United Nations General Assembly again voted overwhelmingly—with 187 member states in favor—to lift the US embargo on Cuba, with only the United States and Israel voting against.

In this regard, he called on all peace-loving nations, organizations, and peoples of the world not to give in to such intimidation or deception.

As history has shown, “being an enemy of the United States is dangerous, but being a friend is deadly,” he warned.

He added that the history of countries destroyed after aligning themselves with U.S. interests is a stark warning to everyone.

Bolivarian Solidarity of Sri Lanka explained that the U.S. embargo, imposed shortly after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, has continued for more than six decades, despite overwhelming global opposition.

When comparing the United States and Cuba, the disparity in size, resources, and power is immense; however, the island remains a global example of dignity, equality, and social justice, values ​​that the United States, despite its vast wealth, has failed to achieve, he noted.

The Sri Lankan organization added that the Cuban model of using its limited resources for the benefit of all its citizens stands in stark contrast to the US system, which prioritizes power and profit.

Unable to accept the success of a socialist model based on solidarity and equality, U.S. imperialism has repeatedly sought to destabilize Cuba through sanctions, disinformation, and external aggression, he stressed.

Cuba, along with Venezuela and other nations resisting imperial domination, continues to share valuable lessons of resilience and sovereignty with the world, he emphasized.

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October 22, 2025 — Belly of the Beast

Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum last week defended her country’s oil shipments to Cuba, which she characterized as “humanitarian aid.”

Rep. Carlos Giménez (R.FL) recently accused Sheinbaum of “propping up” the Cuban government with oil shipments, which have increased this year. Giménez said her “pathetic actions” could jeopardize the free trade agreement between Mexico, Canada and the U.S., which is currently being renegotiated.

Sheinbaum dismissed Giménez’s comments: “The U.S. knows that Mexico is an independent, free and sovereign country and that our decisions are sovereign.”

Mexican oil has become a lifeline for Cuba as it navigates a deep economic and fuel crisis.

Sheinbaum also praised the Cuban doctors serving on a mission in Mexico despite a U.S. pressure campaign to coerce foreign governments to end this type of medical cooperation with Cuba.

Sheinbaum’s comments come on the heels of her recent announcement that she would not attend next month’s Summit of the Americas in the Dominican Republic, following the news that Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua would be excluded as a result of U.S. pressure.

Colombian president Gustavo Petro also announced he will boycott the summit.