HAVANA: The UN General Assembly on Wednesday overwhelmingly called on the United States to end its decades-long sanctions regime on Cuba, as the communist-run Caribbean island nation suffers its worst economic crisis in decades marked by collapsing infrastructure and shortages of basic goods.

The non-binding resolution was approved by 187 countries and opposed only by the United States and Israel, with Moldava abstaining. This was the 32nd consecutive year that similar non-binding resolutions were approved by huge margins.

The vote came just days before the US election with the Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and Republican contender Donald Trump signaling little interest in changing policy.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said in a speech before the assembly that what is often referred to as the US trade embargo is a blockade because the web of laws and regulations complicate financial transactions and the acquisition of goods and services not just from the United States but internationally.

“The blockade against Cuba is an economic, financial and trade war which qualifies as genocide,” said Rodriguez, charging the US policies were deliberately aimed at promoting suffering among the Cuban people to force change in the government.

US diplomat Paul Folmsbee, in a brief speech after the vote did not challenge the view that sanctions were undermining Cuba’s economy, but said they were aimed at promoting “human rights and democracy” and that the US made exceptions for humanitarian purposes.

The United States has piled dozens of new sanctions on the Communist-run country since a trade embargo was put in place following Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution, most recently under former President Donald Trump.

Rodriguez blamed those new sanctions, which include some fuel exports to Cuba, for being largely responsible for the country’s current energy crisis and the temporary crash of the grid last week.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2024