The UN General Assembly approved this Thursday by an overwhelming majority a resolution to demand the end of the US economic and commercial embargo against Cuba, which only two countries have opposed: the United States and Israel. This call, which has been made annually since 1992, has received on this occasion 187 votes in favor, two against and only one abstention, that of Ukraine.
The Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez, who spoke just before the vote before the Assembly, denounced that the blockade "violates the right to life, health, education and well-being of all Cuban men and women," and constitutes "a act of war in time of peace".
The text, presented by Cuba since 1992, always goes ahead with overwhelming majorities and with hardly any votes against, beyond the United States and some of its allies. In fact, last year said resolution was approved with 185 votes in favor and two against, the same as this year.
Even so, this act also highlights the irrelevance of the General Assembly (beyond the symbolic value), which has been approving a practically similar resolution for 31 years without having managed to make any dent in US policy towards the Caribbean island.
This framework of laws came into force when the then US President John F. Kennedy signed Executive Order 3447 on February 3, 1962, in the midst of the Cold War with the objective of restricting and complicating Cuba's economic, commercial and financial relations. with the rest of the world.
And this embargo prevents Cuba from making transactions in dollars, from marketing products that cross the US and that have a minimum percentage of 10% of parts manufactured in that country, as well as from using the North American financial system. According to the most recent estimates by Cuban authorities, the embargo caused an impact of 4.8 billion dollars between March 1, 2022 and February 28, 2023.
