Cuban FM slams US strong-arm diplomacy ahead of key UN vote

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez on Wednesday denounced the United States' unprecedented campaign of coercive diplomacy to pressure third countries to vote against a Cuban-backed draft resolution that condemns Washington's decades-long trade embargo against the Caribbean island.

The draft resolution, titled "Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba," is to be put to a vote at the United Nations General Assembly on October 28, the 34th time for such a vote.

This year's draft resolution is the first to address the fuel and energy blockade imposed by Washington in January 2026, and the "collective punishment" it inflicts on all Cubans, Rodriguez told a press conference.

The resolution is a response to the extreme ramping up of the embargo, which has cost the small island more than $178.7 billion in economic losses over the course of more than six decades, he said.

US political pressure and economic threats "aim to compel those sovereign states to change their position regarding this draft resolution, to alter a state policy that many of them have, in the exercise of their sovereignty, maintained for decades," Rodriguez noted.

Washington's methods, including threatening to impose sanctions and punitive tariffs, suspend cooperation programs, deny visas, and interfere in electoral processes, amount to "genuine political violence, coercion, and blackmail," the minister said.

The United States seeks to obscure the fact that a superpower "is committing an atrocious and ongoing act of abuse against a small, peace-loving nation, an attempt to destroy the nation's very fabric, constituting an act of genocide as defined under the Geneva Convention," Rodriguez added, saying that the debate at the UN General Assembly is not a bilateral matter, as it will address the sovereign rights of all peoples on the planet.

In January, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing sanctions and tariffs on countries and entities that export or supply fuel to Cuba, a move Havana denounced as an "energy siege."

"This is an attempt to suffocate an entire population, to destroy a small nation," Rodriguez said. "What is happening to Cuba today could happen to any other state tomorrow."

A similar draft resolution, presented by Cuba at the UN General Assembly last year, received 165 votes in favor, seven against, and 12 abstentions.