Once again, for a 34th year running, member states in New York have urged the United States to drop its trade restrictions against Havana. This year, though, the headline is the size of the minority. Wednesday’s tally in New York was 130 in favour, 17 against and 25 abstentions, down sharply from 165 to seven twelve months ago and the thinnest support the text has drawn in about two decades.
The shift did not happen by accident. American diplomats spent weeks lobbying capitals, and several long-standing supporters peeled away: Berlin and Rome sat on the fence instead of voting yes, something neither had done in ages, and Seoul shifted too. U.S. ambassador Mike Waltz celebrated a “tripling” of countries that had moved and predicted the trend would continue. He told delegates there was no blockade at all, pointing to more than $876 million in American exports to the island between January and August.
Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, Havana’s top diplomat, put a ticking figure on the big screen: by his count, $22.9 million in losses had piled up during the two days of debate alone. He linked the sanctions to delayed surgeries, scarce cancer drugs and a battered health service, and summed up his country’s demand as simply wanting to be left alone.
The atmosphere in the chamber was raw. Delegates from both countries yelled at and pushed each other on the floor a day before the vote. Washington then ordered a junior Cuban envoy out of the country, saying he had attacked a member of Waltz’s staff, while Havana lodged a protest of its own with António Guterres.
The resolution changes nothing on paper, since only Congress can end the embargo. On the island, life keeps getting harder. A U.S. fuel blockade imposed after American forces seized Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro in January has left Cubans facing blackouts lasting days, plus shortages of food, fuel and water.
