On Thursday, November 2, 187 nations voted for a UN General Assembly resolution to end the cruel and illegal 60 plus year US blockade on Cuba. The only states to vote against the resolution were the US and Israel. Ukraine was the only state to abstain.
In their comments about the resolution, international diplomats expressed contempt at the US-imposed blockade, which causes vast suffering on the Cuba people through shortages of goods such as food and medicine. “Let us no longer allow the violations committed thus far to be tolerated with total impunity by a regime that, with its contemptuous attitude toward world opinion, has become the most isolated state in the world,” said Joaquín A. Pérez Ayestarán, the Alternate Ambassador of Venezuela to the UN, at the UNGA debate prior to the vote.
“The scale of its impact is more and more harmful to the Cuban people,” said the Representative of Gabon, Ambassador Aurélie Flore Koumba Pambo. She added that the blockade is “clearly a hostile act to region and continental cohesion.”
Support our Independent Journalism — Donate Today!
Bruno Rodriguez, the Cuban Foreign Minister, announced this victory of the resolution, saying that it “confirms full isolation of [the] US due to its illegal, abusive & morally unsustainable policy.”
In addition to the illegal US blockade of Cuba, there is the added backdrop of the US’s funding of Israel’s genocidal policy in Gaza. Israel has been carrying out a genocidal bombardment campaign against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, largely with United States funding. On October 31, Israel dropped six tons of US-made bombs on the Jabalya refugee camp. Israel then struck the camp for a second time the subsequent day. The number of casualties from the first and second strike has reached 195, with 120 missing and 777 injured.
The United States funds Israel to the tune of USD 4 billion each year, and is set to pass a USD 14 billion funding bill for the state in the wake of the Palestinian resistance offensive of October 7.
The US has also provided billions of dollars in funding to Ukraine since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on February 24, 2022.
Peoples Dispatch
Peoples Dispatch, formerly The Dawn News, is an international media project with the mission of bringing to you voices from people’s movements and organizations across the globe. Since its establishment three years ago, it has sought to ensure that the coverage of news from around the world is not restricted to the rhetoric of politicians and the fortunes of big companies but encompasses the richness and diversity of mobilizations from around the world.
Peoples Dispatch also seeks to bring to you breaking news from a perspective widely different from that of the mainstream media.
We invite people’s movements and political organizations everywhere to send us information and news from their countries. The information can be in Spanish, Portuguese, English or Hindi.
You can reach us at contact@peoplesdispatch.org