Cuba embargo: UN calls for its end for the 34th time as Haiti abstains

The UN General Assembly on Wednesday 28 October adopted a resolution calling for an end to the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States on Cuba, by 130 votes to 17 with 25 abstentions, according to UN News. It is the 34th time the Assembly has adopted such a text, which Havana presents every year.

Haiti abstained, according to Rezo Nòdwès and Caribbean Life. The country had voted in favour of the resolution in 2025, Rezo Nòdwès reported. Haitian authorities had not explained the decision at the time of publication.

The weakest support in two decades

The text drew its weakest support in twenty years, according to UN News. In 2025 it received 165 votes in favour, 7 against and 12 abstentions, and in 2024, 187 in favour and 2 against, from the United States and Israel. Countries voting against this year included the United States, Israel, Ukraine, Argentina, Colombia, Paraguay and Ecuador, according to Vant Bèf Info and UPI. The Dominican Republic, Chile, Peru, Germany and Italy abstained.

In the Caribbean, Jamaica and Guyana also abstained, while Trinidad and Tobago voted against, according to Caribbean Life. The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Suriname voted in favour.

"There is no blockade"

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla blamed the embargo for shortages of fuel, medicine and food. "Cuba is not a threat. The blockade is a threat," he said, according to Vant Bèf Info. The US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, rejected those arguments. "There is no blockade," he said, citing more than $876 million in US exports to Cuba in the first eight months of 2026, according to UN News. He blamed the island's difficulties on its government.

Cuban officials accused Washington of threatening countries with tariffs and visa restrictions if they backed the text, Al Jazeera reported. The day before the vote, a heated exchange between the two delegations led to a brief suspension of the session. The United States then announced the expulsion of Richard Tur de la Concepción, first secretary of Cuba's UN mission, whom Mike Waltz accused of shoving an American diplomat. The Cuban mission says a US representative had invaded his space to film him, according to Rezo Nòdwès.

The resolution is not binding. Lifting the embargo, in force for more than six decades, is up to the US Congress.