Even with the most unfavorable score for Cuba in 30 years, the Caribbean country's ambassador to Brazil, Victor Manuel Cairo Palomo, celebrated the approval, at the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN), of the resolution against the United States (USA) economic blockade of the island, which has lasted more than six decades.
"In a world where the USA leads new practices of fascism, through blackmail and threats to small countries, imposition of economic wars and tariffs, Cuba maintained the support of the vast majority of countries in the international community. It is a great victory for our people", said the ambassador about the vote at the UN.
The resolution was approved, this Tuesday (29), with 130 votes in favor, including from Brazil, 17 against and 25 abstentions. In 30 years, this was the lowest support for the end of the blockade, which reached more than 190 votes in favor.
The drop is related to a campaign by Donald Trump's government to convince allied countries to reject the resolution. In 2024, only two countries voted against the proposal: Israel and the USA.
This year, 17 countries voted against condemning the blockade of Cuba: Argentina, Bosnia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Hungary, Israel, Lithuania, Morocco, North Macedonia, Paraguay, Slovenia, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Czech Republic and the USA.
While in 2024 there was only one abstention, this time there were 25 countries that did not vote, including Latin American nations such as Chile, Honduras, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica and Peru that, historically, used to vote in favor of Cuba.
When receiving Agência Brasil at the embassy in Brasília, this Thursday (29), Palomo recalled that the blockade of Cuba is illegal under international law and highlighted the human cost of Washington's policy.
"There were more than 1,500 children who died in Cuba due to not having access to medicine and lack of fuel to maintain the incubators for those born prematurely or with low birth weight. These are not just numbers, they are lives", he lamented.
From 2025 to 2026, amid the tightening of the blockade by the Trump administration, infant mortality in Cuba doubled, going from 4.4 dead babies per thousand births to 9.9.
The economic blockade of Cuba, adopted in retaliation for the 1959 Cuban Revolution, is not just a problem for the island, but for all of humanity, argues Ambassador Victor Manuel Cairo Palomo.
“It's a topic that has to do with the world because today it's Cuba, but tomorrow it could be any other country that the US wants”, he explained.
The diplomat recalled Trump's new doctrine for Latin America, which seeks, among other objectives, to impede relations between countries in the region and China.
"The USA believes that they have to control the destinies of Latin America and the Caribbean. They say they will impose peace by force. It is a model for the world where they consider themselves the owners of everything", highlighted Victor.
The ambassador made a point of describing how US measures have harmed the Cuban population, including the so-called secondary sanctions, which punish companies from other countries that trade with Cuba, increasing the price of products entering the island.
"Secondary sanctions have a tremendous impact. We have more than 7,000 containers purchased by Cuba sitting in ports around the world because shipping companies don't want to deliver. They arrive in Jamaica and leave them there because the ship owners are afraid of reprisals from the US," he explained.
Since Donald Trump's return to the White House in January 2025, the US has adopted a series of new sanctions against the small Caribbean country. Among the actions is the energy blockade with threats to countries that sell oil to Cuba.
The measure left the island three months without receiving a single barrel of oil. As a result, power outages can last more than ten hours in the capital, Havana.
“If you don’t have fuel, you don’t have the capacity to produce or preserve food or maintain basic public services, public transport, you don’t have the capacity for industry”, criticized the ambassador.
Economic suffocation measures have been escalating month by month, leading to a reduction in international flights to Cuba, the departure of foreign hotel companies and even the Visa card company, which has affected the tourism sector, the country's main sector.
In recent weeks, the US State Department, led by Cuban descendant Marco Rubio, adopted new sanctions against “sensitive technology” companies that have relations with the Caribbean island. This month, the US courts even ordered the arrest of former Cuban president Raúl Castro.
In response, Cuba adopted an economic reform to try to circumvent the blockade and boost the economy. Ambassador Victor Manuel Cairo Palomo stated that it is still too early to assess the impact of the changes, but pointed out that internal studies indicate more favorable conditions for increasing production.
“We are changing the energy matrix to solar energy in an accelerated manner with help from China and we are working very hard on food production because our country cannot wait for the US president to want to change his genocide against Cuba”, he concluded.
