The UN’s primary deliberative body debates and votes on the resolution Cuba submitted to end this stifling policy that has intensified to unprecedented levels since US President Donald Trump took office in January 2025.

Anayansi Rodriguez, Deputy Foreign Minister and a member of the delegation led by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, told Prensa Latina, “Our reality is deeply marked by an unjust economic, commercial, and financial blockade, which has a devastating effect on our economy and is, without a doubt, the primary obstacle to our development.

It is also a massive, flagrant, and systematic violation of the human rights of an entire people.”

Ambassador Ernesto Soberon, Cuba’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, noted, “Cuba arrives at the UNGA with the legitimacy of a just demand, maintained for decades and backed by broad international support.”

Soberon warned that this year’s vote takes place in an especially grave context, marked by an unprecedented intensification of a collective punishment policy against Cuba, including an energy siege and secondary sanctions on third countries.

He noted, “An unprecedented offensive by the Department of State, the US Permanent Mission to the United Nations (USUN), and US embassies around the world is added to this situation, all attempting to alter the sovereign will of member states and weaken the traditional levels of support for our resolution.”

Soberon said this Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s debate “will transcend the level of bilateral relations between Cuba and the United States, as it concerns an issue of interest to the General Assembly, included on its agenda for more than 30 years, and draws high levels of participation and broad regional representation.”

More than 30 speakers are set to take the floor on the first day of the debate. The vote will take place on October 28. For the 34th time, the General Assembly will call for an end to this collective punishment that Cuba has been denouncing since 1992.

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