This annual exercise has been held since 1992, and Cuba has received the resounding support of the international community. This will be the 33rd time the international community has voted to end the US blockade against Cuba and reject the impact of this policy on the island’s population.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez denounced the brutal campaign of political and diplomatic pressure leading up to the vote at the General Assembly.

In exclusive statements to Prensa Latina from the United Nations headquarters in New York, the head of the Cuban delegation stated that on the first day of debate, major organizations and groups of countries, almost all member states, expressed their views, except for a dozen.

The Cuban foreign minister affirmed, “All of them, without exception, have demanded the immediate and unconditional lifting of the genocidal blockade. All have denounced it as a violation of international law and the human rights of all Cubans.”

Rodriguez noted that many nations have already given their suport to our people on the eve of Hurricane Melissa’s arrival in eastern Cuba, as well as offering support to other affected Caribbean countries.

But “the speech by Permanent Representative of the United States, Michael Waltz, has served to complete, in an unusually aggressive and slanderous manner, the brutal campaign of political and diplomatic pressure exerted by Secretary of State (Marco Rubio), other officials from that department, and the US ambassadors,” Rodriguez underscored. jdt/iff/rgh/dfm