In brief
The resolution passed on 28 October with 130 votes in favor, 17 against and 25 abstentions, a drop of 35 supportive votes from 2025. Cuban officials condemned the lower support as continued U.S. pressure, while U.S. representatives blamed Cuba’s internal policy. Analysts from Africa, Italy and the Vatican also voiced positions on the blockade’s humanitarian impact.
On 28 October, the United Nations General Assembly voted to adopt a resolution calling for the end of the U.S. embargo on Cuba, with 130 member states casting favorable ballots, 17 opposing and 25 abstaining; a figure that reflected a loss of 35 supportive votes compared with 165 in favor in 2025.
The United Press International notes that the Cuban government condemned the vote as a continuation of U.S. sanctions, while U.S. officials blamed Cuba’s internal policy and criticized Cuban delegates’ conduct.
During the debate, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla condemned the economic and humanitarian consequences of U.S. sanctions, saying the restrictions cut off fuel, medicine and food.
"The consequences fall on people, limit their fundamental human rights, affect third countries and turn the population's essential needs into instruments of political coercion," Rodríguez said on X.
Fortune Madondo, a pan‑Africanist scholar, urged African states to present a unified vote in support of Cuba, describing U.S. pressure tactics as blackmail. He warned that “today, Cuba needs our vote… tomorrow, it could be the 54 African states.”
Italian academic Luciano Vasapollo called for European solidarity, noting that the blockade hampers access to essential resources and inflates costs for ordinary families. He highlighted the case of a mother who received in‑home support for her child after a cross‑sector program, stressing that more than 883,000 Cubans were registered as living in vulnerable conditions.
The National Italy‑Cuba Friendship Association wrote to Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, urging Italy to vote favorably on the resolution and to resist pressure from U.S. Senator Marco Rubio. The letter recounted Italy’s historical opposition to U.S. sanctions and emphasized the diplomatic friendship between Madrid and the capital.
Cuban Ambassador to the Holy See, Leyde Rodriguez, described the blockade as genocidal, citing $8.083 billion in damages between March 2025 and February 2026 and a cumulative loss of $178.7 billion over the blockade’s history. He warned that the energy siege resembles a naval blockade under international law.
In China’s Xinhua reporting, President Miguel Diaz‑Canel praised the resolution as a victory for the Cuban people and condemned Washington’s tactics.
"It is a triumph of the truth over those who rely on lies and blackmail to subject an entire nation to collective punishment," Diaz‑Canel wrote on X.He echoed Foreign Minister Rodríguez’s view that the embargo is the true threat and that Cuba merely seeks a lifting of the blockade.
Thus, the UN vote showcased a complex tapestry of international reactions: a numeric decline in support for Cuba, a U.S. critique of Cuban internal policy, an African appeal against perceived blackmail, Italian calls for solidarity, a Vatican condemnation of the blockade’s severity, and a Chinese‑aligned celebration of the resolution’s passage.
