Calls for lifting the United States blockade against Cuba were heard forty-three times here as the high-level week of the UN General Assembly drew to a close.
“This figure matches last year’s,” a diplomatic source told Prensa Latina. “Despite the pressure, the international community understands the extent of this collective punishment to which the Cuban people are being subjected,” the source emphasized.
The voices of presidents, heads of government, and representatives from various delegations attending this segment of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly in New York—which began last Tuesday—shared a common theme: an urgent call to eliminate blockades and sanctions.
As Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stated, the “world watches in horror as collective punishment is imposed on 10 million people through an illegal economic and energy embargo (blockade).”
Lula opened the general debate of this 81st session, and in subsequent speeches throughout the day and in the following days, clear demands were voiced by nations such as Namibia; its president, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, noted from the podium that “the unjustified economic embargo against Cuba—which has had consequences for the Cuban economy and the well-being of its people—must be lifted.”
“We call,” she added, “for an end to the energy blockade against Cuba and for its removal from the unilateral list of states allegedly sponsoring terrorism.”
Also notable was the address by the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Amor Mottley, who firmly demanded that the Caribbean be consolidated as a Zone of Peace and reiterated her country’s categorical rejection of the blockade and coercive measures against Cuba. “We are deeply concerned about the worsening humanitarian pressures facing the Cuban people. Too many are suffering,” the speaker stated, emphasizing the consequences of “restrictions on trade, finance, and access to fuel—all of which exacerbate hardships not only for Cuban citizens but for everyone studying and living there.”
Grenada urged, for instance, that “Cuba and the United States of America address the very difficult—yet not insurmountable—challenges involved in ending sanctions and lifting the embargo and the blockade against the Cuban people.”
Meanwhile, Russia warned that “urgent measures are needed to rectify the dire humanitarian situation in Cuba, which is currently facing unprecedented pressure from its northern neighbor.”
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was explicit: “We reaffirm our solidarity with the Cuban people and government and urge the United States to lift the blockade against the Island of Freedom, remove all trade restrictions with Cuba, and take the country off the infamous list of state sponsors of terrorism.”
This is a glaring example that demands the attention of the international community, the Russian diplomatic chief stated.
Cuba was represented at the UN this week by Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, who carried out an extensive agenda in New York.
In his address to the plenary, he denounced the fact that his country is facing multidimensional aggression from the United States government—a persistent, abusive, and ruthless hostility that has lasted for nearly seven decades. “Since January 2026, it has intensified and become more cruel and dangerous with the establishment of an energy blockade that, through intimidation and coercion, prohibits all countries from exporting fuel to Cuba—amounting to a naval blockade, which is classified under international law as an act of war,” he noted, emphasizing that “the impact of such an ironclad and ruthless siege has a human face.
“The economic war is directed against the people. It falls upon the Cuban population as a whole. It claims lives, causes individual and collective pain, and generates anguish. It is not ‘collateral damage.’ It is a policy deliberately conceived to strike Cuban families where it hurts most, to hinder their well-being, and to wound the dignity of the people,” stated the official, who is also a deputy to the National Assembly and a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba.
Furthermore, he warned the global community that “the threat of the use of military force against Cuba persists—conduct that constitutes a violation of international law and a contravention of the San Francisco Charter.
“Were it to materialize, it would constitute a crime of immense magnitude. It would result in the deaths of Cubans and young Americans, as well as massive destruction. We hope it never happens. Cuba would exercise its legitimate right to self-defense with full determination and energy,” he underscored.
[ SOURCE: PRENSA LATINA ]
