US, Cuba Clash at UN Ahead of October 27 Embargo Vote

The United States and Cuba have traded accusations at the United Nations as President Donald Trump’s administration seeks to weaken international support for a resolution condemning Washington’s decades-old economic embargo against Havana, ahead of a vote scheduled for October 27-28.

US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz hosted a “Cuba Libre” panel on Monday featuring Cuban dissidents and former political prisoners to highlight alleged human rights abuses by the island’s government. The event included footage appearing to show detentions and accounts from panellists who said they had faced torture and persecution for criticising the authorities. Havana denies holding political prisoners, although activist groups have documented thousands of people imprisoned for political reasons.

“This is the oppression that Havana wants to hide,” Waltz said, urging countries to look beyond what he called “70 years of propaganda” and oppose the resolution.

Nearby, Cuban Ambassador Ernesto Soberón Guzmán denounced the event as a political manoeuvre intended to divert attention from the impact of US sanctions.

“The US is acting as an international delinquent, enforcing collective punishment on the people of Cuba,” Guzmán said, accusing Washington of inflicting widespread suffering on the island’s population.

The confrontation comes amid an intensifying US pressure campaign, including restrictions on fuel supplies that have worsened Cuba’s energy crisis. The island’s electrical grid suffered a complete collapse last month, leaving millions without power. President Trump also described Cuba as a failed state during his address to the UN in September.

The annual UN General Assembly resolution calling for an end to the embargo has received overwhelming support since 1992. Last year, 165 countries voted in favour, seven opposed it and 12 abstained. Argentina, Ukraine and Hungary opposed the measure for the first time. Although the resolution is non-binding, it reflects international opinion on Washington’s policy.

The US embargo, first imposed in 1960 following Fidel Castro’s revolution and the nationalisation of American-owned properties, remains in place more than six decades later. Only the US Congress can lift it.

Cuba has faced a severe economic and energy crisis since 2020, marked by shrinking economic output, blackouts, food shortages and inflation. Repeated protests and the departure of hundreds of thousands of Cubans, many to the United States, have further highlighted the island’s worsening difficulties.