The 173–3 vote was the largest margin ever for the resolution, which was introduced by Ricardo Alarcón, president of Cuba’s National Assembly. Only the governments of the United States, Israel, and the Marshall Islands voted against it. Ethiopia, Malawi, Nicaragua, and Uzbekistan abstained.

When the resolution was first introduced, in 1992, it was adopted by a vote of 59 for, 3 against, and 71 abstentions. Each subsequent year, more governments have voted in favor of it.

Among those voting for the resolution were Washington’s imperialist rivals in Europe and Japan, which, while hostile to the Cuban Revolution, are strongly opposed to the U.S. government’s attempts to dictate their trade relations with other countries.

Imposed by Washington under the Kennedy administration in 1962, the trade embargo has been maintained through nine administrations, Democratic and Republican alike. In addition, the U.S. government has reinforced it with a ban on travel to the island by most U.S. residents.

The Cuban government estimates the embargo has cost the country more than $70 billion. The figure does not include the toll exacted by countless attacks and acts of sabotage by right-wing forces organized and backed by Washington, estimated at $54 billion.

The embargo has been tightened over the past decade by the 1992 Torricelli Act and the 1996 Helms-Burton Act. The first measure bars foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies from trading with Cuba. The latter allows U.S. businessmen whose property was expropriated by Cuba’s workers and farmers after the January 1959 revolution to sue companies abroad that invest in those properties.

The Cuban report to the United Nations noted that a U.S. federal court has convicted Canadian citizen James Sabzali, along with two U.S. citizens, on charges of violating U.S. trade restrictions against Cuba. Sabzali could face up to 205 years in jail.

The Cuban statement declared that Washington has not succeeded in its effort to "break the Cuban resolve to exercise self-determination and its willingness to preserve its independence, social justice and equality." In spite of the very real economic cost the U.S. embargo has imposed on the island, Cuba has been able to carry out important social and political initiatives over the past two years, it noted. These include the nationally televised "University for All" classes through which millions of Cubans of all ages are able to expand their education and obtain class credits; programs to make computers available in all schools, even in remote rural areas; and the training of more elementary school teachers to reduce class sizes to 20 students or less.

The report noted that Washington has stepped up its pressure on U.S. residents traveling to the island. In 2001 the U.S. Treasury Department sent out six times as many letters to accused "violators" as in the previous year, issuing an average of $7,500 in civil penalties.

In his address during the resolution debate, Alarcón pointed to further U.S. hostile actions toward Cuba, including the conviction and sentencing on frame-up conspiracy charges of five Cuban revolutionaries who had been providing Cuba with information on U.S.-based counterrevolutionary groups that have a record of violent attacks against the island. The five--René González, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, and Fernando González--received sentences of between 15 years and a double life-term in U.S. prisons last year. Alarcón noted that they are seeking a new trial based on violations of due process in their trial.

Just days before the UN vote, the Bush administration ordered the expulsion of two Cuban diplomats from Washington and two others from Cuba’s UN mission in New York. Administration officials said the move was in retaliation for "espionage activities," referring to the recent conviction and sentencing of former U.S. Defense Department employee Ana Belén Montes. The Cuban foreign ministry said in a statement that "the government of the United States, responsible for the world’s largest and most sophisticated intelligence apparatus, does not have any moral authority or justification" for launching this provocation against Cuba.  
 
 
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