Of the 191 member states, 182 voted yes. Only four voted against—Israel, the Marshall Islands, Palau, and the United States. Micronesia abstained. It was the largest majority yet voting for the resolution.

The embargo “is an economic war enforced with incomparable zeal on a global scale,” Cuban foreign minister Felipe Pérez Roque told the UN. “Never before, as in the last 18 months, has the blockade been enforced with so much viciousness and brutality.” Last year, Washington fined 316 U.S. citizens or residents for breaching provisions of the embargo, Pérez Roque said. With nearly two months to go, already 537 such fines have been levied this year. He cited dozens of examples of loss of trade due to this economic war. The Cuban government reports a total loss of $82 billion since the sanctions began.

The foreign minister also cited the increasing restrictions by Washington on travel by U.S. citizens to the Caribbean island. These, he said, have caused visits to drop by 55 percent this year as compared to 2003. Travel by Cubans residing in the United States to their native country has also declined by nearly half, he added.

Representatives of 25 states spoke in favor of the resolution.

“Throughout Africa’s struggle for independence and liberation, we counted Cuba as one of our strongest allies,” Tanzania’a ambassador Tuvako Manongi said. “The bonds forged in that struggle demand that we now stand with Cuba.”

The representative of St. Lucia, motivating the resolution on behalf of the Caribbean Community, praised the medical aid and scholarships given by Cuba to nations in the Caribbean.

“We challenged Castro to open the Cuban economy,” U.S. representative Ronald Godard said, the only one to speak against the resolution. The Cuban government should stop blocking “free market reforms,” he said.

The representative of the European Union, who said the EU voted for the resolution only because of the “extra-territorial” aspects of the embargo, aimed his fire at the Cuban government, claiming it violates “human rights.”

Cuban deputy ambassador Ileana Nuñez gave Cuba’s reply. The EU representative, she said, “seemed to apologize for being forced to recognize what is clear: that you can’t prevent people from choosing a form of society where the great benefits are not shared only among a few.”

Nuñez said Washington “attacks our people because they are a contagious example that they are afraid of.” Cuba, she said, “can learn nothing about human rights from the richest country in the world where 44 million people go without access to health care.”

“The march of the Cuban people is irreversible, in spite of imperialism and their acolytes,” Nuñez concluded. “In Cuba there is a true revolution, a popular revolution.” It has “consolidated the deepest feeling of solidarity amongst the peoples of the world.”
 
 
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