UNITED NATIONS — Cuba’s ambassador told reporters on Friday that the United States is about to use UN headquarters as a platform against his country. The event, scheduled by the US permanent mission and titled “Cuba Libre: The Oppression Havana Heights,” is set for Monday, October 19.
Ernesto Soberon Guzman, Cuba’s permanent representative to the UN, called it “a politically motivated exercise, organized in a questionable manner, whose clear purpose is to target Cuba.” He said Cuba “will not be intimidated, blackmailed, or silenced” and dismissed the gathering as a “political charade.” Washington’s differences with Havana have played out at the world body before; TEH – The Eastern Herald reported in September on Donald Trump’s remarks about Cuba at the General Assembly.
The timing is the point. The General Assembly votes at the end of October on its annual resolution urging an end to the US embargo on Cuba. On Wednesday, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez accused Secretary of State Marco Rubio of “pressuring and blackmailing heads of state and government from various countries” to change their votes.
What Washington has said publicly is narrower. In its account of a Tuesday call, the State Department said Rubio urged Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to join the United States and its “like-minded partners” in “advancing shared priorities at the United Nations,” Xinhua reported. Xinhua’s account does not say how Bukele replied.
The numbers show what is at stake, and how soft they are. Last October the Assembly adopted the resolution by 165 votes to 7, with 12 abstentions, UN News reported, down from 187 to 2 with one abstention a year earlier. The seven against were the United States, Israel, Argentina, Hungary, Paraguay, North Macedonia and Ukraine. The count is the Assembly’s own recorded vote, and the resolution is non-binding.
Soberon Guzman also argued that Washington is undermining the UN’s financial stability while using public funds for events that do not serve the organization’s agenda. He urged members to uphold the UN Charter, reject double standards and support an end to the US blockade, Anadolu Agency reported. Its report carries no response from the US mission and does not say who will speak on Monday.
Who takes the floor on Monday is the first thing the reports leave unanswered. Whether it changes a single vote is the second.
