The United Nations General Assembly voted Wednesday to condemn the U.S. economic embargo of Cuba for the 34th straight year, but the margin shrank sharply after a pressure campaign led by the Trump administration, according to Responsible Statecraft.
The resolution passed with 130 countries in favor, 17 against and 25 abstaining, Responsible Statecraft reported. Last year the same measure passed 165-7 with 12 abstentions, according to the Associated Press, meaning 35 fewer countries backed Havana this time around.
🚨 JUST IN: The United Nations just voted to CONDEMN the United States of America's "economic embargo of Cuba," but some countries SAT OUT the vote for the first time in decades
The UN needs to stop coddling communists!
Ambassador Mike Waltz TOLD OFF the regime flunkies when… pic.twitter.com/lzAubcwc8Y
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 28, 2026
The AP reported that Western countries including Germany, Italy and Latvia abstained for the first time in the 34 years the resolution has come up.
Several governments went further and voted no. Lithuania, Slovenia and the United Arab Emirates broke with their past positions by voting against the resolution, according to Responsible Statecraft, a foreign policy outlet that has been critical of the embargo. The outlet also reported that Costa Rica, Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago, Honduras and Chile, which have traditionally backed Cuba’s effort, either opposed the resolution or abstained.
The push was spearheaded by U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz, according to Responsible Statecraft, which reported that Waltz hosted Cuban dissidents and researchers last week to make the case against the resolution and held a press conference with the CEO of Freedom House on the Cuban government’s human rights record.
A heated floor fight the day before
The vote came one day after a shouting match on the Assembly floor. During Tuesday’s debate, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez walked to the podium while Waltz was speaking and called him a liar while seeking a point of order, the AP reported.
“This individual needs to back away from this podium. He’s not going to intimidate me in the United States of America,” Waltz said, according to the AP. “You understand who you’re dealing with? This is America. Back up.”
The President of the General Assembly briefly suspended the session after the exchange, according to UN News, the United Nations’ official news service. UN News reported that Waltz rejected the premise of the debate, saying, “There is no blockade,” and pointing to U.S. exports to Cuba that he put at more than $876 million in the first eight months of 2026. Waltz argued the island’s wealth had passed from ordinary Cubans into the hands of the ruling elite, according to UN News.
In a post on X, Rodríguez told Waltz he was at the U.N., not at a national security meeting at the White House, and accused the U.S. government of “crude lies” at the General Assembly, according to the AP.
What the vote does and doesn’t do
General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, the AP noted. The embargo was first imposed in 1960, according to UN News. Support for the annual measure peaked at 191 votes in 2015, 2016 and 2017 during the Obama-era thaw with Havana, according to UN News.
Wednesday’s tally is 35 votes below last year’s, and it lands as the administration escalates pressure on Havana. Responsible Statecraft, which opposes the embargo, argued the vote showed the limits of that pressure. Supporters of the administration’s approach will point instead to a Cuban government losing friends in Europe, Latin America and the Middle East in a single year.
Sources
- Associated Press: UN condemns US economic embargo of Cuba though some nations sit out
- Responsible Statecraft: Despite intense US pressure, UN votes to condemn Cuba blockade
- Associated Press via ABC News: UN holds annual vote on condemning US embargo on Cuba
- UN News: General Assembly weighs US embargo against Cuba ahead of 34th vote
Sources cited
Sources
- Original post: Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) on X, Oct 28, 2026
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