US and Cuba clash at UN as Washington seeks to sway annual vote on economic embargo

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States and Cuba clashed Monday at the United Nations as the Trump administration sought once again to build opposition for an upcoming annual vote condemning Washington’s decades-long economic embargo against Havana.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz hosted a “Cuba Libre” panel with dissidents and former prisoners in an effort to highlight what he called the oppressive behavior of the island’s government.

The event included explicit footage of what appeared to be Cuban citizens being detained and panelists describing being tortured and persecuted for years for speaking out against the government. Havana has long denied holding political prisoners, but activist groups have registered thousands imprisoned for political reasons.

“This is the oppression that Havana wants to hide,” Waltz said during the event at the U.N. headquarters, while urging countries to look past “70 years of propaganda” and vote against the resolution next week.

A few feet away, Cuban Ambassador to the U.N. Ernesto Soberón Guzmán gathered diplomats and allies from around the world to protest what he called a sham event against Cuba.

“This charade is an attempt to deviate attention from a simple fact: The U.S. is acting as an international delinquent, enforcing collective punishment on the people of Cuba,” Guzmán said.

It is the second year in a row that the Trump administration has waged a campaign to influence the U.N. resolution aimed at calling out the U.S. government’s “maximum pressure policy” against Cuba.

The U.S. efforts are part of larger plan to force changes to Cuba’s political system by cutting off fuel to the island, leading to massive power outages that affect basic activities such as cooking, water supply and internet and telephone services.

The annual vote condemning the U.S. economic embargo has been put before the U.N. General Assembly for the past 34 years and each time receives overwhelming support from the world body’s 193 member states. Last year, the vote was 165-7, with 12 abstentions. Argentina, Ukraine and Hungary opposed the measure for the first time.

While such resolutions are not legally binding, they do reflect world opinion.

The U.S. embargo against Cuba was first imposed in 1960 after Fidel Castro led a revolution that toppled dictator Fulgencio Batista and nationalized properties belonging to U.S. citizens and corporations.

In 2015, then-Cuban President Raúl Castro and U.S. President Barack Obama officially restored relations. The following year, the U.S. abstained, for the first time, on the General Assembly resolution calling for an end to the embargo.

Cuba, meanwhile, has struggled since 2020 with an economic and energy crisis. Its gross domestic product has shrunk, and its 10 million residents have endured blackouts, food shortages and inflation. There have been waves of protests, and hundreds of thousands of Cubans have migrated, many to the United States.