U.N. General Assembly votes 130-17 to call for end of U.S. embargo on Cuba

The U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, Oct. 28, adopted a resolution calling for an end to the U.S. economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba by a recorded vote of 130 in favor, 17 against and 25 abstentions, according to U.N. News. The measure, draft resolution A/81/L.5, is the 34th such resolution the Assembly has considered.¹

In October 2025, the Assembly adopted the previous year's version, A/80/L.6, by 165 in favor, 7 against and 12 abstentions, according to the U.N.'s video news service. The seven countries voting no that year were the United States, Israel, Argentina, Hungary, Paraguay, North Macedonia and Ukraine.²

The U.N. records SignalData reviewed on Wednesday did not list how each country voted this year. Al Jazeera reported that the United States and Israel voted no. The Associated Press reported that Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Lithuania, Morocco, North Macedonia, Paraguay and Slovenia also voted no, and that Germany, Italy and Latvia abstained for the first time. The AP noted that General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding.³⁴

Tuesday's debate

The debate opened Tuesday, Oct. 27. During the U.S. statement, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla raised a point of order under rule 71, asking the Assembly president to call the U.S. speaker to order over remarks he considered offensive to Cuba. Members of the Cuban delegation approached the podium, and the U.S. representative told them to “back off,” according to the U.N.'s meetings coverage. The president briefly suspended the meeting before it resumed.⁵⁶

Also on Tuesday, Francisco Pichon, the U.N. resident coordinator in Cuba, warned that tightened U.S. measures had contributed to an energy crisis on the island, U.N. News reported.⁶

What each side says

U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz told the Assembly before Wednesday's vote that delegates' votes were “the only thing standing between the corrupt, kleptocratic, communist regime” and what he called another propaganda victory for Havana. He said U.S. companies exported “$876 million to be exact” in goods to Cuba in the first eight months of 2026, including fuel, and that President Trump had committed another $100 million in food aid routed through the Catholic Church. “Vote no on this resolution,” he said.⁷

After the vote, Al Jazeera reported, Waltz said he was satisfied that several countries, including Korea and Germany, had changed their positions, and added, “we expect that to only continue to grow.”³

In the debate, Waltz said “there is no blockade” and argued that Cuba's hardships stem from its own government.¹⁵

Rodríguez told the Assembly, “Cuba is not a threat, the blockade is,” according to U.N. News.¹ After the vote, he said the United States was “once again isolated in its attempt to continue strangling the Cuban people,” Al Jazeera reported.³

What the records do not show

• The U.N. records reviewed do not give a country-by-country breakdown of the 2026 vote, so the full list of the 17 no votes and 25 abstentions could not be confirmed from a U.N. record as of Wednesday afternoon.¹
• The records do not say how many countries did not vote.