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The United States abstained for the first time in 25 years Wednesday on a U.N. resolution condemning America’s economic embargo against Cuba, a measure it had always vehemently opposed.
Joining the U.S. in abstaining was Israel, the only other country to vote against the embargo resolution in the General Assembly last year. When the vote — 191-0 with two abstentions — was shown on the electronic board, diplomats from the 193 U.N. member states burst into applause.
U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power announced the abstention just before the vote saying that the U.S. policy of isolation toward Cuba had “isolated the United States, including here at the United Nations.”
“After 55-plus years of pursuing the path of isolation, we are choosing to take the path of engagement,” she said.
The U.S. decision to change its vote follows President Barack Obama’s restoration of full diplomatic relations with Cuba and his support for lifting the embargo, which the Republican-led Congress opposes.
Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced on Dec. 17, 2014, that they were restoring diplomatic ties, which were broken in 1961 after Fidel Castro took power and installed a communist government. On July 20, 2015, diplomatic relations were restored and the embassies of the two countries were reopened, but serious issues remain, especially the U.S. call for human rights on the Caribbean island and claims for expropriated property.
The U.S. abstention drew immediate protests in Congress. Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez from New Jersey, the son of Cuban immigrants, tweeted that the U.S. decision not to defend the “long-standing, bipartisan, human rights-based US law ... is shameful.” Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, also of Cuban descent, tweeted that the act that imposed sanctions on Cuba “isn’t a ‘failed policy’ ... (and) is the law of the United States, which should always be defended and upheld.”
Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, the last speaker before the vote, said Cuba was “grateful” for Power’s efforts and words and thanked her for the U.S. abstention. But Rodriguez said the embargo is still in force and being implemented by U.S. agencies, and while the executive measures taken by Obama were positive, they have “very limited scope and effect.”
“Lifting the blockade is the key to be able to advance towards the normalization of relations with the United States,” he said. “The blockade is unjust, inhuman, immoral and illegal and should unilaterally and unconditionally cease.”
General Assembly resolutions are nonbinding and unenforceable. But the 25-year-old exercise in which the world body has overwhelmingly voted to condemn the embargo reflects world opinion and demonstrates America’s isolation on its Cuba policy.
Power made clear that the United States “categorically” rejects statements in Wednesday’s resolution suggesting the embargo violates international law. She also said that abstaining “does not mean that the United States agrees with all of the policies and practices of the Cuban government.”