The Deputy Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, Farhan Aziz Haq, reiterated on Friday the United Nations’ position in favor of lifting the US blockade against Cuba.
“As you know, the General Assembly has repeatedly called for an end to the blockade against Cuba,” the spokesperson stated in response to a question from Prensa Latina regarding the strengthening of this policy, following the new executive order from the Donald Trump administration to unilaterally impose coercive tariffs on countries that sell oil to the Caribbean nation.
“We urge all Member States,” he said, “to comply with the resolutions of the General Assembly.”
An executive order issued by the White House on January 29 and signed by the Republican president declared a “national emergency” regarding Cuba. To address this, it deemed it “necessary and appropriate” to establish a system of tariffs against countries that provide “directly or indirectly” any type of oil to Cuba.
Days before Trump’s return to the White House last year, the UN confirmed to Prensa Latina that it welcomed “the United States’ announcement of January 14 regarding, among other measures, the removal of Cuba from the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism.”
A belated act by the outgoing Joe Biden administration, but one that was a step in the right direction.
However, after taking office a week later, in his first hours in the White House, Trump reversed Biden’s decision with an executive order, without presenting any new evidence and disregarding the work and judgment of his own government agencies.
The reactions were swift. UN Secretary-General António Guterres even acknowledged at the time that Cuba’s conduct in some mediation processes, such as the peace process in Colombia, contradicts its continued inclusion on such a list.
Cuba was first included on this list of State Sponsors of Terrorism in 1982, during the administration of Republican Ronald Reagan, until 2015, when Democratic President Barack Obama removed the designation, deeming it unjustified.
The economic, commercial, and financial blockade against Cuba constitutes a unilateral, coercive, and extraterritorial policy that violates international law and the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.
After 65 years of implementation, the central objective has not changed: to deteriorate the population’s standard of living, provoke dissatisfaction, despair, and anger, as a means to bring about a change in the constitutional order that the Cuban people have freely chosen.
The US administration persists in ignoring the almost unanimous call from the international community to end this illegal and inhumane policy against Cuba, expressed in 33 UN General Assembly resolutions.
