UN General Assembly | USA threatens Cuba supporters

Cuba's ex-president is being pursued by the USA at every turn. Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez denounces Washington's unprecedented campaign. Photo: AFP/YAMIL LAGE The USA shows no mercy towards Cuba. Since the intervention in Venezuela at the beginning of the year, sanctions against the Caribbean island have been further tightened and the government in Havana has been subjected to intimidation attempts. Ahead of the annual UN vote on October 27th or 28th on lifting the decades-long US blockade policy against Cuba, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez denounced an unprecedented pressure campaign by the United States and strongly condemned the actions of the US justice system against Raúl Castro.

Cuba's former president Raúl Castro is in the sights of the US authorities. Earlier last week, Florida prosecutors obtained an arrest warrant for him in connection with the 1996 shooting down of two small planes belonging to a Miami-based Cuban exile group. A formal indictment by the US federal judiciary against Raúl Castro for murder in the same case had already become public at the end of May. The US justice system accuses the 96-year-old Castro of having ordered the shooting down of the planes in his capacity as defense minister in 1996. Four people were killed. The group Hermanos Al Rescate had previously violated Cuban airspace several times and dropped propaganda material. The Cubans protested diplomatically, but the flights continued until Cuba attacked them.

At a press conference in Havana last week, Cuba's Foreign Minister Rodríguez called the arrest warrant a "shameful act that has no legal, ethical or practical value." At the same time, he made public a secret campaign by the US government, according to which Washington threatened third countries with tariffs so that they would withdraw their support for the UN resolution introduced by Cuba. The text, which calls for an end to the US economic, trade and financial blockade against Cuba, will be put to a vote at the UN General Assembly in New York this week. The previous US sanctions policy was further tightened by the blockage of crude oil deliveries to Cuba and other coercive measures. It therefore violates international law even more blatantly.

Rodríguez presented a letter from the U.S. State Department instructing U.S. embassies to pressure governments to vote against the resolution, abstain from voting or leave the room during the vote. The threats include the threat of punitive tariffs, the termination of cooperation programs, visa restrictions for officials and their relatives, support for opposition forces and secondary sanctions against entities that maintain relations with Cuba. "It is a set of methods that amount to real political violence, coercion and blackmail," he explained. An unnamed Latin American country also tried to influence other states "under pressure from the US government" so that they would not support Havana.

The anti-blockade resolution introduced by Cuba has been passed by a large majority in the UN every year since 1992. In last year's vote, the declaration received 165 votes in favor, seven against and twelve abstentions. In 2024, the General Assembly adopted the resolution with 187 votes in favor. The United States and Israel were the only countries to vote against, while Moldova abstained.

In all of these votes at the UN, the Federal Government voted for the Cuban resolution in accordance with the Basic Law and the UN Charter and always condemned the US blockade policy towards Cuba. However, at a special debate on July 7th in the UN General Assembly on tightening US sanctions, Germany abstained from voting on Cuba's request. This was supported by 136 states, nine voted against and 30 abstained.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul (CDU) had previously irritated people by saying that the US blockade against Cuba did not exist. At the Foreign Office's open day at the end of June, Wadephul was asked by a citizen why the federal government did not criticize the US blockade against Cuba more clearly, to which Wadephul replied: "I don't see such a blockade as you described."

His Cuban counterpart Rodríguez responded with clear criticism on social networks. He accused Wadephul of violating European and German law with his stance and in this context referred to the EU Blocking Regulation from 1996, which is intended to protect companies and citizens in the EU from the effects of extraterritorial sanctions from third countries. Regardless of this, the Foreign Office declared in August that tariff threats and economic sanctions “do not constitute a blockade” in the sense of international law.

The federal government's abstention from the UN vote at the beginning of July and recent statements from Wadephul and the Foreign Office have raised doubts about Berlin's voting behavior this year. In response to a written question from Bundestag member Sören Pellmann from the Die Linke party, the State Secretary of the Foreign Office, Géza Andreas von Geyr, said on October 7th that the federal government's positioning for the vote in the UN General Assembly on October 28th had "not yet been completed."

Pellman then accused the federal government in the “Berliner Zeitung” of “completely losing its foreign policy compass.” His party colleague, the state chairwoman of Die Linke Hesse and member of the Bundestag Desiree Becker, also criticized the federal government's attitude to "nd": "The Left demands an immediate end to the US blockade, which violates international law, and expects the federal government to once again approve the resolution in the UN General Assembly for an end to the economic blockade." The federal government must "clearly express its support for an end to the US sanctions instead of leaving its position open until shortly before the vote."

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