GNV News November 5, 2025

On October 29, 2025, the UN General Assembly, for the 33rd consecutive year, adopted a resolution calling on the United States to end its long-standing economic, commercial, and financial embargo against Cuba. In this year’s vote, the tally was 165 in favor, 7 against (※1), and 12 abstentions (※2). In a similar resolution in 2024, the result was 187 in favor, 2 against (※3), and 1 abstention (※4). Citing Cuba’s support for its ally Russia in the war in Ukraine, mainly Central and Eastern European countries withdrew their support for the resolution, but it was still adopted by an overwhelming majority.

The U.S. embargo targeted by this resolution dates back to the period when Cuba became a socialist country following the Cuban Revolution in 1959. After the revolution, as Cuba increased trade with the Soviet Union and raised taxes on imports from the United States, in 1960 the United States severely restricted imports from Cuba and took measures to impose a complete ban on exports to Cuba. Furthermore, through strict travel restrictions and limits on the entry into the United States of foreign ships that had docked in Cuba, it sought to prevent other countries from engaging with Cuba. In a memorandum drafted by senior U.S. officials in 1960, it was stated that if political efforts could not overthrow the Cuban government, they would “deny money and supplies to Cuba, decrease monetary and real wages, bring about hunger and despair, and seek to overthrow the regime,” revealing the rationale for imposing harsh sanctions.

Some restrictions were temporarily eased under the Barack Obama administration, but sanctions were strengthened under Donald Trump, and that policy has continued under Joe Biden, as of 2025. Partly as a result of these U.S. economic sanctions, Cuba’s economic development has been hindered, and people’s lives have become difficult, with chronic food shortages among other problems. Although there are no comprehensive data on poverty, one study suggests that about 9-tenths of the population lives in extreme poverty. According to estimates by Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from March 2024 to February 2025, the damage caused by U.S. sanctions amounted to approximately 7.5 billion U.S. dollars.

※1 The countries that voted against were the United States, Argentina, Israel, Ukraine, North Macedonia, Paraguay, and Hungary.

※2 The countries that abstained were Albania, Ecuador, Estonia, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Poland, Moldova, Morocco, Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania.

※3 The countries that voted against were the United States and Israel.

※4 The country that abstained was Moldova.

Learn more about Cuba→ “‘White Coat Army’ to the world: Cuba’s medical internationalism”

Learn more about global poverty→ “Roundup article: global poverty issues”

Voting results of a similar UN General Assembly resolution in 2023 (Photo: Nikolai Twin / Wikimedia Commons [CC BY 4.0])