Cubans celebrate UN vote against U.S. embargo

HAVANA, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Cubans on Thursday celebrated the overwhelming support they received from the international community at a United Nations vote condemning the U.S. trade embargo against the Caribbean nation.

In the Cuban capital, hundreds of people gathered at University of Havana's campus to demand the lifting of the six-decade-long U.S. unilateral policy against the island as Cuban state TV broadcast the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session on outdoor giant screens.

Among them was Oscar Barros, who studies Economics at the university. "The U.S. blockade negatively affects the fields of imports, exports and foreign trade," he said.

The non-binding resolution on Thursday received 185 votes in favor and two against. Only the United States and Israel voted against it as Ukraine and Brazil abstained.

Johana Tablada, deputy head of Cuban foreign ministry's department for U.S. affairs, said that the U.S. embargo continues to limit Cuba's access to equipment with more than 10 percent of U.S. components.

"The U.S. blockade has made the Cuban people suffer and restricted (Cuba's) access to critical medicines for the treatment of different diseases," she said.

The UNGA has now voted 30 consecutive times in favor of the small island's request to lift the U.S. embargo.

Law student Karla Maria Grey, 22, told Xinhua the U.S. coercive measures against the island are aimed at suffocating the Cuban people.

"The U.S. blockade intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic, restricting my country's access to medical supplies and raw materials to produce our homegrown coronavirus vaccines," she said.

First imposed in 1962, the embargo was tightened by former U.S. President Donald Trump, who put in place 243 more sanctions, including banning all flights from the United States to Cuban destinations except Havana and capping remittances Cuban Americans can send to their families back home.

The current U.S. administration allowed airlines to resume flights to other Cuban cities and lifted the cap on remittances, but the web of sanctions against Cuba remains largely in place.

Thursday's UN resolution expresses concern about the continued promulgation and application of laws and regulations, such as the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, whose extraterritorial effects affect the sovereignty of other states, the legitimate interests of entities or persons under their jurisdiction, and the freedom of trade and navigation.

It calls on all states to refrain from promulgating and applying such laws and measures, and urges states that have and continue to apply such laws and measures to "take the steps necessary to repeal or invalidate them as soon as possible in accordance with their legal regime."