Cuba accuses US of waging economic war against its people at UN

Cuba's foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, accused the United States at the United Nations of waging what he described as an economic war against the Cuban people, deliberately inflicting humanitarian suffering through decades-old sanctions.

Speaking during a session of the UN General Assembly, Rodríguez Parrilla argued that the US embargo and related restrictions have had a severe impact on ordinary Cubans, limiting access to food, medicine and other essential goods.

Longstanding dispute

Cuba has for decades urged the United Nations to condemn the US embargo, which Havana characterizes as a blockade that violates international law and disproportionately harms the civilian population rather than the Cuban government it is intended to pressure.

The United States has consistently defended its sanctions regime as a response to what it characterizes as human rights violations and lack of democratic governance under the Cuban government, rejecting Havana's framing of the policy as an act of economic warfare against civilians.

The exchange is the latest in a long-running diplomatic dispute between Washington and Havana that has played out repeatedly at the United Nations, where the General Assembly has in previous years passed non-binding resolutions calling for an end to the US embargo.