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The recent vote in the United Nations General Assembly on the resolution calling for an end to the U.S. embargo on Cuba exposed a diplomatic rift within the Western bloc.
Despite Washington's repeated calls for solidarity from its partners in defending Ukraine against Russian aggression, a significant number of European countries—members of the European Union and NATO—voted in favor of the resolution put forward by Havana, thus aligning themselves with a regime that maintains military, economic, and intelligence ties with Moscow.
The contrast could not be more striking. While Europe calls on the United States for a more decisive involvement in the war in Ukraine and demands tougher sanctions against Russia, the same governments that denounce the Kremlin's imperial expansion endorsed with their vote one of its oldest and most loyal allies: the Cuban regime.
Cuba has not been neutral in the Russian invasion. Since 2022, it has openly supported Moscow's narrative regarding the conflict, systematically voting in the UN against resolutions condemning Putin's aggression.
But even more seriously: both the U.S. State Department and Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR) have documented the involvement of thousands of Cuban citizens as mercenaries in Russian ranks, recruited through a network that has been operating since 2023 in Cuban territory, with the complicity — or at least the passivity — of the authorities in Havana.
In September 2023, Ukraine warned that there was "an organized recruitment structure" of Cubans to fight in Donbas, and that Cuban authorities had not taken effective measures to prevent it.
Months later, international media confirmed the authenticity of contracts and testimonies from young Cubans enlisted in the Russian army in exchange for salaries and promises of residency.
In 2024, the Ukrainian project 'I Want to Live' released lists containing over a thousand names and asserted that the actual number exceeded five thousand. Instead of cooperating with Kiev or the United Nations to clarify the phenomenon, Havana chose to deny its existence and accused Washington of "disinformation campaigns."
It is therefore striking that several European NATO allies—including France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Belgium—have joined in the vote condemning the embargo, without mentioning the growing complicity of the Cuban regime with the Russian war machine.
This stance, which partly reflects the diplomatic tradition of the European Union to reject unilateral sanctions, places Europe in an ambiguous position regarding the principles it claims to uphold: the sovereignty of peoples, political freedom, and human rights.
The contradiction is evident. Europe sanctions Moscow while rewarding Havana, one of its most loyal allies.
European governments justify their vote by citing humanitarian arguments—the impact of the embargo on the Cuban civilian population—while ignoring the fact that the Cuban regime has shown it has substantial financial resources.
Recent investigations by the Miami Herald revealed that the military conglomerate GAESA, controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces, has accumulated over 18 billion dollars in liquid assets, while hospitals and schools on the island languish without basic resources.
It is also no secret that Cuba maintains strategic agreements with Russia, China, and Iran, and has served as a logistical operations platform for Moscow in Latin America. In 2023, the arrival of Russian warships at the port of Havana symbolized the return of the military alliance that had seemed dormant since the Cold War.
Nevertheless, Washington's allies in Europe preferred to support the narrative of the "blockade," ignoring that Cuba trades freely with more than 70 countries—including several EU members—and that it imports hundreds of millions of dollars annually in food, machinery, and medicine from the United States under the legal exemptions of the embargo.
The result of this year's vote —165 votes in favor, 7 against, and 12 abstentions— was the most unfavorable for Havana in over a decade.
However, the fact that the main European partners of the United States have maintained their traditional vote in favor of the Cuban regime shows a troubling disconnect between the European rhetoric on the defense of democracy and its diplomatic practice.
While Ukraine resists under Russian bombs and denounces the presence of Cuban mercenaries on the front, European foreign ministries seem to look the other way, caught between diplomatic inertia and the fear of being accused of "automatic alignment" with Washington.
This year's vote not only measures Cuba's influence in the international system, but also the moral consistency of the West.
At a time when Europe is demanding greater commitment from the United States in the defense of Ukraine, it is difficult to explain why so many of its governments decided to extend a hand to Putin's allied regime, which is responsible for the harshest internal repression in decades and for sending its youth to fight in a foreign war.
Perhaps the question that Brussels should be asking is not whether the embargo is effective, but whether Europe is still willing to look the other way in the face of Moscow's accomplices.
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