The leader Miguel Díaz-Canel took to social media this Thursday to criticize the United States just days before the annual vote at the UN General Assembly on the embargo against Cuba, scheduled for October 28, repeating almost word for word the same script that the regime used exactly one year ago.
In a Facebook post, the Cuban leader accused Washington of "desperately pressuring sovereign nations to support its genocidal actions" and stated that this "frantic campaign against international leaders and officials is the best evidence of how alone and isolated they are in their policy against Cuba."
The night before, Chancellor Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla had already made accusations through X, directly targeting Secretary of State Marco Rubio. "Nervous and anxious about another potential defeat at the United Nations, he is pressuring and blackmailing Heads of State and Government from several countries to change their votes," the Cuban Chancellor wrote.
What the regime presents as a new accusation is, in fact, a familiar script. In October 2025, Rodríguez Parrilla called an extraordinary press conference to denounce exactly the same thing: a "false, slanderous, and disrespectful campaign against the sovereignty of member states" of Washington ahead of that year's vote.
The U.S. diplomatic efforts that the regime denounces as "blackmail" have at least one documented case: the State Department confirmed that Rubio called Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Monday to ask him to align with Washington at the UN, including the Cuban issue.
During the phone conversation between the two politicians on Tuesday, Rubio emphasized that "the Cuban regime will not undertake the reforms that the Cuban people need as long as it believes it has the support of the international community."
The regime's rhetoric contrasts with a reality that discomforts it: international support for Cuba at the UN has steadily decreased. The resolution received 187 votes in favor in 2024, fell to 165 in October 2025 — the lowest level in over a decade — and only reached 136 in a special session held in July of this year.
In 2025, Argentina voted against for the first time under the government of Javier Milei, joined by Hungary, Israel, North Macedonia, Paraguay, Ukraine, and the United States. Several of these countries are expected to maintain their stance on October 28.
From the Cuban opposition side, more than 554 activists and organizations —including José Daniel Ferrer, Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat, and Jorge Luis García Pérez «Antúnez»— published a letter addressed to democratic governments on Tuesday, urging them to vote against or abstain, arguing that supporting the resolution benefits the regime and not the Cuban people.
The initiative, driven by the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance and UNPACU, surpassed a total of 1,000 supporters.
The context in 2026 is more adverse for Havana than in the previous year: the Trump administration has imposed ongoing sanctions on entities and figures of the regime since January, including an executive order that restricted all fuel imports to the island.
On September 22, Trump described Cuba as an "absolutely failed state" before the General Assembly and revealed that Rubio "is conducting a negotiation and is deeply involved in the conversations with Cuba."
The annual resolution on the embargo has been presented at the UN since 1992 and is non-binding: its approval does not legally compel the United States to change its policy, which renders the vote a diplomatic positioning exercise whose real value for the Cuban people remains, according to the opposition, null.
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