The Argentine chancellor Pablo Quirno made a strong statement this Wednesday against the Cuban dictatorship following Argentina's vote against the annual UN resolution on the embargo. He stated that "the Cuban regime can no longer hide behind sovereignty to justify the oppression of its people, political persecution, the suppression of freedoms, and the denial of fundamental rights."
In a message posted on X, Quirno explained that Argentina voted against it because "there is no freedom without democracy, nor economic development without respect for private property and individual rights."
The vote this Wednesday in the UN General Assembly resulted in 130 votes in favor, 17 against, and 25 abstentions, marking the worst outcome in history for Cuba since it introduced this initiative in 1992. Argentina was part of the group of 17 countries that rejected the resolution, alongside the United States, Israel, Paraguay, Ukraine, Hungary, and ten other countries that changed their stance from the previous year: Austria, Barbados, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Lithuania, Morocco, Slovenia, and Trinidad and Tobago.
The collapse of support for Cuba is dramatic compared to 2024, when the resolution received 187 votes in favor and only two against. In just two years, endorsements dropped by 57 and rejections multiplied by more than eight. Even germany, which had consistently supported the resolution since 2002, chose to abstain this time.
Quirno emphasized that the result reflects "a significant change in the international landscape" and pointed out that "more and more countries in Latin America are adopting a position that places freedom, democracy, and individual rights at the center of the regional agenda". The chancellor also expressed Argentina's solidarity with the Cuban people in their "legitimate aspiration to live in freedom, with democratic institutions and under the rule of law."
This is Argentina's second consecutive vote against the resolution, consolidating the diplomatic shift initiated under the government of Javier Milei. The immediate precedent was the scandal in October 2024, when then-Foreign Minister Diana Mondino upheld the country's historical position and voted in favor — a result that at the time was 187 to two — which led to her abrupt dismissal. Milei described that decision as "treason." In 2025, with Gerardo Werthein at the helm of the Foreign Ministry, Argentina voted against for the first time, along with only six other countries.
The debate prior to the vote was marked by a tense diplomatic incident. On Tuesday, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla physically advanced toward the podium where U.S. Ambassador Michael Waltz was speaking at the General Assembly, forcing the session president, Khalilur Rahman, to suspend it. Waltz had displayed photographs of the luxuries enjoyed by the Cuban elite and cited data regarding the profits of the military conglomerate GAESA.
Despite the historic decline in support, the Cuban Foreign Ministry celebrated the outcome with a graphic proclaiming "Victory for Cuba." In any case, the resolution is not legally binding; its approval does not modify or lift the embargo, the elimination of which depends solely on the Congress of the United States.
The highest level of support for Cuba was in 2016, during the thaw in relations with the Obama administration, when the resolution received 191 votes in favor and none against it, a situation that now seems distant given the increasing diplomatic isolation of the regime.
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