UN condemns US economic embargo of Cuba though more nations sit out after Trump administration push

The U.N. Gen­er­al As­sem­bly con­demned the U.S. eco­nom­ic em­bar­go of Cu­ba for the 34th year on Wednes­day, even as Wash­ing­ton’s cam­paign to in­flu­ence the out­come led to a num­ber of coun­tries vot­ing against the res­o­lu­tion or sit­ting out the de­ci­sion for the first time.

The vote was 130-17, with 25 ab­sten­tions — a no­table de­crease in sup­port from last year, when more than 160 na­tions sup­port­ed the mea­sure and on­ly 12 ab­stained. While such res­o­lu­tions at the U.N. Gen­er­al As­sem­bly are not legal­ly bind­ing, they do re­flect world opin­ion.

Full coverageUN General Assembly Condemns US Embargo on Cuba in 130-17 Vote6 reports

For the first time in 34 years, West­ern coun­tries like Ger­many, Italy and Latvia were among those that re­frained from vot­ing. Bosnia, Colom­bia, Cos­ta Ri­ca, Ecuador, Lithua­nia, Mo­roc­co, North Mace­do­nia, Paraguay and Slove­nia are among those mem­ber states that vot­ed no — most for the first time.