[cigar afficiando] For the first time ever, Brazil joins the U.S. in voting noThe United Nations General Assembly on Thursday overwhelmingly voted to denounce the 57-year-old U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. The tally on the annual resolution, titled "Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba," was 187 to 3. The United States, Israel and Brazil were the only nations to cast votes against the resolution, with Ukraine and Colombia abstaining.
The vote marks the 28th year in a row that the U.N. has denounced U.S. economic sanctions against Cuba. Last year, the vote was 189 to 2, with Israel and the U.S. voting no. At the time, then-Ambassador Nikki Haley denounced the U.N. for even considering the resolution.
The decision of Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro to side with the Trump administration on the embargo resolution marks the first time Brazil has voted against the annual resolution. But unlike the U.S., Brazil has extensive trade with, and investments in, Cuba.
The Brazilian tobacco company, Souza Cruz Ltda, has a joint venture in Havana that manufactures Cuban cigarettes. In return for preferential trading status for at least $800 million worth of Brazilian goods and services, Brazil’s leading development bank, BNDES, advanced Cuba more than $700 million in financing to modernize the deep-water port of Mariel. Today, most of Cuba’s imports and exports flow through that port.
The United Nations’ first condemnation of the trade embargo came in November 1992, shortly after President George H.W. Bush signed the "Cuba Democracy Act" that extended sanctions under the embargo to third countries that continued to trade with Cuba.