With just a few days to go before the United Nations General Assembly once again votes on the U.S. economic, commercial, and financial blockade against Cuba, a diplomatic offensive by Washington has been denounced as an attempt to undermine the broad international consensus supporting the Cuban resolution.

On Thursday, President Miguel Díaz-Canel accused the United States of “desperately” pressuring sovereign nations to support its policy toward the island. “The cruelty of the collective punishment that the U.S. imposes on the Cuban people is so unjustifiable that, on the eve of a new UN vote on the resolution against the blockade, it is desperately pressuring sovereign nations to support its genocidal actions,” the president wrote on the social media platform X.

Díaz-Canel described Washington’s campaign targeting leaders and officials from other countries as “frantic.” Far from demonstrating strength, he argued, this activity is “the clearest evidence of how alone and isolated they are in the eyes of the world regarding their policy against Cuba, of their lack of genuine support, and of how reason is on our side.”

Similarly, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, also in a post on his official X account, accused Secretary of State Marco Rubio of “pressuring and blackmailing” heads of state and government to change their votes in the General Assembly.

“The U.S. Secretary of State, nervous and anxious in the face of yet another defeat at the United Nations, is pressuring and blackmailing heads of state and government from various countries to change their vote against the blockade in the UN General Assembly,” wrote Rodríguez Parrilla.

The foreign minister added that, through “repeated lies and new actions,” Washington is attempting to silence what he described as an act of collective punishment against the Cuban people and “make the rest of the international community an accomplice to this barbarity.”

On October 27, Cuba will present its annual report, “The Need to End the Economic, Commercial, and Financial Embargo Imposed by the United States of America Against Cuba,” to the General Assembly, which will be put to a vote on October 28. For more than thirty years, the text has received the support of an overwhelming majority of member countries.

Since 1992, the General Assembly has adopted the resolution presented by Cuba on 33 occasions. Each year, the vote has served as a demonstration of international rejection of the sanctions that Washington maintains against the island.

In 2026, the United States has intensified its sanctions policy against Cuba by imposing, since January, an energy blockade aimed at hindering the supply of fuel to the island—the equivalent of a naval blockade. This escalation exacerbates the consequences of the economic, commercial, and financial blockade and has a direct impact on all sectors of Cuban society—from electricity generation and transportation to food production, health services, and economic activity—with serious consequences for the daily lives of the Cuban people.

Cuba is not a threat. The blockade is!