Cuba Must Not Stand Alone: On Oct 27-28, Africa Must With One Voice Stand With Cuba

Let it be categorical and unapologetic from the first line:

Come October 27-28 at UNGA, Africa must with One Voice stand with Cuba. Not abstain. Not whisper. Stand.

For 33 years in a running, except 2020 due to Covid, the world has voted the same way. Since 1992. Last year 165 said end the blockade, 7 said keep it, 12 abstained. The world wins the vote. America loses the vote and keeps the embargo.

That is not democracy. That is empire.

Cuba says the embargo cost $8.08 billion in one year alone. America says it is about human rights.

How do you preach human rights while blocking fuel for hospitals, medicine for children, electricity for 11 million people? That is not policy. That is inhumanity.

THE THREAT BEFORE THE VOTE

On October 21 in Havana, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla did not whisper. He said it plain:

The US State Department is running an unprecedented pressure campaign to kill the vote. Not by lobbying. By threatening.

He named Secretary of State Marco Rubio and UN Ambassador Mike Waltz as personally leading it for months.

Methods now on record:

- Punitive tariffs if you vote with Cuba

- Suspension of cooperation programs

- Visa denial for officials and their families

- Support for opposition parties in your elections

- Encouraging overthrow, destabilizing governments, interfering in electoral processes

- Urging countries to abstain or skip the vote if they won't vote against Cuba

Rodriguez on X:

"It is a new and dangerous way of conducting multilateral diplomacy. It reflects the impotence of those who know they are in the wrong and whose only remaining recourse is force'.

Washington by the time of this publication has not denied it.

Days earlier, Waltz hosted a "Cuba Libre" panel with dissidents at UN headquarters while Cuban Ambassador Ernesto Soberon Guzman confronted him. Waltz told press Cuba "propagates a lie" and later admitted lobbying Europeans with claims about Cuban nationals fighting for Russia.

Africa knows this theatre. When lights go off in Havana, they turn lights on for a panel in New York about freedom. Apartheid did the same. Empire always hosts a conference on liberty while cutting the light.

WHAT IS HAPPENING ON THE ISLAND - THE HUMAN COST

This is the longest embargo in modern history. Since early 1960s. Since January 2026, after Venezuela fuel collapsed, Washington tightened the noose:

Oil ships blocked.

Tariffs threatened on any country that sends fuel.

Banks sanctioned.

Aviation fuel cut.

Tourism choked.

Havana says the result is the worst downturn in decades. Not numbers. People.

Daily blackouts. Grids collapsing. Mothers cooking in darkness. Children studying by candle. Water pumps dead because no power. Clinics with no medicine because no imports. Hospitals with no clean water because pumps failed.

You block fuel, grid fails. Grid fails, hospital fails. Hospital fails, child dies. Then you say, look, they cannot govern.

Africa knows this pain. We buried this pain under sanctions on Zimbabwe. We felt it in Ethiopia's fuel blockade. This is not pressure on a government. This is collective punishment of a people.

Cuba today still tries to build renewable energy with no oil, with no credit, with a blockade on its neck. That is not defiance. That is dignity.

THREE TRUTHS THE WORLD MUST NOT FORGET

_1. A Vote Without Consequence.

UNGA resolution is non-binding. America has lost 33 times. Embargo stays. If 193 cannot enforce against 2, what is UN? If General Assembly cannot lift a 64-year blockade on a small island 90 miles from Florida, what will it do for Palestine? For Western Sahara? For us? Moral theatre does not light Havana. Lifting the blockade does.

2. Threats Are Not Diplomacy. They Are Blackmail.

Vote our way or we sanction you. Vote our way or we deny your family a visa. Vote our way or we fund your opposition.

When small states are threatened for voting conscience, multilateralism dies.

Today it is Cuba. Tomorrow it is any African state that dares trade with who America hates, or vote with who America hates. If you can threaten a UN vote, you can threaten WTO, COP, G20. Africa's 54 votes are next on the list.

3. $8 Billion Is About Sovereignty.

The worst downturn did not happen because Havana woke up oppressive in 2026. It happened because oil ships were turned back at sea, banks were sanctioned, aviation fuel was cut.

You cannot have sovereignty if another capital decides if your plane flies, if your bank clears, if your child's incubator stays on.

AFRICA, THIS IS OUR MOMENT

Africa, remember.

Remember Cuba's doctors in our villages when our hospitals had none. Remember Cuba's scholarships when our children had no schools. Remember Cuba's soldiers in Angola when apartheid tanks rolled.

Cuba never asked for payment. Cuba asked for brotherhood.

Now Cuba asks not for money. Cuba asks for a vote. A free vote without threat.

We have 54 votes. COMESA has 21. SADC has 16. The AU has one voice if we choose.

Our position must be simple, hard, human:

1. End the embargo - 64 years is not policy. It is cruelty.

2. End vote threats - No tariffs, no visa bans for a UN vote. A UN vote is sovereign.

3. End energy blockade - Fuel is not weapon. Medicine is not weapon. Light is not weapon.

Cuba does not need a panel in New York about liberty. Cuba needs oil to keep its hospitals breathing.

ONE VOICE - FINAL PLEA

Let it be categorical and unapologetic in the last line as in the first:

Come October 27-28,2026 at UNGA, Africa must with One Voice stand with Cuba.

Not because Cuba is perfect. No country is.

But because the method is poison. Because if a vote can be bought with a visa and sold with a tariff, then UN is not United Nations. It is United Threats.

Because if Africa allows threats against Cuba today, Africa will be threatened tomorrow.

Because solidarity is not charity. Solidarity is memory. Solidarity is survival.

The world will vote. The world will say end the blockade as it has for 33 years.

History will then ask: What did Africa do when Cuba stood alone in darkness and the world was threatened not to light a candle?

Africa must answer: We stood. With One Voice. With Cuba.

Africa must not abstain. Africa must not whisper. Africa must stand with Cuba.

F Madondo (African Teacher) [email protected]