CRI听力:UN Votes to Condemn US Embargo against Cuba

The U.N. General Assembly has once-again voted overwhelmingly to condemn the decades-long U.S. economic embargo of Cuba.

The symbolic vote has passed by a count of 188 to 2.

The US and Israel voted against it, with Palau, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands abstaining.

This is the same outcome as the vote last year.

Alicia Barcena is the United Nations Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

"Today, it seems to me, that the United States is losing more with the embargo than even Cuba is."

The US economic embargo of Cuba has been in place since late 1960, and was launched in response to the Cuban nationalization of numerous US interests in the country at the time.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez.

"The humanitarian damage is growing. Right now, 77 percent of all Cubans have been born under the current US embargo."

Despite the overwhelming vote in the UN General Assembly, the United States continues to insist its policies are warranted.

Ronald Godard is the senior US advisor for Western Hemisphere affairs.

"Our sanctions toward Cuba are part of our overall effort to help the Cuban people freely exercise their human rights and fundamental freedoms and determine their own future, consistent with the universal declaration of human rights and the democratic principles to which the United Nations itself is committed. We therefore stand in opposition to this resolution."

Adoption of the resolution has become an annual ritual.

The General Assembly's vote is non-binding and symbolic.

Any resolution to end the US embargo of Cuba would have to be passed by the UN Security Council, which the United States holds a veto as one of the five permanent members.