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(Adds comment by Brazilian president)
By Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Brazil voted for the first
time with the United States on Thursday against an annual United
Nations resolution condemning and calling for an end to
Washington's economic embargo on Communist-ruled Cuba, while
Colombia and Ukraine abstained.
The 193-member General Assembly still overwhelmingly adopted
the resolution for the 28th year with 187 votes in favor. U.S.
ally Israel also voted no and Moldova did not vote. The U.N.
vote can carry political weight, but only the U.S. Congress can
lift the more than 50-year-old embargo.
The policy shift by Brazil represents the latest attempt by
President Jair Bolsonaro to draw closer to U.S. President Donald
Trump since taking office in January but runs against the
interest of some major Brazilian firms.
Brazil's Souza Cruz Ltda, owned by British American Tobacco
PLC, has a joint venture in Havana that makes most of
the cigarettes in Cuba. Traditionally, Brazil has objected to
how the U.S. applied its domestic politics to foreign policy,
punishing companies from countries that trade or invest in Cuba.
But the country's right-wing president said Brazil would now
back the embargo.
"Is Cuba a democracy? No. It's a dictatorship and should be
treated as such," Bolsonaro said in a live online broadcast.
His foreign minister Ernesto Araujo said Cuba was a
communist state that had not stopped exporting revolution and
was propping up Venezuela's government, which he called "the
worst dictatorship in the history of the continent."
"It's time to stop flattering Cuba. The influence Cuba has
over developing countries in the U.N. system is shameful and
should be broken," Araujo said on Twitter.
Colombia's abstention follows a chill in its relations with
Cuba.
Cuba once hosted peace talks between Colombia and its
National Liberation Army (ELN) rebel group, but Havana's refusal
to extradite three guerrilla commanders after negotiations broke
down has led to repeated criticism from the government of
President Ivan Duque.
Colombia abstained from the vote because of Cuba's "hostile
attitude" toward its extradition requests for the "confessed
terrorists" and its support for Venezuelan President Nicolas
Maduro, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The United States consistently voted against the U.N.
resolutions for 24 years but abstained for the first time in
2016 under former President Barack Obama, as Washington and
Havana forged a closer relationship.
Relations have deteriorated sharply under Trump, returning
to Cold War characterizations of Cuba and tightening trade and
travel restrictions that had been eased by Obama.
"The United States is not responsible for the Cuban regime's
endless abuses of its people," U.S. Ambassador to the United
Nations Kelly Craft told the General Assembly ahead of the vote.
"It is our first responsibility as leaders to defend those
without a voice, today most especially the people of Cuba. Shame
be upon us if we refuse to raise our voices in defense of
theirs," Craft said.
Last year the United States proposed eight amendments to the
resolution to push Cuba to improve its human rights record, but
all of the proposals failed.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez rejected U.S.
criticism of Cuba's human rights record, accusing Washington of
manipulating "human rights for political purposes and we reject
double standards."
"The U.S. government does not have the slightest moral
authority to criticize Cuba or any other country when it comes
to human rights," he told the U.N. General Assembly, citing an
opioid crisis, gun violence, poverty and unemployment in the
United States.
(Additional reporting by Julia Cobb in Bogota, Lisandra
Paraguassu and Anthony Boadle in Brasilia; Editing by Chizu
Nomiyama, Grant McCool and Daniel Wallis)
