The United Nations General Assembly voted 184 to 2 Wednesday on a resolution demanding an end to the 60-year U.S. economic blockade on Cuba, which has devastated the economy of the island nation. Only the United States and Israel voted against it. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla blasted the embargo as a massive human rights violation — particularly as Cuba works to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla: “This is made visible by the lengthy lines which every day overwhelm the Cuban people in the midst of a pandemic to access basic goods, by the shop shelves that are empty and the unbridled increase in food prices. … The blockade is a massive, flagrant and systematic violation of the human rights of all of the Cuban people. Pursuant to Article II, subparagraph (c), of the Geneva Convention of 1948, the blockade constitutes an act of genocide.”

It was the 29th straight year the General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to condemn the U.S. embargo on Cuba.