Guyana’s failure to cast a vote during a crucial United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) debate on the decades-old United States embargo against Cuba has triggered questions about the country’s foreign policy direction and drawn criticism from one of its senior statesmen.
The procedural vote, held on Tuesday, determined whether the General Assembly would proceed with a second debate on the “necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba.”
The motion passed comfortably, with 136 countries voting in favour, nine against and 30 abstaining. Guyana was among the member states recorded as not voting.
The absence has attracted particular attention because Guyana has, for more than half a century, stood among Cuba’s most steadfast diplomatic allies. It also comes while Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, Guyana’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, is the country’s nominee for the post of United Nations Secretary-General, placing Guyana’s diplomacy under even greater international scrutiny.
Up to the time of publication, neither the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation nor Guyana’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations had publicly explained why the country did not participate in the vote.
The development prompted an immediate reaction from former Prime Minister and former Mayor of Georgetown Hamilton Green, who said he was stunned by Guyana’s silence.
“I was horrified to learn that my Guyana did not vote,” Green wrote in a letter published on Wednesday, describing the decision as inconsistent with the country’s long-standing friendship with Cuba.
The debate itself underscored the widening divide between Washington and Havana.
Addressing the General Assembly, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez accused the United States of waging “multidimensional, non-conventional warfare” against Cuba for almost seven decades, arguing that the campaign had become “ever crueler and more ruthless” in recent months.
He said the economic, commercial and financial embargo, coupled with what he described as unprecedented extraterritorial measures, was intended to create a humanitarian crisis and destabilise the country.
“The U.S. government… is spreading the lie that the blockade is not aimed against the Cuban people,” Rodríguez declared.
“You may ask the people of Cuba whether or not they are suffering because of the blockade.”
According to the Cuban foreign minister, the embargo has inflicted cumulative economic losses of US$178.7 billion and continues to undermine the Cuban people’s quality of life, livelihoods and fundamental human rights.
The United States rejected those assertions.
Jeffrey Bartos, the U.S. Representative for United Nations Management and Reform, opposed reopening the issue, calling the debate a misuse of UN resources and accusing Havana of exploiting the General Assembly to advance political propaganda.
“Havana calls this meeting, year after year—and now twice in one session—because it wants to make this Assembly complicit in its machinery of repression,” Bartos said. “It wants the U.N. to buy it another propaganda clip.”
U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz also disputed Cuba’s portrayal of the embargo, arguing that humanitarian exemptions exist for food, medicine and other essential goods, while blaming the Cuban government for the country’s economic crisis.
Against that backdrop, Guyana’s decision not to vote stands out.
Guyana and Cuba established diplomatic relations on December 8, 1972, when Guyana joined Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago in becoming the first English-speaking Caribbean countries to recognize Cuba despite intense Cold War pressure from the United States.
That decision became a defining moment in Caribbean diplomacy and laid the foundation for one of the region’s closest bilateral relationships.
Over the past five decades, Cuba has trained thousands of Guyanese through scholarships in medicine, engineering, education and other disciplines. Cuban doctors, nurses and medical specialists have provided healthcare services throughout Guyana, particularly in remote hinterland communities, while Havana has also supported Guyana through technical cooperation in education, sports, agriculture and disaster response.
Successive Guyanese administrations, regardless of political party, have consistently supported annual United Nations resolutions calling for an end to the U.S. embargo, viewing the sanctions as contrary to international law and harmful to the Cuban people.
Tuesday’s non-vote therefore represents a notable break from Guyana’s traditional diplomatic posture.
The development also comes as Guyana’s strategic relationship with the United States has deepened significantly in recent years through cooperation in oil and gas, security, defence and investment, raising fresh questions about whether Georgetown is recalibrating its foreign policy priorities.
Whether Guyana’s absence resulted from an administrative oversight, a diplomatic calculation or a deliberate policy decision remains unknown.
Until the government explains why it remained silent on one of the United Nations’ most symbolic and closely watched votes, questions are likely to persist over what many see as an unexpected departure from a foreign policy position that Guyana has maintained for more than 50 years.
