Venezuela and Cuba address human rights and sanctions at UN

During the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, representatives from Venezuela and Cuba addressed the international community regarding human rights and economic sovereignty.

Joaquín Pérez Ayestarán, Venezuela’s Vice Minister for Multilateral Affairs, called for a comprehensive and indivisible approach to human rights. He urged the international community to reject the politization of these issues and instead promote global cooperation based on mutual respect, sovereignty, and non-intervention. Ayestarán emphasized the need for impartial and trustworthy international bodies to avoid double standards.

In a separate intervention commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Declaration on the Right to Development, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla criticized the current international economic order. He described the United States' economic blockade against Cuba as a criminal energy siege designed to cause humanitarian damage. Rodríguez Parrilla argued that unilateral coercive measures and secondary sanctions create an unsustainable and dangerous global order that threatens the self-determination of all nations.