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Brazil, which so far voted for the resolution to lift the embargo against Cuba, for the first time voted against (illustrative image). RFI / Isabelle Le Gonidec

For the 28th consecutive year, the UN General Assembly has voted in favor of a draft resolution for the lifting of the embargo imposed on Cuba by the United States. Not surprisingly, the draft resolution was voted almost unanimously, without the voices of Israel and the United States. Only one novelty: Brazil, which so far voted for the resolution, voted for the first time.

With our correspondent in New York, Carrie Nooten

On the screen of the UN General Assembly, while the election results showed a cloud of green dots next to the countries that voted in favor of the resolution calling for the end of the economic and financial trade blockade from Cuba, a red dot joined the usually purple mentions of the United States and Israel: Brazil.

This is the first time, and it confirms the effort of rapprochement of the United States by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Despite the advice of his government not to change the usual Brazilian vote, the far right president has given the order to stand out.

Former captain of the army, he has never hidden his aversion to the left-wing regimes in Latin America nor for the foreign policy his predecessors have done to Cuba.

In taking a stand for the embargo imposed by Washington however, Brasilia may put in trouble his own commercial interests in Cuba. And at a regional level, this decision weakens the unanimous position of Latin American countries urging the United States and Cuba to resume dialogue, as tensions escalate between the two countries.