The United Nations General Assembly is scheduled to hold an annual vote today calling for an end to the US embargo of Cuba. It will be the first vote on the Cuban embargo to be held since the Obama administration took office. In Cuba, Cuban National Assembly leader Ricardo Alarcon called on Obama to change course.

Ricardo Alarcon: “Mr. Obama wasn’t even born when, there in Washington, in the same White House where he is now, they said the words that started this. Because of this, he cannot be blamed. He inherited this policy, but he has applied it for the last ten months, and because of this, he is just as responsible as his predecessors.”

The non-binding measure regularly passes with an almost unanimous vote. It passed last year with 185 in favor and three opposed — the US, Israel and the Pacific island state of Palau.