When Secretary of State Antony Blinken released a statement this week designed to show how “democracies around the world are coming together” to support oppressed Cubans, the countries not listed as signatories were more notable than the 20 that were.

Among Colombia, Estonia, Israel, South Korea, North Macedonia, Ukraine and others, Canada did not appear. Nor did Spain or major European allies or the European Union.

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), the son of Cuban immigrants who has led a bipartisan push for a tough policy toward Cuba’s communist regime, took note.

“Does Spain care more about Spanish hotel investments [in Cuba] than it does about the human rights of the Cuban people?” Menendez asked in a floor speech Wednesday. “Does Canada place more priority on mining investments than it does on fundamental freedoms? I would hope not.”

President Biden — who campaigned on a promise to “go back” to more normal relations with Cuba following President Donald Trump’s withdrawal — has made international solidarity a top priority as his administration adjusts its posture toward Havana after mass arrests and crackdowns following anti-government demonstrations this month.

But that goal, burdened by history and long-standing disagreements over what to do about Cuba, has become more difficult than expected. Many democracies in the world, including major U.S. partners, have long opposed the half-century U.S. economic embargo against Cuba as a major impediment to both improving the well-being of its citizens and changing the trajectory of its government.

While the head of the United Nations’ human rights body has criticized the events in Cuba, the U.N. General Assembly last week voted 184 to 2 (the United States and Israel objected) to demand an end to the U.S. economic blockade. It was the 29th consecutive year (except during last year’s no-vote pandemic) that the lopsided tally has occurred. Colombia, Ukraine and Brazil abstained.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, who attended for the meeting, called the embargo a “massive, flagrant and unacceptable violation of the human rights of the Cuban people.”

Some countries — particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean — harbor residual resentments and mistrust of U.S. hemispheric hegemony.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Saturday called Cuba an “example of resistance” and praised its ability to stand up to the United States, ABC News reported. He called for the Organization of American States, which has often fallen under U.S. dominance, to be replaced “by a body that is truly autonomous, but not anybody’s lackey.”

Many countries strongly disapprove of the Cuban crackdown and some have independently called for the government of Miguel Díaz-Canel to end abuses, release what human rights groups have said are up to 700 protesters arrested in recent weeks, and allow political and economic freedoms.

In a statement announcing new sanctions against Cuban officials last week, Biden pledged to “work closely with our partners throughout the region, including the Organization of American States, to pressure the regime.”

But a meeting of the OAS Permanent Council, called for Wednesday to address “the situation in Cuba,” was postponed indefinitely after many countries declined to attend.

“It is the considered opinion of our delegations that the proposed convocation of this meeting, which has been called without consultation, would be unproductive and would serve no useful purpose,” the head of the 14-member nations of the Caribbean Community wrote to the council chair.

Cuba was expelled from the OAS in 1962, the Caribbean letter recalled. Although the OAS passed a resolution in 2009 inviting Havana to rejoin, it indicated that Cuba must first indicate that desire. “Cuba has made no effort to rejoin the Organization and has publicly said that it will not do so,” the letter said.

Rodriguez again exulted in what his government clearly saw as a victory. “We thank countries that defended Latin American and Caribbean dignity,” he tweeted Thursday.

A State Department spokesperson said the United States was “deeply disappointed” in the postponement. “OAS member states should not bow to dictators and stem the ability of member states to hear about issues that affect everyone in the region,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

The State Department spokesperson declined to say whether countries such as Canada and Spain were invited to join Blinken’s statement, referring questions to “those countries directly.”

A spokesperson from the Spanish Embassy in Washington said that “Spain decided not to participate in the joint statement published by the United States. . . . Other allies such as France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and Portugal did not partake, either.”

Instead, the spokesperson said, Spain worked on an E.U. statement released Thursday. The statement expressed concern about the “repression” of the Cuban protests, as well as for those arrested, and voiced “unequivocal support” for political and human rights there.

In a direct message to the United States, it noted that “the easing of external restrictions, including on remittances and travel” would be helpful in encouraging internal reforms in Cuba.

A spokesperson at the Canadian Embassy, while not specifically addressing statements by Blinken or Menendez, noted that Canada’s foreign minister expressed concern and “called for the rights of the Cuban people to be respected and upheld” in a call last week with Rodriguez.

In his floor speech, Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, generally praised the administration’s actions thus far, including the new sanctions, and commitments to increase Internet access in Cuba, reinstate remittances that were cut by Trump, and reopen the closed consulate to allow Cubans to obtain U.S. visas.

“The people of Cuba are crying out for freedom,” Menendez said in a lengthy address peppered with Spanish. “And we must hear them. . . . The people of Cuba are speaking out for justice, and we must hear them.”

While some lawmakers have called for engagement and removing the embargo — which can be lifted only by Congress — the administration’s hard line has broad bipartisan support. Menendez and the Foreign Relations Committee’s senior Republican, Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), also a Cuban American, have spoken in concert about the need to continue pushing Havana.

But the issue has illustrated the limits of bipartisanship.

Speaking on “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday, Rubio chastised the administration for not making Cuba a “priority.” One reason, he said, is the presence of “flat-out sympathizers of that regime” in Congress, and “people in the White House, at the National Security Council and in the State Department who are some of the biggest proponents of engagement with the regime. ”

“And then you’ve got people in the base of the Democratic Party that are flat-out Marxists,” Rubio said.

Democrats, still smarting from Biden’s election loss to Trump in Florida, have made clear that they, too, see Cuba as a campaign issue in next year’s midterms.

This week, the Democratic National Committee said it had launched a Spanish and English digital ad campaign in South Florida highlighting “Biden’s continued commitment to the Cuban people and condemnation of communism as a failed system.”