Analysis: Cuba on the Brink
The United States is openly attempting to starve 10 million people in front of the whole world
The oil shipments have stopped. The power grid is at near-total failure. Cuban tankers return to Cuba empty, as countries with a proverbial U.S. gun to their heads are forced to renege on their end of the mutual aid networks agreed upon decades ago. Mexico is still sending humanitarian aid, having just delivered 800 tons of needed goods. Meanwhile, the U.S. is funneling millions to Catholic charities under the guise of aid for Hurricane Melissa in December of 2025.
Not unlike what Israel has done to Palestine for decades, corporate-owned news is glossing over what the United States is unilaterally doing: using starvation as a weapon. They ignore just how far and now much money the U.S. has spent over decades as retaliation against the Cuban people for having liberated themselves from U.S. imperialist rule. Like Haiti, Cuba didn’t just liberate itself; it also helped liberate many nations from a similar fate of being forced to live under the brutality of Western-backed dictators.
Cuba issued a warning to airlines that the fuel to operate has run out. Cubans are cooking their meals over fire. Transportation has all but come to a standstill as Cuba moves to ration its remaining supplies, including food and medicine. The power grid is barely operational, relying on domestic oil production and solar. What Cuba doesn’t have is storage capacity for its new renewable energy program, which provides only a quarter of the needed electricity during the day. At night, the grid can’t keep up.
The situation is dire.
Those who for years supported the U.S.’s starvation of a mostly nonwhite Cuban population while pretending to care about the Cuban people are exposing themselves when they celebrate the harm being done, and in many cases, making a mockery of the starvation of 10 million people. Like Venezuela, the decades-old lies have been exposed, thanks in large part to the outright incompetence of the Trump administration. Decades of propaganda washed away in just one year as the White House exposes its long-standing dominion-seeking agenda over the region and the world.
All of this is barely a blip on mainstream media’s radar in the U.S. The similarities between what the United States is doing to Cuba and what Israel is doing to Palestine cannot be ignored. How the media is handling this story, alongside the celebration and reactions from those who support such actions, is prevalent. Like many lawmakers who are silent about these illegal actions against Cuba, the corporate media refuses to criticize Trump or call it what it is because it supports these imperialist actions globally. Pundits won’t criticize it for fear of being labeled a “communist” or as a supporter of so-called “dictatorships.”
Meanwhile, all the aforementioned groups blindly support ethnic cleansing and genocide as long as U.S weapons are being used and bolstering the economy, and their already fat wallets. They operate in a world of rationalizing atrocity and death to justify the overt U.S. corporate influence over these conversations. They ignore the inherent racism behind the propaganda against the Cuban people that originated in the colonization era. They ignore that U.S.-backed dictators on the island historically oppressed nonwhite and marginalized groups while overlooking that the immediate desegregation under Fidel Castro led to the white flight out of Cuba.
That propaganda is the driving factor today. The starvation of the Cuban people, my Cuban people, is just as much about imperialism and dominion from the U.S. government as it is about the racism being driven by white Cuban-American hardliners with far too much influence in U.S. politics. Decades of blockades, embargoes, sanctions, and terrorist attacks that have led to suffering and death aren’t enough for them.
Hardliners complain that Cuba isn’t democratic (it is) while advocating for the least democratic actions in human existence, as they long for an era of U.S.-backed dictators. They complain that Cuba is a “one-party” society while advocating for a far-right, oppressive, and largely fascist government identical to those under Spanish and U.S. rule. Cubans are suffering as these hardliners sit in the comfortable mansions, getting fat and collecting tons of money, celebrating the harm they have contributed to. They don’t care about people. They care about power.
The U.S. has occupied Cuba for more than 100 years. The Cuban people are not willing to relent. Talk of collapse always follows new sanctions. They’ve never succeeded. Go home, yanquis.
Cuban President Responds
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez responds to a question last week about Cuba being placed on the State Sponsor of Terrorism list (SSOT) and how it’s used as a political weapon against Cuba.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez responds to a question about Cuba’s energy crisis, highlighting Cuba’s renewable energy plan.
Watch the Full 2-Hour press conference.
I’m an independent journalist digging deeper into the stories you see or don’t see on the news. Find my work at Unicorn Riot, The Antagonist Magazine, Latino Rebels, Orinoco Tribune, and more. I’m also on TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, and Threads. To support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber or making a donation via Venmo, PayPal, or Cash App.
Cuba hang in there….rest of the world is with you….
Thanks Arturo for your insights into the US blockade of Cuba. It seems to me that there should be more coverage of the impact of the blockade on the lives of the citizens of Cuba. I have been following your writings and podcasts for a couple of months now and find them very interesting and informative. The reality is I know almost nothing about our neighbors in Central and South America as well as the Caribbean (and anyone else I missed) because although I try to stay informed there really is not much coverage other than a lot of, what I would consider, fear mongering (I.e, drug cartels everywhere). Keep up the good work! Much appreciated!