OMNI

CUBA and US IMPERIALISM ANTHOLOGY #14
May 24, 2026

Compiled by Dick Bennett
https://omnicenter.org/donate

What’s at Stake: Sixty years ago the people of Cuba overthrew the Batista dictatorship and its capitalism and replaced it with a plan for democratic socialism. For sixty years the US has done everything it could legally and illegally, against established principles of international law and the UN Charter, including a land invasion (which failed), to undermine that revolution. Steadily the US has illegally tightened its squeeze on the Cuban economy, include a blockade of many essential materials and commodities. All along a few nations like Mexico tried to assist Cuba, and they too were punished or threatened with sanctions. Again Russia and a few other countries are attempting to help the desperate nation. Lawless USA’s response: threaten worse punishments and indict Raul Castro.

CONTENTS

US IMPERIALISM

Medea Benjamin. “The Indictment of Raúl Castro A New Low in U.S. Cuba Policy.”
Gary Wilson. “US Revives Old CIA Provocation To Threaten Cuba with Invasion”
Gary Wilson. “US Starves Cuba Of Fuel, Then Sends CIA Chief with Ultimatum.”
Eric Ross. “Our Long War on Cuba.”
Tyler Wann. “US Media Blame the Victim.”
Colonel (Ret.) Ann Wright. “Cuba Operating on Fumes While Rubio Smirks. . . .”
“OAS Rights Commission Joins War on Cuban Doctors.”
Manolo de Los Santos. “The US War on Cuba Enters Its Most Brutal Phase.”

RESISTANCE
Brett Wilkins. Preparing for Invasion.
Pablo Iglesias. “Diaz-Canel.”
Russia Breaks Blockade (3 articles).

Saney and Early. “Cuba in a Time of Crisis.”
Abby Martin & Matthew Belen (Film): “Invitation to World Premiere of Cuba documentary.”
Dick’s Comment on control of information in the US.
Let Cuba Live T-Shirt.
Struggle - La Lucha. “April 19: Stand Against The Threat Of Imperialist Aggression On Cuba.”

Vijay Prashad. “Cuba is Not Afraid: The Twelfth Newsletter.”
Marjorie Cohn. “Resisting Regime Change in Cuba.”
Belly of the Beast. “’An Act of War’: U.S. Lawmakers Condemn Blockade on Cuba.”
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-IL) traveled to Cuba last week.”
“Hundreds of Cuban Women Rally Against U.S. Blockade.”
“Belly of the Beast Recommends.”
“Teresita’s Dream at Havana Film Festival in NYC.”
Cuba: Health Under Sanction: Belly’s Film on the "Longlist" for One World Award.
Belly of the Beast Continues (a major source of outside the Beast information!)

6:17 AM (1 hour ago)

TEXTS

HISTORY

Abby Martin & Matthew Belen Film: “Invitation to World Premiere of Cuba Documentary.” This film, like most of the articles on US/Cuban relations, is saturated with the history. Know that history and you will march with the resisters of US aggressions.

US OPPRESSION OF CUBA

“The Indictment of Raúl Castro A New Low in U.S. Cuba Policy” by Medea Benjamin.
Forwarded by David Druding: Good morning Amigas de Palestina/Amigos of Palestine, AR AntiwarAlliance & friends of Cuba. This unwarranted Trump attack against struggling Cuba & their 94 yr old revolutionary hero, Raul Castro, is just more pandering to the reactionary Cuban expats in Miami & another example of more wars of choice provocations against US's neighbors. What do you think about making organizational public statements condemning this increasingly belligerent attack on Cuba by the Trump regime? Central American Peace Action, CAPA, has not been active here in NW AR for several decades but this injustice by the Trump regime should be denounced the same as US/Israeli genocide in the Middle East. Venceremos para Cuba!

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Medea Benjamin from Medea’s Substack <medeabenjamin@substack.com> Date: Wed, May 20, 2026.

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more.

“The Indictment of Raúl Castro A New Low in U.S. Cuba Policy”

By Medea Benjamin. May 21, 2026.

President Barack Obama meets with Cuban President Raúl Castro at the Summit of the Americas in Panama City, April 11, 2015. (Official White House photo)

So apparently the Trump administration has decided that what Cuba really needs right now — after decades of economic strangulation, CIA assassination attempts, sabotage campaigns, invasions, sanctions, blackouts, shortages, and more than half a century of failed regime-change policy — is the indictment of 94-year-old revolutionary icon Raúl Castro.

The United States and Cuba do not have to be enemies. In fact, just 10 years ago, the two countries were normalizing relations. I was in Panama City at the 2015 Summit of the Americas when, to the delight of everyone there, Barack Obama and Raúl Castro famously shook hands, marking the first substantial public interaction between leaders of the two countries in decades. Obama said, “The United States is not interested in being prisoners of the past,” while Raúl Castro thanked Obama for taking steps toward normalization and called him “an honest man.” The opening was a win-win for both countries: an influx of U.S. tourists, a flourishing of private businesses, and new openings for civil society. Then came Donald Trump, who sent relations spiraling downward once again.

Fast forward to today, with the indictment of Raúl Castro for allegedly ordering the 1996 shootdown of the Brothers to the Rescue planes. I was in Cuba at the time. It was a tragic and regrettable incident in which four men were killed. I wish the Cuban government had not done it — not only because of the lives lost, but also because it hardened political attitudes toward Cuba for years to come, paving the way for the codification of the U.S. blockade into law.
But it’s critical to understand the context.
The group’s leader, José Basulto, was a veteran of the disastrous 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion with a long history of anti-Cuban militancy. He openly admitted, “I was trained as a terrorist by the United States.” The group repeatedly violated Cuban airspace and dropped anti-government leaflets over Havana. Basulto himself declared after one such mission: “We want confrontation.” Between 1994 and February 1996, the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cuban civil aviation authorities documented more than 25 serious and systematic violations of Cuban airspace by aircraft associated with Brothers to the Rescue.

The Cuban government repeatedly warned Washington, the FAA, and international aviation authorities that these flights were illegal and dangerous. U.S. officials knew the risks. The National Security Archive’s declassified records, published on May 19, 2026, reveal that high-level U.S. officials understood that continued Cuban airspace violations could lead to disaster. An FAA email from January 22, 1996 — one month before the shootdown — explicitly warned of the “worst case scenario” that “one of these days the Cubans will shoot down one of these planes.” The same document acknowledged that State Department officials understood the overflights could “only be seen as further taunting of the Cuban Government.”

On February 23, 1996, White House Cuba adviser Richard Nuccio warned National Security Advisor Sandy Berger that “tensions are sufficiently high within Cuba… that we fear this may finally tip the Cubans toward an attempt to shoot down or force down the plane.” Yet the FAA refused Nuccio’s request to ground the flights.

While there is disagreement over whether the planes were ultimately shot down in Cuban or international airspace, the pilots had reportedly filed a false flight plan and again approached Cuban airspace despite direct warnings from Cuban controllers.

The hypocrisy of indicting Raúl Castro nearly 30 years later is staggering, given the long history of anti-Cuban extremists operating from U.S. soil to wreak havoc against the island with bombings, sabotage, and airline terrorism. In 1976, terrorists bombed Cubana Flight 455, killing all 73 people onboard, including the entire Cuban national fencing team. In 1997, a 32-year-old Italian tourist was killed in a hotel bombing aimed at destroying Cuba’s tourism industry. Yet men implicated in these horrific acts, including Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles, were protected by U.S. authorities and allowed to live freely in Miami.

And let’s remember: the same U.S. government now pursuing charges against Raúl Castro has itself been carrying out deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, strikes that have killed at least 193 people since September 2025, with no transparency or due process.

This new indictment is simply a cynical escalation in the long U.S. effort to force regime change in Cuba. Will Washington try to use it as a pretext to invade the island and “extract” Raúl Castro, as it did with Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela? Will it once again send U.S. troops to occupy Cuba, as it did in 1898, 1906, and 1912? Will it ignite a civil war? We have no idea.

But we do know this: despite unfounded allegations to the contrary, Cuba poses no threat to the United States. And the United States has absolutely no right — zero — to interfere in Cuba’s internal affairs.

Raúl Castro is 94 years old. Let him live out his final years in the country where he was born and for which he fought his entire life. Instead of tightening the blockade and pushing Cuba toward greater poverty, instability, migration, and despair, the United States should finally abandon its failed policy of domination, lift the sanctions, and allow Cubans — not Washington politicians or Miami hardliners — to decide Cuba’s future.

Pledge your support

Gary Wilson., “US Revives Old CIA Provocation To Threaten Cuba With Invasion” Struggle - La Lucha. May 17, 2026. Educate! [VFP-all] Fowarded by Gerry Condon [VFP-all].

The Justice Department is moving to indict 94-year-old Raúl Castro, one of the historic leaders of the Cuban Revolution, over Cuba’s 1996 shootdown of two planes flown by Brothers to the Rescue — not a humanitarian group, but one arm of a U.S.-created anti-Cuba terrorist network rooted in the CIA’s war against the Cuban Revolution.

Gary Wilson. “US Starves Cuba Of Fuel, Then Sends CIA Chief With Ultimatum.” Struggle - La Lucha (May 15, 2026). Educate! Forwarded by Gerry Condon [VFP-all]. Sat, May 16, 5:11 PM (17 hours ago)

This is how imperialist siege works in practice: not only through soldiers and warships, but through oil contracts, shipping insurance, banks, tariffs and sanctions — the everyday machinery of monopoly capital — that decide whether a hospital has power.

Cuba’s energy minister declared May 14 that the island had exhausted its entire supply of diesel and fuel oil — the fuels that power its electricity grid. “We have absolutely no fuel oil, absolutely no diesel. We have no more reserves,” Vicente de la O Levy said in a televised statement. Hours later, CIA Director John Ratcliffe flew to Havana with Washington’s demand for “fundamental changes.”

That sequence tells the story. U.S. imperialism first tightened the fuel siege. Then it sent the head of the CIA to deliver the political ultimatum. A CIA official said Ratcliffe carried a direct message from President Trump: the U.S. is “prepared to seriously engage on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba makes fundamental changes.” Ratcliffe urged the Cuban side to take a lesson from the Jan. 3 operation in which U.S. forces kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The message was clear: comply or face the same fate.

The human cost of Washington’s blockade is not abstract. It is measured in darkened homes, hospital wards, broken equipment, uncollected garbage and infants who should have lived. . . . https://popularresistance.org/us-starves-cuba-of-fuel-then-sends-cia-chief-with-ultimatum/

Eric Ross. “Our Long War on Cuba.” LA Progressive (May 14, 2026).

Since 1959, Washington has pursued a singular, near-fanatical obsession with reversing the Cuban Revolution and restoring the neocolonial shackles it once imposed on the island. . . https://www.laprogressive.com/author/eric-ross

Eric Ross is an organizer, educator, and PhD candidate in the history department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Domination Through Information Control
Tyler Wann. “US Media Blame the Victim.”
. . . U.S. journalists have consistently leaned into the U.S. government’s framing of the issue: that the country’s Communist government is largely or exclusively to blame for its financial woes (FAIR.org, 11/4/24).

As the Trump regime tightens the screws of the embargo by further restricting oil access to the country, a move that has been condemned by UN human rights experts as a further violation of international law (New York Times, 2/13/26), legacy media continue to toe the government’s line on the issue, with coverage that is either low on context or outright stenography. . . .

AI Overview

Tyler Wann’s article "As Washington Succeeds in Wrecking Cuba's Economy, US Media Blame the Victim" (published by the progressive watchdog group FAIR) critiques how legacy US news outlets cover Cuba. [1, 2]

Key arguments in the piece include:

The Core Thesis: Wann argues that US media outlets disproportionately blame the Cuban government for its domestic economic crises and shortages, while largely ignoring or minimizing the impact of harsh US embargoes and sanctions.

Media Complicity: The article contends that mainstream publications frequently echo official government narratives, framing the economic hardship, energy restrictions, and desperation in Cuba strictly as a failure of the island's economic model.

Historical Context: Wann points to the long-standing US policy—aimed at causing sufficient economic hardship to spur regime change—as the root driver of the country's economic struggles. [1, 2, 3, 4]

You can read the full critique directly on FAIR.org. [1]

Colonel (Ret.) Ann Wright. “Cuba Operating on Fumes While Rubio Smirks and Trump Changes His Mind on the Inhumane and Criminal U.S. Fuel Blockade of Cuba.” CovertAction Magazine (4-12-26).

As 700 international solidarity citizens visited Cuba last weekend, Cuban-American Secretary of State Marco Rubio smirked at the humanitarian disaster his and Trump’s policies were wreaking on Cuba, a small island nation of around 11 million people only 90 miles off the tip of Florida. Rubio had predicted the Cuban government would fall from the disastrous policies, particularly the blockade of fuel to the island. [Ann Wright, born Bentonville, AR., has been a guest of OMNI several times.]

But Rubio’s plan was partially upended on Sunday night, March 29, when President Donald J. Trump decided to allow a Russian oil tanker carrying 100 tons of oil to deliver it to Cuba.... READ MORE →

Liz’s interview with the two lawmakers was featured and cited in international media coverage, from CBS News Miami to Spanish outlet El Salto, and shared by Jayapal herself.

“We are strangling the Cuban people”

The lawmakers’ trip comes as Cuba grapples with the most severe phase yet of a protracted energy crisis precipitated by ramped up U.S. economic warfare over the last eight years.

Last January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order threatening tariffs on any country supplying oil to Cuba. Venezuelan shipments, which had provided a large portion of the island’s fuel, had already stopped following President Nicolás Maduro’s abduction earlier that month. Mexico, a major supplier of fuel to Cuba, also ceased oil deliveries due to U.S. pressure.

Until a Russian-flagged tanker docked at the port of Matanzas on March 31, the island had gone some three months without receiving significant oil deliveries.

Jayapal, a former chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus who visited Cuba in February 2024, said the change since her last trip was striking. “Even then so many of the streets of this beautiful city were deserted. People were already lining up for food. But now you see it even more clearly.”

The moment that seemed to hit hardest for the two members of Congress was a visit to the neonatal intensive care unit of a Havana maternity hospital, where premature babies as light as two pounds lay in incubators dependent on electricity to survive. Power cuts — a daily reality across Cuba — put those machines at risk. “It was heartbreaking,” Jayapal told Liz. “I don’t think that any American wants to create this kind of devastation for the Cuban children, for the babies, for the moms.” The lawmakers described the cascade of consequences flowing from the fuel shortage: collapsed food production, water pumps failing, children unable to get to school and cancer patients cut off from treatment.

“We are strangling the Cuban people,” Jayapal said.

“A new moment” Jayapal and Jackson said they met with a wide range of people during their visit, including President Miguel Díaz-Canel and Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, members of the Cuban parliament, religious leaders, civil society organizations, entrepreneurs, humanitarian groups, dissidents, and Latin American and African ambassadors.

During the delegation’s visit, the Cuban government announced the release of more than 2,000 prisoners in what it described as a humanitarian gesture. Cuba has also received an FBI team to conduct an independent investigation into a fatal shooting involving a U.S.-registered speedboat. Both, Jayapal argued, signal the Cuban government's openness, a sentiment she said Cuban leaders had echoed in their meetings.

“This is a new moment,” said Jayapal. “We can talk to Russia, we can talk to China,” said Jackson. “Of course we can talk to the Cubans.” In late March, Jayapal introduced legislation alongside Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, to block Trump from using federal funding to use military force against Cuba without congressional authorization.

In recent years, Democratic lawmakers have repeatedly introduced legislation to ease restrictions on Cuba or lift the embargo. But those efforts have not led to new laws or meaningful changes in policy. Still, Jayapal said she sees signs of growing momentum, driven by wider recognition that decades of sanctions have hurt people both in Cuba and the United States. “The more we tell the stories of people who are suffering, the more Americans will understand that sanctions don’t just target governments — they hurt ordinary people,” she said.

OAS CAVES AGAIN
“OAS Rights Commission Joins War on Cuban Doctors.” The Organization of American States’ Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) published a report this week that essentially endorses the Trump administration’s war on Cuba’s medical missions.

The report, titled “Labor rights of healthcare personnel in medical missions from Cuba,” describes the missions as “forced labor” and asks member states of the OAS to abandon their bilateral agreements with Cuba on healthcare.

The IACHR chose the Museum of the Cuban Diaspora as the venue to present the report. The Museum is a stronghold for Cuban-American hardliners who champion Trump’s economic war on Cuba.

The commission's findings bolster the Trump administration’s campaign to smear the missions, part of the larger goal of pressuring countries to cut ties with Cuba. Since last year, the U.S. has succeeded in pressuring at least eight countries in Central America and the Caribbean to pull out of the medical missions, jeopardizing the healthcare of thousands in the region.

Two of the IACHR commissioners partially dissented. Roberta Clarke, a Barbadian lawyer, pointed to “serious methodological limitations,” including using abuses that allegedly occurred in Venezuela to generalize about countries around the region. Andrea Pochak, an Argentine lawyer, criticized the report’s authors for refusing to address ambiguities and generalizations.

“Taking into account publicly available information indicating that some governments in the region may be under pressure to end existing cooperation agreements…the report should have warned much more emphatically about the risks of its instrumentalization for purposes different from those stated by the IACHR in bringing visibility to this human rights situation. This is especially relevant considering the source of funding that made the preparation of this report possible,” wrote Pochak, who did not disclose the report's funding source.

To learn more about how the IACHR seems to have been commandeered by the Trump administration, check out our article “The OAS Caves to U.S. Pressure Yet Again.”

Manolo de Los Santos. “The US War On Cuba Enters Its Most Brutal Phase .” People's Dispatch. Popular Resistance.org (2-1-26). In the stillness of a Havana night, the only sounds are the hum of a generator in a distant hospital and the murmur of a family gathered in candlelight. For them, “US national security” is not an abstract concept debated on American cable news; it is the tangible reality of a 20-hour blackout, the smell of spoiled food, and the fear for a child’s refrigerated medicine. This is the face of a policy that the United States government calls a response to an “extraordinary threat.” The true threat, however, is not military. It is the 67-year defiance of a small island nation that has refused to relinquish its sovereignty. -more-

THE VENEZUELAN KIDNAPPING AND CUBA?

“President Maduro’s trial will not bring justice, but it can weaken U.S. imperialism.” Editor. mronline.org (4-5-26). [Trump has threatened to go beyond sanctions v. Cuba. –D]

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife and congresswoman, Cilia Flores, made their second appearance Thursday in a New York court, three months after being abducted by U.S. forces in a large-scale illegal strike against Venezuela that killed at least 100 people.

Originally published: Orinoco Tribune on April 2, 2026 by Andreína Chávez Alava (more by Orinoco Tribune) (Posted Apr 04, 2026).

Empire, Imperialism, Incarceration, Inequality Americas, United States, Venezuela Newswire First Fighter Lady Cilia Flores, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

. . .International law experts concur that the trial against President Maduro lacks legitimacy, but more importantly, it constitutes the extension of an act of war that took place on January 3 with a U.S. military operation against Venezuela that flagrantly violated international law. It is impossible to talk about justice when the starting point of what is happening in the Manhattan courthouse is the illegal abduction of a sovereign head of state. . . .

RESISTANCE

Preparing for Invasion
Brett Wilkens. “Tens of Thousands Rally in Havana Against US Aggression as Cuba Prepares Citizens for War.” Common Dreams (May 22, 2026). Forwarded by Gerry ondon via uark.onmicrosoft.com [VFP-all]

"Here we are prepared to fight imperialism,” said Cuban lawmaker Mariela Castro, daughter of Raúl Castro. “Cuba is a small and poor country, but one with experience confronting US imperialism.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/cuba-prepares-for-us-war

“Díaz-Canel: We are willing to give our lives for the Revolution.” Editor. mronline.org (4-1-26).

Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, recently gave an interview to Spanish political scientist Pablo Iglesias Turrión on the digital platform Canal Red, which was broadcast on the program Mesa Redonda.

Originally published: Granma on March 27, 2026 by Cubadebate - Pablo Iglesias (more by Granma) (Posted Mar 31, 2026)

Human Rights, Movements, Revolutions, Strategy Americas, Cuba Interview, Newswire President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez

The discussion addressed issues related to Cuba’s current situation, the impact of the economic, commercial, and financial blockade imposed by the U.S. government, and recent acts of international solidarity.The conversation provided insight into the Caribbean nation’s internal and external challenges, as well as the government’s stance on the humanitarian flotilla announced in recent days.

Pablo Iglesias: The fascists currently in power in the United States have learned very well from their Nazi role models the Goebbels-style principle that a lie repeated a thousand times can become the truth.

Miguel Díaz-Canel: We are very grateful to you for this opportunity you are giving us to speak to the European public, to the Spanish public, because those truths are constantly being distorted by media disinformation, by that narrative of lies and slander. . . .

RUSSIA BREAKS BLOCKADE

“Russia deploys tankers with fuel aid for Cuba in push to break U.S. blockade.” Editor. mronline.org 3-22-26.

Originally published: The Cradle on March 19, 2026 by News Desk (more by The Cradle)(Posted Mar 21, 2026).

Empire, Movements, State Repression, Strategy Americas, Cuba, Europe, Russia, United States Newswire Oil

Two Russian tankers carrying hundreds of thousands of barrels-worth of oil are heading to Cuba in defiance of Washington’s energy blockade against the island nation. According to multiple reports and tanker-tracking data, the Sea Horse and the Anatoly Kolodkin are heading to Cuba with 930,000 barrels of gas and oil combined. The Anatoly Kolodkin, owned by Russian state shipping firm Sovcomflot, is set to unload at Matanzas Oil Terminal north of Cuba on 23 March, according to Kpler.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry stated on 18 March that it was ready to “provide Cuba with the necessary support, including material support.”

Cuba has been under a trade embargo for over 60 years, starting after the Cuban revolution and the overthrow of the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship.

U.S. President Donald Trump has recently tightened this siege to starve the nation of energy imports. At the start of the year, he signed an executive order threatening tariffs on countries assisting Cuba.

Due to the U.S. blockade, the island has been facing a severe energy crisis, with constant blackouts and fuel shortages. It also faces an exacerbated food security crisis and increasing poverty.

Cuba experienced a total power outage this week. Millions of Cubans were without electricity for around 30 hours after the power grid collapsed.

Most parts of the country were reconnected as of 19 March, but authorities warned that severe fuel shortages continued to pose a serious threat to electricity generation.

“You know, all my life I’ve been hearing about the United States and Cuba. When will the United States do it? I do believe I’ll be … having the honor of taking Cuba. Whether I free it, take it–think I could do anything I want with it. You want to know the truth. They’re a very weakened nation right now,” Trump said on Monday as the outages hit Cuba.

According to a New York Times (NYT) report, U.S. officials have told Cuba to remove its president from power.

Since the blockade began, Russia has repeatedly vowed to assist Cuba and provide it with energy.

On Thursday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum also declared her country is working to resume fuel shipments to the Caribbean nation. . . .

“Russian oil tanker arrives in Cuba with humanitarian aid.” Editor. mronline.org (4-1-26).

Originally published: Radio Havana Cuba, edited on March 30, 2026 by Ed Newman (more by Radio Havana Cuba, edited)(Posted Mar 31, 2026). Imperialism, Inequality, Movements, Strategy Americas, Cuba, Europe, Russia Newswire Oil

The ship is carrying approximately 100,000 tons of oil classified as humanitarian aid, in a context marked by a severe energy crisis affecting the Caribbean island.

“Russian Oil Tanker Brings Help For Cuba” By W. T. Whitney, Jr., People's World. Popular Resistance.org (4-1-26). Streets and hospital corridors at night in Cuba are dark. Cars and buses don’t move. Cubans walk or ride bicycles. Trucks don’t arrive to remove trash, and so it burns. Offices, production units, and operating rooms are closed down. Older people and babies are dying when they shouldn’t have to. It’s been more than three months since a regularly scheduled oil tanker arrived in Cuba’s ports, with all incoming energy shipments halted since the U.S. government on Jan. 29 imposed punishing tariffs on any nation sending oil to Cuba. Finally, this past weekend, came a reprieve -more-

“Democracy Under Siege: Popular Participation and Socialist Renewal in Cuba in a Time of Crisis by

Mronline. By Isaac Saney and James Count Early . 3-31-26.

In a context defined by extreme scarcity, intensified blockade pressure, and deep structural constraints, Cuba insists that the people must remain protagonists of the country’s political policy making and economic reconstruction.
(Posted Mar 30, 2026). Capitalism, Democracy, Empire, Imperialism, Marxism, Movements, Philosophy, Political Economy, Revolutions, Socialism, Strategy Americas, Cuba, United States Commentary Featured.

Originally published: Granma on March 27, 2026 by Cubadebate - Pablo Iglesias (more by Granma) | (Posted Mar 31, 2026)

Human Rights, Movements, Revolutions, Strategy Americas, Cuba Interview, Newswire President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez

Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, recently gave an interview to Spanish political scientist Pablo Iglesias Turrión on the digital platform Canal Red, which was broadcast on the program Mesa Redonda

The discussion addressed issues related to Cuba’s current situation, the impact of the economic, commercial, and financial blockade imposed by the U.S. government, and recent acts of international solidarity. The conversation provided insight into the Caribbean nation’s internal and external challenges, as well as the government’s stance on the humanitarian flotilla announced in recent days.

Miguel Díaz-Canel:We are very grateful to you for this opportunity you are giving us to speak to the European public, to the Spanish public, because those truths are constantly being distorted by media disinformation, by that narrative of lies and slander. . . .

Knowledge of the Past Essential

Abby Martin & Matthew Belen Film: “Invitation to World Premiere of Cuba Documentary.” The People's Forum <info@peoplesforum.org> Apr 13, 2026.

[TICKETS AND EVENT HAVE ENDED, BUT HERE IS SOME TEXT. https://www.laprogressive.com/foreign-policy/the-united-states-long-war-on-cuba?mc_cid=38653df950&mc_eid=6b3db66a6e --D]
Dear friend, We would like to invite you to join us for the world premiere of new documentary film Cuba After Castro: The Island in the Crosshairs on Thursday, April 16 at SVA theater, including a talkback with the directors. In the first and only American interview with President Miguel Díaz-Canel, Cuba After Castro goes beyond the headlines to explore the island's revolutionary history and turbulent present, revealing an unprecedented portrait of the man tasked with steering its future.

Directed by Abby Martin & Matthew Belen — behind Gaza Fights For Freedom and The Encampments — this is an essential, unmissable film for anyone who wants to understand the moment today in Cuba.

Thursday April 16 Reception 6PM | Film 7PM TICKETS HERE (event passed, but see for similar activities --Dick)

WATCH TRAILER & SHARE

Dick’s comment on control of information in the USA.
Here is a notable example of control by omission. US mainstream media have blacked out the president of a nation 90 miles away that we have persecuted because it offers an economic system alternative to that of the US, and our leaders cannot permit its success. See Herman and Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent, “Worthy and Unworthy Victims” (1988, 2^nd edition. 2008, 582pp), and James R. Bennett, Control of Information in the U.S. and Control of the Media in the U.S. These issues are central to world peace. See J. William Fulbright in The Price of Empire (Ch. 7, “Seeing the World as Others See It”). All are in Mullins Library.

Get one before they're gone!

Let Cuba Live Shirt

You Can't Blockade the Sun! Every purchase of this t-shirt supports the campaign to send solar generators & panels to Cuban hospitals amidst the continued and severe challenges of the U.S. oil blockade on the island. Let Cuba Live!BUY NOW 5-16-26 still available --D

“April 19: Stand Against The Threat Of Imperialist Aggression On Cuba” by Struggle - La Lucha. CovertAction Magazine (4-12-26). From the International Committee for Peace, Justice, and Dignity, we call on men and women of good will to join the actions that will take place around the world starting April 19, in the Year of Fidel’s Centennial and the 65th anniversary of the victory at Girón, imperialism’s first defeat in Latin America. The damage caused by the U.S. blockade of Cuba over the past 64 years is internationally recognized; it has been condemned by the overwhelming majority of countries — with the exception of Israel — on 33 occasions at the UN General Assembly. -more-

Marjorie Cohn. “Resisting Regime Change in Cuba.” Consortium News (5-19-26).
The Cuban people have vowed to resist a new U.S. invasion, writes Marjorie Cohn. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said the nation is a “free sovereign state” with the right to “self-determination,” and not “subject to the designs” of the U.S. Read here...

Analysis of the Increasingly Punitive Sanctions and Cuban Resistance

“Cuba is Not Afraid: The Twelfth Newsletter” (2026)
Vijay Prashad <vijay@thetricontinental.org> 3-19-26.

Faced with an illegal oil blockade, the Cuban government has expressed openness to talks with the Trump administration but will not abandon its principles of sovereignty and dignity.

Dear friends,

Greetings from the desk of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

On 13 March 2026, President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez gave a press conference in Havana, Cuba. The country has been wracked by a worsening fuel and electricity crisis produced by the long-standing illegal US blockade, which the Trump administration tightened further in early 2026 by effectively cutting off oil shipments to the island. On 29 January, Trump issued an executive order filled with the bluster of falsehoods – including the claim that Cuba ‘welcomes transnational terrorist groups, such as Hezbollah and Hamas’ – and threatened tariffs against any country that tried to send oil to Cuba.

Cuba produces about a 40% of the fuel it needs and imports the rest – mostly from Mexico and Venezuela. After the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela was forced to stop shipments to Cuba, while Mexico halted shipments under the threat of US tariffs. Cuba has not received oil since the first week of January. In early February, Deputy Prime Minister Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga said that the Cuban government would direct the remaining fuel to essential services – education, healthcare, and the supply of water and food. It was in this context that Díaz-Canel announced that Cuba and the United States had begun ‘a very sensitive process’ of talks aimed at addressing bilateral problems and taking ‘concrete actions for the benefit of the people of both countries’.

A few days before the press conference, a delegation from the International Peoples’ Assembly met with Díaz-Canel, who told us that the situation in Cuba is very difficult but that his government is doing everything it can to alleviate the hardship faced by the Cuban people. At the same time, he said, the revolution would not abandon its socialist principles of sovereignty and dignity. The quiet conviction with which Díaz-Canel spoke comforted us, and his words reflected what we heard from the people we spoke to across Havana (we could not travel beyond the capital because of the fuel crisis created by the oil blockade).

Trump’s latest assault on Cuba is a continuation of the illegal US blockade that began on 7 February 1962, when US President John F. Kennedy signed Proclamation 3447 under Section 620(a) of the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act, and was later consolidated in July 1963 under the authority of the 1917 Trading with the Enemy Act. Kennedy’s move expanded the earlier trade restrictions imposed in 1960 and transformed them into a comprehensive ban on nearly all commercial and financial relations between the United States and Cuba. The blockade’s extraterritorial reach deepened over time, especially after 1991: the 1992 Torricelli Act barred foreign subsidiaries of US companies from trading with Cuba and imposed a 180-day restriction on vessels involved in trade with the island, and the 1996 Helms-Burton Act further – and illegally – extended the blockade’s reach to third countries and foreign companies.

The policy, then as now, is explicitly designed to weaken a Cuba that had sought to chart a sovereign path out of subordination, first to Europe and then, after 1898, to the United States. The United States used the blockade to punish Cuba for its defiance of US control and for the example that Cuba had begun to represent for other countries of the Third World. From the outset, the blockade’s intent went beyond diplomacy: internal US government documents reveal a strategy explicitly aimed at generating ‘economic dissatisfaction and hardship’ in Cuba to provoke political change. The blockade grew more complex and punitive over time. Rather than easing pressure during Cuba’s Special Period, which followed the fall of the Soviet Union when the island had lost its principal trading partner, the United States tightened its policy still further. Such extraterritorial enforcement directly conflicts with international trade norms and the sovereign rights of other states.

The US blockade of Cuba is widely accepted to be illegal under international law because it violates core principles of state sovereignty, non-intervention, and the right of other states to engage in lawful trade. These principles are enshrined in the United Nations system and, most importantly, in the 1945 Charter of the United Nations, which affirms the sovereign equality of states, prohibits the threat or use of force against their territorial integrity or political independence, and forbids intervention in matters essentially within their domestic jurisdiction. For the sake of clarity, it is worth referring to the main legal principles and instruments that the United States has flouted since 1962:

· The 1945 Charter of the United Nations Articles 2(1), 2(4), and 2(7) affirm state sovereignty, prohibit the threat or use of force against territorial integrity or political independence, and forbid interference in domestic affairs.

· The 1970 Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-Operation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations declares that no state may use economic, political, or any other measures to coerce another government in order to subordinate the exercise of its sovereign rights.

· The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (adopted in 1966 and entered into force in 1976) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (adopted in 1966 and entered into force in 1976) recognise the right of peoples to self-determination, including control over their economic systems.

Apart from these explicit treaties in the United Nations system, there is also an older tradition of customary international law that protects freedom of international trade and that prohibits extraterritorial jurisdiction over third states. The blockade violates the principles of sovereign equality by attempting to dictate Cuba’s internal political and economic system. Its explicit intent to cause economic hardship constitutes unlawful intervention and coercion. The extraterritorial enforcement of US sanctions unlawfully interferes with the sovereign rights of third countries and their nationals. The absence of any United Nations Security Council authorisation further underscores the unilateral and coercive character of the blockade.

Every year since 1992 (except for 2020 when Covid prevented a vote), the United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly voted to condemn the blockade of Cuba, describing it as contrary to international law and the UN Charter. These resolutions emphasise that the policy violates Cuba’s right to self-determination and obstructs normal economic relations between states.

While General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, their consistency and near-universal support demonstrate a strong international consensus on the illegality of the measure. When the General Assembly held its most recent vote in October 2025, 165 out of 193 member states voted to end the blockade. Among them were some of the world’s most populous countries, such as Brazil, China, Nigeria, India, Indonesia, and Pakistan. Taken together, the countries that voted in favour represent approximately 92% of the world’s population. By any measure, the bulk of the world’s peoples oppose this illegal blockade. . . .

Warmly, Vijay

Belly of the Beast. “’An Act of War’: U.S. Lawmakers Condemn Blockade on Cuba.”

Gerry Condon via uark.onmicrosoft.com [VFP-all].

Apr 10, 2026, 1:45 PM (16 hours ago)

From: Belly of the Beast <team@bellyofthebeastcuba.com>
Date: Fri, Apr 10, 2026. Since launching in 2020, Belly of the Beast has become the go-to source for news and documentaries about Cuba.

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Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-IL) traveled to Cuba last week, delivering an unusually blunt assessment of U.S. policy.
After meeting with Cubans from across the political spectrum, and visiting a hospital impacted by the Trump-imposed oil blockade, they described U.S. policy in stark terms, equating it to warfare against the Cuban people. Belly of the Beast journalist Liz Oliva Fernández sat down with Jayapal and Jackson in an exclusive interview in Havana. Also:
OAS Rights Commission Joins War on Cuban Doctors. Hundreds of Cuban Women Rally Against U.S. Blockade. Belly of the Beast Recommends. Teresita’s Dream at Havana Film Festival in NYC. Belly’s Film on the "Longlist" for Award. UN: Blockade Stopping Humanitarian Aid. Mexico Donates $34 Million to Cuban Farmers. Cuba’s President Díaz-Canel on Media Blitz.

“U.S. Lawmakers: Sanctions Are Like Dropping Bombs.” U.S. representatives Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Jonathan Jackson (D-IL) wrapped up a five-day trip to Cuba Saturday with an exclusive sit-down interview with Belly of the Beast journalist Liz Oliva Fernández. “What we’re doing feels like bombing energy infrastructure,” said Jayapal. She described U.S. sanctions on Cuba as “cruel collective punishment.” Rep. Jackson, who was in Cuba in 1984 accompanying his father Reverend Jesse Jackson as he helped negotiate a prisoner release, said the blockade amounts to “an act of war.”Watch the full interview HERE.

Tiny, impoverished (sanctioned) Cuba Fighting Back against the Mightiest Propaganda Machine in History. --D
Belly of the Beast (cont’d). “Hundreds of Cuban Women Rally Against U.S. Blockade.” Hundreds of Cuban women gathered at Mariana Grajales Park in Havana Tuesday to denounce the Trump administration’s intensification of the U.S. government’s economic war on Cuba. “Cuban mothers, Cuban women, most of us running our households, we’re the ones dealing directly with the impact of this genocidal policy against our country,” said Mirthia Julia Brossard, member of the Union of Young Communists (UJC). Watch the video HERE. [This is still available 5-24. –D]

The rally was organized by the Federation of Cuban Women, a national organization aligned with the government, to pay tribute to the late Vilma Espín, who fought in Cuba’s revolution and was Raúl Castro’s wife.

For Cuban women, the impact is felt both in their professional and personal lives, as many bear the primary responsibility for running households and caring for children and the sick, tasks that have become increasingly difficult as the U.S. government's economic war on Cuba has intensified.

Belly of the Beast Recommends
Streamer and political commentator Hasan Piker released a mini-documentary “The U.S. War Against Cuba” that was produced in collaboration with Belly of the Beast. Check it out HERE. Cuban-American Journalist Suzy Exposito visited Cuba for the first time during the recent Nuestra América Convoy. She wrote a piece in the Los Angeles Times about her experience and how her grandmother in Miami reacted to her visit. Read the article HERE. Danny Valdes is another Cuban American who wrote about his experience in Cuba during the convoy. Check out his article in Jacobin. Filmmaker and content creator Brenna Perez breaks down how the Cuban exile lobby was modeled off and trained by AIPAC in this YouTube video.

“Teresita’s Dream at Havana Film Festival in NYC.” What does it take to build life-saving science under a tightening U.S. blockade? Our documentary Teresita's Dream takes you inside the lives of Cuban scientists and doctors working under extraordinary constraints — where the search for a treatment for Alzheimer’s becomes deeply personal.

Now, for the first time, you can watch Teresita's Dream on the big screen in New York City. Tickets are now available for the film’s premiere at the Havana Film Festival New York. Sunday May 03, 2026 | 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM. Quad Cinema, 34 W 13th St, New York, NY 10011. Join us in New York for a film that explores not just a potential breakthrough in Alzheimer’s research, but the conditions under which that work is happening — and what it reveals about healthcare, inequality and resilience. Get your tickets HERE. [No longer on sale. –D]

“Belly’s Film on the ‘Longlist’ for One World Award.

The documentary we produced for Al Jazeera — Cuba: Health Under Sanction — has made the One World Media Award’s “longlist” for best short documentary film dealing with stories or topics in the Global South. In 2021, Belly of the Beast won a One World Media Award for our documentary series The War on Cuba.

Belly of the Beast continues
“UN: Blockade Stops Humanitarian Aid.”
Even as the Trump administration has used economic warfare to destroy the Cuban economy and exact collective punishment on its population, U.S. officials have touted a donation of $6 million in humanitarian aid to Cuba that is being distributed by the Catholic Church and Caritas. The aid was ostensibly meant for victims of Hurricane Melissa — although it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the $74 million the UN estimated that Cuba needed. The U.S. aid did not begin to arrive until months after the hurricane struck. Meanwhile, the UN Resident Coordinator for Cuba Francisco Pichón said Monday at a press conference that the U.S. oil blockade on the island has prevented humanitarian aid from reaching people in need. “The implementation of our action plan in response to Hurricane Melissa has been affected severely by the fuel shortages,” he said. “About 170 containers of essential humanitarian goods that have already arrived in Cuba [that] amounts to about $6.3 million are not reaching beneficiaries.”

Mexico Donates $34 Million to Cuban Farmers.
Mexico’s Agency for International Development Cooperation has authorized the donation of approximately $34 million to support Cuban agriculture. The donation is part of Sembrando Vida, a program Mexico has been implementing locally and internationally for years that seeks to help small farmers. Mexico is one of Cuba’s most important allies, but it recently stopped sending oil deliveries due to U.S. pressure. President Claudia Sheinbaum has continued to send humanitarian aid, and she has said her country is trying to find a way to restart oil shipments.

Cuba’s President Díaz-Canel on Media Blitz.
Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel has recently given multiple interviews to foreign media outlets, and has delivered the same message: Cuba is willing to engage in dialogue with the United States. Díaz-Canel was interviewed last week by Newsweek’s Tom O’Connor and he spoke yesterday with Kristen Welker, from NBC’s Meet the Press. “There are many common areas in which we can work, and not only could we work, but we could reach agreements beneficial to both peoples and both nations,” he told O’Connor, mentioning “investments from U.S. firms” as one example, as well as “migration, security, the environment, science and innovation, trade, education, culture and sports.”Cuba was already cooperating with the United States in these areas during the Obama-era opening before the Trump administration rolled back normalization and reimposed a hard-line policy of hostility.
Join Us On a Guided Trip to Cuba!
Travel to Havana with Belly of the Beast journalists and filmmakers for an immersive eight-day trip where you’ll meet the people behind our stories, visit community projects and experience the island beyond the headlines. Next trip: April 25–May 2. Learn more!

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