A paedophile president is starving Cubans because he thinks they don't have suitable leaders

On 29 January, Trump issued an executive order which declared a national emergency over imaginary threats from Cuba’s government. Not a single person believes the tiny island poses a threat, but Cuban exiles desperately want their family’s slave plantations back.

The US embargo has been going on for decades and costs Cuba an estimated $4-7 billion a year, with the cumulative impact in the trillions. Trump’s executive order — the International Emergency Economic Powers Act — further tightens the embargo. This comes at a time when Cuba is recovering from several hurricanes and the Covid pandemic (when the US banned ventilator sales to Cuba).

US companies are banned from trading with Cuba, as is any company with more than 10% US parts in its products. The US says it will impose tariffs on any country that sends oil to Cuba, directly or indirectly. Although Cuba is taking steps towards energy independence, building large solar farms, 80% of civilian electricity comes from oil.

As a result of the sanctions, Trump is not just punishing the Cuban government, but the Cuban people and anyone who shows solidarity with them. It is a case of help us starve Cubans or you will be next. That’s just how the land of the free operates.

Cuba’s airports are dead due to a jet fuel shortage and its 11 million citizens are facing blackouts. The tourism industry has collapsed and Cubans are going without food and medicine. Venezuelan oil that could have gone to Cuba is going to Israel — and even Mexico, the island’s go-to supplier, hit pause on shipments.

President Claudia Sheinbaum has called the sanctions “very unjust”, saying: “You cannot strangle a people like this. They don’t have fuel for hospitals, for schools.” Sheinbaum has been hunting for a diplomatic workaround to avoid US tariffs. In the meantime, she is sending humanitarian aid.

Mexico has sent 800 tons of aid to Cuba so far and Sheinbaum pledges that the shipments will continue. Expect the US to borrow from the Gaza playbook and frame this as support for terrorism or something.

For years, we have been told that socialism is impoverishing Cuba, but this collapse is clearly the dirty work of US capitalists who want to force regime change. If you didn’t know, democracy is when US corporations choose your leader. Sixty percent of the world’s poor countries are sanctioned by the US, because if you do not obey, you are not allowed to function.

Jet fuel at Cuba’s airports ran out yesterday, forcing international carriers, such as Air Canada and Russian airlines to suspend flights during peak tourist season. Hospitals, schools, and farms are rationing what little diesel remains. Hospital surgeries have been cancelled which should delight the Americans who despise universal healthcare. Infant mortality has risen from 4 per 1,000 births in 2024 to at least 8.2 today, with the number at 14 in Havana. Food prices are skyrocketing in the name of liberation. I hope Cubans are enjoying their freedom diet. If they’re lucky, they might even get some democracy bombs.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other human rights groups have pointed out that the sanctions disproportionately harm civilians, but that is the point. The UN Secretary-General’s office has warned the humanitarian situation could “collapse” without oil relief. If images of skeletal children start emerging, the US will no doubt blame socialism, but remember capitalists did this.

Russia has labelled Cuba’s fuel situation “truly critical” and China has promised continued support, but as far as I know, neither country has sent a large oil shipment. The moment they do, this will be held up as proof that Cuba works with the bad countries and is therefore a threat. The only thing Cuba is allowed to do is obediently starve.

You would hope Cuban-American Secretary of State Marco Rubio would sympathise, given his family ties to the island, but apparently not. Rubio’s parents left Cuba in 1956, before the revolution, and he falsely claimed they were exiled by Castro. Far from showing solidarity with his people, Rubio says he will only stop starving Cubans if they overthrow their leaders. Isn’t that nice?

A “Call to Conscience” letter signed by the likes of Mark Ruffalo and Susan Sarandon has blasted the sanctions as “tactics of starvation.” The sanctions could quickly become genocide if they aren’t eased, but we all know the US is comfortable with genocide.

The toothless UN keeps calling for an end to the broader embargo (it is now in its 33rd resolution). The last resolution was a near-unanimous vote of 165–7 in 2025, but the UN fails to take meaningful action because only the empire’s enemies ever face punishment. That’s how the rules-based order works.

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