By
“The long months living with only two or three hours of electricity a day or less, food spoiling, the heat that makes it impossible to sleep, parents fanning their babies, children doing their homework in near darkness, young people without internet access or recreation, grandparents without television or, sometimes, even radio—all family life is damaged.”
This is how Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, member of the Political Bureau and Minister of Foreign Affairs, defined the blockade imposed on the island for more than six decades, which has intensified in recent months.
This is a collective punishment, the Foreign Minister told the national and international press on Monday, during the presentation of the report on the damage caused by the U.S. government’s economic, commercial, and financial blockade against Cuba between March 2025 and February 2026, because “the blockade doesn’t punish a government. It punishes the daily life of a people in every aspect.”
Regarding the complex situation the country is experiencing, he explained: “If fuel oil and diesel could be imported for the generators of so-called distributed generation, the blackouts could be reduced to a minimum, but the fuel blockade prevents this.”
In this regard, he recalled that the U.S. president’s executive order, issued on January 29th, decreed the fuel blockade, which prevents the entry of supplies, intimidates and harasses the companies that own the tankers, threatens shipping companies, and prohibits them from transporting even parts and components for thermoelectric plants or photovoltaic systems.
This has led the country to rapidly shift its energy matrix towards solar power. “Now shipping companies are being threatened to prevent them from bringing in solar panels and batteries for the new photovoltaic parks that we’ve learned to install in just 45 days,” he emphasized.
He insisted that the blockade is also evident in the water supply, whose sources operate with electric motors, as do the pumping plants, booster stations, and pipeline pumps. “However, we are working to mobilize generators with the capacity to operate and to ensure photovoltaic energy for the water supply.”
Regarding the impact on the healthcare system, he emphasized that the blockade is particularly detrimental to newborns, whose survival depends on the stable operation of medical equipment such as incubators. And during blackouts, when the hospital’s generator fails, doctors have to resort to manual techniques to save them, for example, to provide assisted ventilation.
He also mentioned situations where, due to power outages, “some surgeries have had to be completed using rechargeable lamps or, in some cases, the light from medical staff’s cell phones.” However, “a great effort has been made” to protect the hospitals’ photovoltaic systems.
The blockade is also detrimental to those who have a sick relative at home and difficulty transporting them to the hospital, or those who require hemodialysis and suffer from the limitations of ambulance services due to fuel shortages.
“Parents are suffering as they anxiously search for essential medications that may be in one of the more than 7,000 containers that the U.S. government’s threats against shipping companies are preventing from reaching the island, or that are produced in Cuba but whose raw materials or supplies are in other containers.”
Regarding the increase in infant mortality between 2018 and 2025, he stated: “These are children, not numbers. These are deaths that should not have happened,” but they did because “Cuba and its robust and effective public health system were deprived of legitimate resources.”
“The cruelty of collective punishment is evident in the thousands of Cubans who struggle daily to get to work without public transportation because the vehicle fleet is practically paralyzed due to a lack of fuel,” Rodríguez Parrilla insisted.
In this context, he gave an example: “Children, teenagers, and teachers walk long distances to get to school. But we have acquired and assembled electric vehicles.” Despite so much damage, Cuba has achieved the feat of starting the current school year.
Furthermore, “even under the extreme conditions facing our economy, the essential annual funding for the special education of children and young people with hearing, psychomotor, or intellectual disabilities is guaranteed. For a family, this funding means opportunities. Their future is more than just a number on a balance sheet.”
Regarding the decline in real income and the increased cost of living for Cuban families due to the most extreme intensification of the blockade, the executive order of May 1st stated that it “causes enormous suffering and anguish.”
“These are not collateral damages… they are the victims of an aggressive design, a coldly calculated plan,” he emphasized. He added that it is “the same ruthless sentiment and destructive spirit behind the genocide being committed in Gaza. In Cuba, it is silent, without bombs, but it is killing nonetheless.”
CUBA WILL NOT BE DEFEATED
The head of Cuban diplomacy announced that on October 27th and 28th, the United Nations General Assembly will again consider the agenda item entitled: The need to end the economic, commercial, and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba.
“Despite the pressure and intimidation exerted by the U.S. government, its State Department, and its embassies and diplomatic missions on member states, our people are confident in the overwhelming support of the world for the demand to end the blockade.”
Regarding the report, he stated that it “brings eloquent examples, heartbreaking testimonies, and irrefutable data on the effects of the blockade on our economy, on human rights, and on people’s daily lives. Behind every statistic is a human face. Behind every blockade measure is a tragedy, harm, or family drama.”
“Faced with this cruel challenge, Cuba is working tirelessly. It will never be defeated,” he affirmed.
He also asserted that the current U.S. government policy against the island constitutes an act of genocide under international conventions and seeks to generate a catastrophe like the holocaust suffered by the Cuban people in the last decade of the 19th century under the reconcentration policies of Captain General Valeriano Weyler.
Weyler and Lester Mallory—the architect of the hostile U.S. policy against Cuba—”are reincarnated in some U.S. politicians and some State Department officials,” he stated, who “think that the solution for Cuba is U.S. tutelage,” and others “who intend to hand Cuba over to the worst forces in Miami who have always profited from the anti-Cuban industry.”
Meanwhile, to those who seek to close all economic outlets to the country, he said: “There will be no humanitarian crisis in Cuba.”
Furthermore, he declared that the U.S. government’s policy against the Caribbean nation “is not an attack on a government with which the northern neighbor has political differences.” This is in no way an act of legitimate self-defense by the world’s leading military, nuclear, technological, and economic power. It does not protect any national interests, nor those of American citizens or businesses. It does not represent or respond to the will, feelings, or interests of that country’s taxpayers and voters. Nor does it, in any way, respond to the feelings and interests of the vast majority of Cubans living abroad, who want the best for their families, their nation, and their homeland.
“Cuba is not a threat,” he reaffirmed. “The blockade is.” And he demanded: “Let us live in peace.”
THE CONSTANT LIE
Referring to the $100 million in supposed humanitarian aid announced by the United States government, he asserted, “They lie constantly.” He noted that “a shipment of food and hygiene products has been sent to 700 Cuban families.”
He again challenged the United States government, “particularly the State Department,” to report “when this humanitarian aid will begin to be delivered, whether it will include medicine and food, which is a true priority for our people, and why it is taking so many months to be implemented.”
The Foreign Minister reiterated that Cuba “always accepts all humanitarian aid offered from any corner of the planet” when it is carried out in accordance with international practices and the cooperation norms recognized by the United Nations.
Regarding the talks between Cuba and the United States, he confirmed that discussions have taken place with the State Department, and that communication on this matter is ongoing. However, “these talks show no progress or advancement due to the lack of willingness on the part of the United States government.”
Furthermore, he reiterated that the Island “will be willing to continue these talks on the basis of international law, without preconditions, in sovereign equality, on an absolutely equal footing, based on mutual respect, reciprocal benefit for our peoples, without interference in our internal affairs (…) There have been, and are, no negotiations, agreements, or roadmaps.”
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS, A SOVEREIGN RIGHT OF CUBA
When asked if there had been any official pronouncements from the United States government regarding the economic and social transformations recently approved by the National Assembly of People’s Power, the Minister of Foreign Affairs stated: “There have been no such pronouncements, and frankly, there is no need for them because they pertain to the exercise of the sovereign powers of the Republic of Cuba, which reside undeniably and solely in the Cuban people.”
However, Cuba is receiving “signals and inquiries from broad sectors of American society, from individuals, from Cubans residing in that country, from businesspeople and companies, from people of goodwill,” as well as from members of the United States Congress and politicians from various states, who are expressing interest in the opportunities these transformations present for expanding trade, cooperation, and investment ties.
“Above all, the scale of these transformations contrasts sharply with the tightening of the energy blockade and the persecution of shipping companies transporting supplies to Cuba.”
In this regard, they are particularly interested in knowing the contents of the more than 7,000 containers still affected by the pressure measures, most of whose cargo was contracted by small and medium-sized Cuban private companies.
He explained that “the bulk of this cargo consists of food, medicine, and medical devices.” These are “cargo shipments previously contracted and paid for according to universally accepted rules of international trade,” he emphasized.
Furthermore, he stated that the energy strangulation policy is “inappropriate in a peacetime situation,” calling it “an act of war that affects freedom of trade and freedom of navigation.”
THE FIGURES PRESENTED DO NOT INCLUDE THE DAMAGES FROM THE RECENT ESCALATION
Regarding the figures presented in the report on losses caused by the blockade, he explained that it is “a rigorous calculation based on a methodology that adheres to international standards,” which “was audited several years ago by a commission of the United States Congress, which declared it to be in accordance with international accounting practices and methodologically rigorous.”
He also emphasized that this figure “does not include the damages from the energy blockade nor the damages from secondary sanctions,” whose effects, in the case of the January 29th order, “began to be felt the following week.”
“We will try to finalize this year’s statistics as soon as possible,” he reported, adding that the methodology established by the Cuban entities that regulate economic statistics and the methodology derived from the United Nations General Assembly resolution requesting the Secretary-General to report on its implementation will be maintained.
“The damage in these months is multiplied by the damage that occurred in the preceding period,” he said.
CUBA WILL DEFEND ITS INDEPENDENCE
Regarding the possibility of direct military action, Rodríguez Parrilla warned that the Caribbean nation takes the threats seriously because they “are not based solely on rhetoric,” but also on “the testimonies of numerous reliable sources, analysts, and U.S. non-governmental organizations that present evidence that the U.S. government is making real military preparations.”
He maintained: “When one hears the President, the Secretary of State, and most recently the Secretary of War, saying that direct military aggression against Cuba is among the options on the table for the President of the United States, of course one has to take those threats seriously.”
“Our people, our State, take them very seriously and are preparing to defend with determination, to the utmost, our independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.”
Should an attack materialize, which, in his view, “does not serve the slightest national interest of the citizens or the American people,” it “would provoke a true bloodbath,” with the loss of Cuban lives and also of “young Americans who would be sent to a war they do not want, a war that is not theirs.”
Faced with such a scenario, “we will defend our independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity with the same determination as in the past,” he affirmed.
SOME FIGURES ON THE DAMAGE CAUSED BY THE BLOCKADE (MARCH 2025-FEBRUARY 2026)
General:
Losses incurred by Cuba between March 2025 and February 2026: US$8,083.3 million, 7% more than in the previous period.
Accumulated damages from the blockade at current prices: US$178,700.5 million.
Accumulated damages considering the increase in the price of gold against the dollar: US$3.89 trillion.
Increase that Cuba’s GDP would have registered in 2025, at current prices, without the blockade: 10.8%.
Energy embargo:
Recorded economic damage: US$802,352,780.
Fuel shortfall compared to planned levels, as of the end of May 2026: 2.67 million tons.
Available power that could not generate electricity due to lack of fuel: 1,400 MW.
Electricity not generated by diesel engines: 338.3 GWh.
Electricity not generated by fuel oil engines: 644.5 GWh.
Thermal generation in 2025: 7,789 GWh, 1,046.6 GWh less than in 2024.
Thermal generation units out of the capital maintenance cycle: 11 out of 15.
Health:
Economic losses: US$367,303,500.
Medical equipment affected by the shortages: over 95%.
Patients on surgical waiting lists: 100,000, including 12,000 children.
Patients dependent on hemodialysis treatments whose care has been disrupted: 2,888.
People dying daily from cancer: over 70.
Cancer survival rate among children and young adults: 65%, compared to the previously reported 85%.
Education:
Losses reported by the Ministry of Education: US$73,799,500.
Losses reported by the Ministry of Higher Education: US$24,207,000.
Student enrollment requiring relocation to access their educational institutions: approximately 30%.
For the past five school years, only 2 of the 16 audiometers in the provinces have been operational, affecting the auditory stimulation of 297 students in special education schools and 803 in mainstream schools.
Regarding visual impairment, there is a deterioration of Braille (Perkins) machines. Of these, 21 are beyond repair in the country. A total of 63 of these machines are needed. This shortage affects 126 blind students.
For deaf and hard-of-hearing children, the current system prevents them from acquiring behind-the-ear hearing aids and cochlear implants, which are essential for their care. Of 65 students, 22 have received implants, but recent limitations have drastically reduced the possibility of further surgeries.
Food and agriculture:
Damages reported by agricultural business groups: 848,088,919 USD.
Average daily irrigation time during the agricultural cold season: 2 hours, compared to the 16 hours required.
Food prepositioned by United Nations agencies for vulnerable communities: 20,000 tons, whose distribution was slowed down due to the fuel deficit.
Secondary sanctions and Helms-Burton Law:
Humanitarian food shipments affected by interruptions in maritime services to Cuba: more than 2,900 metric tons.
Critical cargoes affected: 7, worth $630,000.
Lawsuits filed under Title III of the Helms-Burton Act through March 2026: 46, of which 24 are ongoing.
International banking entities that suspended or rejected operations with Cuba: 34.
OFAC fine to Key Holding, llc: $608,825.
OFAC fine to Interactive Brokers, llc: $11,832,136.
Other sectors:
Sports: $36,271,620 USD
Culture: $435,523,400 USD
BioCubaFarma losses associated with the blockade: $134,378,690 USD
Tourism: $2,093,914,700 USD
Telecommunications: $135,427,300 USD
Transportation: $202,010,740 USD
Reprinted from Granma
