Cuba gets hit by an external shock → the U.S. escalates pressure:
1990s: Soviet Union collapses → embargo tightened by Clinton
2020s: COVID + Venezuela crisis → sanctions on tourism expand, oil blockade implemented by Trump
Different decades, same strategy.
Not talked about enough: many Cuban exiles celebrated as “freedom fighters” came from families that owned enormous wealth in pre-revolution Cuba. Their politics aren’t neutral—they’re about restoring an economic system that served them extremely well, prioritizing capital over social programs.
Cuba built a model of medical internationalism rooted in solidarity, not profit.
Now Washington is waging a pressure campaign to shut it down—undermining healthcare systems across the Global South just to tighten the blockade. The human cost is staggering.
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
Reminder: for over 30 years, the United Nations has overwhelmingly voted to end the embargo on Cuba.
This isn’t a contested global issue—it’s a uniquely United States policy, maintained despite near-universal international opposition.
For over 60 years, US policy toward Cuba hasn’t been about “freedom”—it’s been about punishment for defiance. Sanctions, isolation, pressure—all to force regime change. The real story is an effort to dictate how developing countries pursue development—so it serves US economic interests.
First bit of good news for Cuba in months: a Russian oil tanker finally reaching the island, offering a temporary lifeline amid blackouts and a deepening fuel crisis.
But one shipment doesn’t fix a structural shortage—unless more tankers follow, the situation remains precarious.
"Cuba successfully resisted SAPs and instead built a robust system of public provisioning to ensure universal access to essential goods, including housing, healthcare and food. This system has been successful at fighting extreme poverty, hunger and premature mortality."
The U.S. claims it’s helping the Cuban people while blocking the fuel that keeps hospitals running and water systems functioning. You can’t claim humanitarian concern while deliberately engineering a humanitarian crisis.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/w...
"One of Castro’s central foreign policy goals was internationalism – the promotion of decolonisation and revolutionary politics abroad. This involved sending troops to fight in wars against colonial or proxy forces on the African continent"
elevennamedpeople.substack.com/p/hands-of-c...
"Not only has the administration coerced Venezuela and Mexico, until recently Cuba’s 2 largest fuel suppliers, into halting oil shipments to the island, it has also pressured Central American and Caribbean countries to drop their medical services contracts with Cuba"
theintercept.com/2026/03/24/c...
From 1999 to 2020, Cuba maintained a lower infant mortality rate than the US despite far fewer resources and decades of sanctions—driven by a model prioritizing public health.
In recent years, however, the strain of COVID-19 and intensified sanctions has contributed to a rise in infant mortality.
Sugar defines Cuba’s history. After the Haitian Revolution, it became a leading producer, shaping colonial rule and policy under Fidel Castro.
After the Soviet collapse, the industry contracted rapidly, pushing Cuba towards promoting tourism to replace the revenue once generated by exporting sugar.
Despite far fewer resources, Cuba produces the highest number of doctors per capita in the world by heavily investing in healthcare.
That surplus allows Cuba to send thousands of doctors to rural and underserved communities across the Global South—something the U.S. has long tried to undermine.
U.S. Chargé d'Affaires to Cuba Mike Hammer was last week in Italy, where he met with Roberto Occhiuto, the governor of the southern region of Calabria. He pushed Occhiuto to end Calabria’s employment of around 500 Cuban doctors. Occhiuto refused.
Jamaica is ending its agreement with Cuban doctors who helped staff hospitals and rural clinics. Cuba’s global medical missions provide revenue for Havana while filling physician shortages abroad. Without them, Jamaica’s rural health system could face major gaps.
apnews.com/article/jama...
"Cuba has similarly deployed doctors in poor countries around the world to deliver health care to populations under-supported by multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and bilateral Western aid."
foreignpolicy.com/2026/02/26/u...
"In the era of the Donroe Doctrine, which explicitly demands unquestioned U.S. primacy and resource monopolies in the Americas, the persistence of a sovereign, anti-imperialist project just 90 miles from Florida is an intolerable ideological irritant."
fpif.org/the-court-th...
But Cuba has historically responded to pressure with adaptation, not surrender.
The question now isn’t just Cuba’s resilience.
It’s whether countries like Mexico will defy U.S. coercion — or reinforce it.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, Cuba entered the Special Period.
Severe contraction. Energy shortages. Hardship.
Washington appears to believe history can be repeated — this time to trigger the collapse of the Cuban Government.
This is the architecture of the embargo after 60+ years.
It doesn’t just target the Cuban state — it blocks normal economic integration.
The objective is triggering a humanitarian collapse.
The U.S. strategy is straightforward:
Weaponize market dominance to force third countries into compliance.
Trade with Cuba → risk U.S. retaliation.
Comply with Washington → protect your economy.
Mexico became Cuba’s primary oil supplier in recent years under Claudia Sheinbaum.
Not enough to replace past Venezuelan levels — but enough to prevent systemic breakdown.
Trump signed an order imposing tariffs on any country that exports oil to Cuba.
This is deliberate economic warfare designed to isolate the island completely.
With Venezuela destabilized and Maduro removed, Cuba has lost its key trading partner.
In the wake of the coup in Venezuela, Washington has moved to intensify pressure on Cuba. 🧵
With Maduro gone and Venezuela’s oil under U.S. "oversight," Mexico is the only thing standing between Cuba and a potential humanitarian collapse. 🇲🇽⚖️🇨🇺
"For decades, the Cuban government has sent thousands of health professionals to work in remote villages and cities in dozens of countries."
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/w...
"Trump’s escalation is the cornerstone of his administration’s “Donroe Doctrine,” a 21st-century revival of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine that declares the whole of Latin America and the Caribbean to be US property."
savageminds.substack.com/p/trumps-ult...
Trump has Cuba in his crosshairs. 🇨🇺
Washington is using tariffs to force Mexico to abandon Cuba. By cutting off oil lifelines following the coup in Venezuela, the US is intentionally engineering a humanitarian crisis.
Read the full article here:
populareducationblog.substack.com/p/trumps-new...
