Cuba stories document losses from the US embargo as overseas minister describes months of punishing blackouts.
Printed On 7 Sep 2026
Cuba says it isn’t at the moment negotiating with the USA, because the Trump administration continues its campaign of economic pressure on the island.
International Minister Bruno Rodríguez mentioned on Monday that Havana and Washington are usually not negotiating, and that there isn’t a agenda for future talks.
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His feedback got here throughout a media convention, as he laid out Cuba’s newest estimate of the injury brought on by the decades-old US embargo, imposed since former chief Fidel Castro‘s communist revolution in 1959.
The Cuban authorities says the US embargo value its financial system $8bn between March 2025 and February 2026, the very best determine but recorded and 7 % greater than within the earlier reporting interval.
The whole doesn’t embody a few of Washington’s more recent sanctions, together with restrictions on the island’s power provide imposed in January and secondary sanctions imposed in Might, mentioned Rodriguez.
In a submit on X, Rodríguez referred to as the coverage considered one of “financial asphyxiation” and described the blockade, which Havana has lengthy blamed for shortages and financial hardships, as “genocidal”.
“These are lengthy months of dwelling with solely two or three hours of electrical energy per day or much less,” Rodríguez wrote, portray a bleak image of what the nation’s worsening power disaster appears to be like like for Cubans.
He described meals spoiling with out refrigeration, dad and mom fanning their infants by means of the warmth, youngsters attempting to do their schoolwork in the dead of night and younger folks going with out web entry.
“All household life [is] broken,” he mentioned, including that Cuba will not be a risk however the blockade is.
Rodríguez referred to as the scenario “collective punishment”, blaming what he described as a US “power siege”, an “excessive tightening of the blockade” and secondary sanctions.
Tensions between Washington and Havana have intensified below US President Donald Trump, even after officers held talks earlier this 12 months. These contacts have since stopped.
The diplomatic combat will quickly transfer again to the United Nations.
Rodríguez mentioned the Common Meeting will take up its annual decision calling for an finish to the US embargo on October 27 and 28.
He accused Washington of placing “extraordinary strain and intimidation” on different UN member states forward of the vote, however mentioned Cuba nonetheless expects “overwhelming assist” for ending the embargo.
