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Multiple countries have criticized the US over its embargo on Cuba, which has resulted in a growing humanitarian crisis.
Some shit you should know before you dig in: If you’re unaware, the United States has been squeezing Cuba since Trump cut off oil shipments to the island back in January (a move meant to finally choke out the communist government after roughly 60 years in power). Since that order, one Russian tanker has made it to port, leaving Cuba’s aging power grid starving for fuel and the whole country stuck in rolling blackouts. Food, clean water, and medicine are all running thin, and the UN is now sounding the alarm about a full-blown humanitarian emergency.
What’s going on now: During a UN General Assembly debate Tuesday, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez blasted the sanctions as “ruthless” and accused the United States of waging an “energy siege” on the island.
“There is now an energy siege, which is equivalent to a naval blockade, which is an act of war,” Rodriguez said. He put the embargo’s damage between March 2025 and February 2026 at a record $8 billion, up 7% from the year before, and pegged cumulative losses since it began at roughly $178.7 billion. Rodriguez rejected the idea that Cuba threatens the US, saying, “Cuba is not a threat. Cuba is the nation that is under threat.”
Cuba’s allies lined up behind it. China urged the US to end the blockade and all “coercive pressure,” citing more than $170 billion in accumulated losses to the island. Mexico said the embargo “is beginning to be measured in lives” and renewed its call for Cuba to be taken off the US list of state sponsors of terrorism. Turkey called for the embargo’s removal over its humanitarian toll, and Uruguay, on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, demanded its “immediate, complete and unconditional lifting.”
The US pushed back hard. Ambassador Mike Waltz denied there’s any real blockade, pointing to trade and humanitarian exceptions and arguing the regime, not the embargo, is what’s starving the Cuban people.
“There is no American blockade,” Waltz said. “The only embargo in Cuba is the guillotine the regime keeps over the heads of its people.”
Waltz also went after Cuba’s leadership over its wealth and questioned how some of the Castro family can afford expensive shit like private islands and luxury homes. This resulted in a member of Cuba’s delegation banging on his desk and shouting “liar” at him. Waltz responded, “You can pound away, my friend….This is not Havana. This is the United States of America.”
All of this lands while the two sides are getting nowhere. Rodriguez says there’s been “no progress” in the latest talks between Cuban and US officials.
