Cuba studies document losses from the US embargo as overseas minister describes months of punishing blackouts.
Printed On 7 Sep 2026
Cuba says it isn’t presently negotiating with america, because the Trump administration continues its campaign of economic pressure on the island.
International Minister Bruno Rodríguez mentioned on Monday that Havana and Washington usually are not negotiating, and that there is no such thing as 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 price its economic system $8bn between March 2025 and February 2026, the very best determine but recorded and 7 p.c greater than within the earlier reporting interval.
The overall doesn’t embody a few of Washington’s more recent sanctions, together with restrictions on the island’s vitality provide imposed in January and secondary sanctions imposed in Might, mentioned Rodriguez.
In a submit on X, Rodríguez referred to as the coverage certainly 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 residing 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 vitality disaster appears to be like like for Cubans.
He described meals spoiling with out refrigeration, dad and mom fanning their infants via the warmth, youngsters making an attempt to do their schoolwork in the dead of night and younger individuals going with out web entry.
“All household life [is] broken,” he mentioned, including that Cuba shouldn’t be a menace however the blockade is.
Rodríguez referred to as the scenario “collective punishment”, blaming what he described as a US “vitality siege”, an “excessive tightening of the blockade” and secondary sanctions.
Tensions between Washington and Havana have intensified underneath US President Donald Trump, even after officers held talks earlier this 12 months. These contacts have since stopped.
The diplomatic battle will quickly transfer again to the United Nations.
Rodríguez mentioned the Basic 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 stress and intimidation” on different UN member states forward of the vote, however mentioned Cuba nonetheless expects “overwhelming assist” for ending the embargo.
