[News] The Cuban Revolution holds out against US imperialism

[Anti-Imperialist News]

peoplesdispatch.org
<https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/02/18/the-cuban-revolution-holds-out-against-us-imperialism/>
The Cuban Revolution holds out against US imperialism February 18, 2026
<https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/02/18/the-cuban-revolution-holds-out-against-us-imperialism/>
by
<https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/02/18/the-cuban-revolution-holds-out-against-us-imperialism/>Vijay
Prashad <https://peoplesdispatch.org/author/vijay/>
------------------------------

Tens of thousands marched on January 16, 2026, in Havana, Cuba, to honor
the 32 fallen martyrs who died defending Venezuelan President Nicolás
Maduro. Photo: Presidencia Cuba

In January 2026, US President Donald Trump declared Cuba to be an “unusual
and extraordinary threat” to US security, a designation that allows the
United States government to use sweeping economic restrictions
traditionally reserved for national security adversaries. The US blockade
against Cuba began in the 1960s, right after the Cuban Revolution of 1959,
but has tightened over the years. Without any mandate from the United
Nations Security Council (which permits sanctions under strict conditions)
the United States has operated an illegal, unilateral blockade that tries
to force countries from around the world to stop doing basic commerce with
Cuba. The new restrictions focus on oil. The United States government has
threatened tariffs and sanctions on any country that sells or transports
oil to Cuba.

On January 3, the United States attacked Venezuela and kidnapped President
Nicolás Maduro Moros and National Assembly deputy Cilia Flores. As 150 US
military aircraft sat above Caracas, the United States informed the
Venezuelan government that if they did not concede to a list of demands,
the US would essentially convert downtown Caracas to Gaza City. The
remainder of the government, with no leverage in the conversation, had to
effectively make a tactical compromise and accept the US demands. One of
these demands was that Venezuela cease to export oil to Cuba. In 2025,
Venezuela contributed about 34% of Cuba’s total oil demand. With Venezuelan
oil out of the picture in the short run, Cuba already anticipated a serious
problem.

But this was not all. Mexico supplied 44% of Cuba’s imported crude oil in
2025. Pressure now mounted from Washington on Mexico City to cease its oil
exports to Cuba, which would then mean that almost 80% of Cuba’s oil
imports would disappear. In a phone call between Mexico’s President Claudia
Sheinbaum and Trump, he claimed that he told her to stop selling oil to
Cuba, but she denied that, saying that the two presidents only talked in
broad terms about US-Mexico relations. Either way, the pressure on Mexico
to stop its oil shipments has been considerable. Sheinbaum has stressed
that Mexico must be permitted to make sovereign decisions and that the
Mexican people will not buckle under US pressure. Cutting fuel to Cuba
would cause a humanitarian crisis, Sheinbaum said.
*Read more: Cuban government responds to US-manufactured fuel shortage: “We
will defend Cuba”
<https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/02/09/cuban-government-responds-to-us-manufactured-fuel-shortage-we-will-defend-cuba/>*

Trump’s savage policy has effectively cut off much of Cuba’s oil imports,
which has created a major energy crisis on the island of eleven million
people. There are rolling blackouts, fuel shortages for hospitals, water
systems, and transportation, and rationing of electricity. Due to the lack
of aviation fuel, several commercial airlines (such as Air Canada) have
stopped their flights to Havana.

The United Nations has warned that the US pressure campaign (especially the
policy to target fuel) threatens Cuba’s food and water supplies, hospitals,
schools, and basic services. UN officials, including the UN Special
Rapporteur on human rights in Cuba, have condemned the US tightening of the
blockade as a measure that directly harms ordinary citizens. They pointed
out that restrictions make it harder for hospitals to obtain essential
medicines, dialysis clinics to operate, and medical equipment to reach
patients, worsening the health crisis on the island. The Special Rapporteur
described the policy as “punitive and disproportionate”, emphasizing that
it violates international law and deepens socio-economic hardships. The UN
has urged the United States to lift sanctions and prioritize humanitarian
exemptions, stressing that dialogue and cooperation (not coercive measures)
are necessary to protect Cuban lives and human rights.
*Read more: The US is using “blackmail and coercion” to intensify the
blockade, says Cuba
<https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/02/05/the-us-is-using-blackmail-and-coercion-to-intensify-the-blockade-says-cuba/>*

A group of United Nations human rights experts condemned Trump’s executive
order as a “serious violation of international law” and “a grave threat to
a democratic and equitable international order.” They argued that Trump’s
order seeks to coerce Cuba and third states by threatening trade sanctions,
and that such extraterritorial economic measures risk causing severe
humanitarian consequences. Their statement made it clear that no right
under international law permits a State to impose economic penalties on
third States for lawful trade relations, and they called on the Trump
administration to rescind the illegal order. The UN General Assembly has
voted overwhelmingly against the blockade every year since 1992, often with
only the US and Israel opposed.

The Blockade by the US has had a grave impact on Cuba’s development
paradigm. Since the start of the Blockade over sixty years ago, the US has
cost Cuba 171 billion USD or if adjusted for the price of gold, 2.10
trillion USD. Between March 2024 and February 2025, the Cuban government
estimates that the Blockade caused about 7.5 billion USD in damages, a 49%
increase since the previous period. If you take the 171 billion USD number,
the Cuban people lose 20.7 million USD per day or 862,568 USD per hour.
These losses are grievous for a small country that attempts to build a
rational society rooted in socialist values.
*Response from Havana*

Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel has strongly condemned the tightened US
measures as an “economic war” and has argued that the US policy is designed
to weaken Cuba’s sovereignty. The government calls this an “energy
blockade” and emphasizes that the shortages on the island are a direct
result of US coercive policies. In reaction, the Cuban Revolution has
implemented emergency plans, including fuel rationing to prioritize
essential services such as hospitals, water systems, and public
transportation. Cuba has also announced state directives to manage
diminished energy supplies, including shifts toward alternative and
renewable energy sources where feasible. The Chinese government has donated
equipment for large-scale solar parks to be built in Artemisa, Granma,
Guantánamo, Holguín, Las Tunas, and Pinar del Río. In the long-term, China
will assist Cuba to build 92 solar farms to add 2,000 megawatts of solar
capacity. To assist households in remote areas, the Chinese government has
sent 5,000 solar kits for rooftop energy harvesting. Fuel from Mexico and
Russia, as well as other countries is now on the way to Cuba. Trump’s
policy of isolation has not fully succeeded.

The Cuban government said that it is in touch with Washington, but not
holding direct high-level talks yet. President Díaz-Canel has said that his
government would speak to the United States but only under three important
conditions. First, that the dialogue will be respectful, serious, and
without pressure or preconditions. Second, that the dialogue must respect
Cuba’s sovereignty, independence, and political system. And finally, that
the Cuban government is unwilling to negotiate the Cuban Constitution
(recently revised in 2019) or Cuba’s commitment to socialism. If the United
States insists on a discussion on any of these three issues, there will be
no dialogue. The Cuban Revolution’s defiance on these issues is rooted in
its history – since the Revolution itself was an act of defiance against
the US claim on its control over the Western Hemisphere through the 1823
Monroe Doctrine (now renewed by Trump in 2025 with his Corollary). This
defiance has been contagious, building a Latin American resistance to US
imperialism from the 1960s to the present (including at the heart of the
Bolivarian process in Venezuela).
*The Angry Tide*

Latin America is going through a rapid and dangerous transformation.
Country after country (from Argentina to El Salvador) have elected to power
political formations from the Far Right of a Special Type. These are
leaders who have committed themselves to strong conservative social values
(rooted in the growth of reactionary Evangelical Christianity across the
Americas), to a ruthless attack on the poor through a war on crime (shaped
by a theory that calls for the arrest of any potential criminals and their
incarceration, a policy pioneered by El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele), and by a
sharp turn toward Western Civilization that includes an orientation towards
the United States and against China (this sentiment oscillates from a
celebration of Western culture to a hatred of communism). The emergence of
the Far Right of a Special Type appears as if it will be in charge for a
generation if it can erase the left from power in Colombia, Cuba, Mexico,
Nicaragua, and Venezuela (in Brazil, this Right has already taken charge of
the legislature).
*Read more: The angry tide of the Latin American far right
<https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/11/29/the-angry-tide-of-the-latin-american-far-right/>*

The parallel attacks on Venezuela and Cuba are part of the United States’
contribution to this rise of the Angry Tide across the Americas. Trump and
his cronies would like to install their kind of leaders (such as Javier
Milei) across the Americas as part of the Trump Corollary to the Monroe
Doctrine. It is this that revives the idea of sovereignty in the Americas.
When the Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny ended his performance at the US
Super Bowl with a celebration of all the countries in the Americas, and
when he named each of them, that gesture was itself part of the battle over
the idea of sovereignty.

The Cuban Revolution holds out against US imperialism, but under great
pressure. Solidarity with Cuba is for the Cuban people, for the Cuban
Revolution, for the reality of sovereignty across the Americas, and for the
idea of socialism in the world. This is now the frontline of the fight
against imperialism.

*Vijay Prashad **is an Indian historian and journalist. He is the author of
forty books, including Washington Bullets, Red Star Over the Third World,
The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World, The Poorer
Nations: A Possible History of the Global South, and How the International
Monetary Fund Suffocates Africa, written with Grieve Chelwa. He is the
executive director of **Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research*
<http://thetricontinental.org/>*, the chief correspondent for Globetrotter,
and the chief editor of **LeftWord Books* <https://leftword.com/>* (New
Delhi). He also appeared in the films Shadow World (2016) and Two Meetings
(2017).*

*This article was produced by **Globetrotter* <https://globetrotter.media/>
*.*
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