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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/02/18/the-cuban-revolution-holds-out-against-us-imperialism/">peoplesdispatch.org</a>
<div class="gmail-domain-border"></div><h1 class="gmail-reader-title">The Cuban Revolution holds out against US imperialism</h1>
<a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/02/18/the-cuban-revolution-holds-out-against-us-imperialism/">February 18, 2026</a> by <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/02/18/the-cuban-revolution-holds-out-against-us-imperialism/"></a><a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/author/vijay/">Vijay Prashad</a>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><p>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 </p><div>
<p><span>In January 2026, US President Donald Trump declared Cuba to
be an \u201cunusual and extraordinary threat\u201d 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.</span></p>
<p><span>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\u2019s total
oil demand. With Venezuelan oil out of the picture in the short run,
Cuba already anticipated a serious problem.</span></p>
<p><span>But this was not all. Mexico supplied 44% of Cuba\u2019s 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\u2019s oil imports would disappear. In a phone call between Mexico\u2019s
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.</span></p>
<h3><em><strong>Read more: <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/02/09/cuban-government-responds-to-us-manufactured-fuel-shortage-we-will-defend-cuba/">Cuban government responds to US-manufactured fuel shortage: \u201cWe will defend Cuba\u201d</a></strong></em></h3>
<p><span>Trump\u2019s savage policy has effectively cut off much of Cuba\u2019s
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.</span></p>
<p><span>The United Nations has warned that the US pressure campaign
(especially the policy to target fuel) threatens Cuba\u2019s 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
\u201cpunitive and disproportionate\u201d, 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.</span></p>
<h3><em><strong>Read more: <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/02/05/the-us-is-using-blackmail-and-coercion-to-intensify-the-blockade-says-cuba/">The US is using \u201cblackmail and coercion\u201d to intensify the blockade, says Cuba</a></strong></em></h3>
<p><span>A group of United Nations human rights experts condemned
Trump\u2019s executive order as a \u201cserious violation of international law\u201d
and \u201ca grave threat to a democratic and equitable international order.\u201d
They argued that Trump\u2019s 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.</span></p>
<p><span>The Blockade by the US has had a grave impact on Cuba\u2019s
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.</span></p>
<h3><strong>Response from Havana</strong></h3>
<p><span>Cuba\u2019s President Miguel Díaz-Canel has strongly condemned the
tightened US measures as an \u201ceconomic war\u201d and has argued that the US
policy is designed to weaken Cuba\u2019s sovereignty. The government calls
this an \u201cenergy blockade\u201d 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\u2019s policy of isolation has not
fully succeeded.</span></p>
<p><span>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\u2019s sovereignty, independence, and
political system. And finally, that the Cuban government is unwilling to
negotiate the Cuban Constitution (recently revised in 2019) or Cuba\u2019s
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\u2019s defiance on these issues is rooted in its history \u2013 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).</span></p>
<h3><strong>The Angry Tide</strong></h3>
<p><span>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\u2019s 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).</span></p>
<h3><em><strong>Read more: <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/11/29/the-angry-tide-of-the-latin-american-far-right/">The angry tide of the Latin American far right</a></strong></em></h3>
<p><span>The parallel attacks on Venezuela and Cuba are part of the
United States\u2019 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.</span></p>
<p><span>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.</span></p>
<p><b><i>Vijay Prashad </i></b><i><span>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\u2019s
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 </span></i><a href="http://thetricontinental.org/"><i><span>Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research</span></i></a><i><span>, the chief correspondent for Globetrotter, and the chief editor of </span></i><a href="https://leftword.com/"><i><span>LeftWord Books</span></i></a><i><span> (New Delhi). He also appeared in the films Shadow World (2016) and Two Meetings (2017).</span></i></p>
<p><i><span>This article was produced by </span></i><a href="https://globetrotter.media/"><i><span>Globetrotter</span></i></a><i><span>.</span></i></p>
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