For decades, the small island nation just 90 miles off the coast of Florida has been a target of U.S. imperialism. With the Trump administration’s refocusing of U.S. operations to what Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has referred to as “our hemisphere,” threats to Cuba have steadily increased over the past months. The Cuban economy has struggled intensely since Trump’s first term, during which additional sanctions were placed on top of the already existing economic blockade. Then, in late February, the Trump administration announced that the U.S. would place sanctions on any nation which sold oil to Cuba. Combined with the invasion of Venezuela, and the kidnapping of Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro, oil shipments effectively stopped overnight, pushing the country into rolling blackouts and widespread shortages.
As of March 31, a Russian oil tanker was finally allowed to enter a Cuban port, ending three months of economic starvation that almost no modern economy could withstand without disastrous consequence. Trash was piling up in city streets across the island as garbage trucks were unable to refuel. Cuba’s healthcare system, once one of the best in the world, hovers on the brink of collapse. The effects are not abstract. Cubans are dying as a result of the policies of the U.S. government. Much of the first Trump administration’s blockade policy was left in place during the Biden administration.
It is in this context that an international coalition of activists organized a humanitarian mission to Cuba, called the “Nuestra America Flotilla,” inspired by the series of flotillas which sought to break the siege on Gaza. Carrying medical supplies, food, solar panels, and other supplies, hundreds of activists from all over the world came to show solidarity with the Cuban people and demand an end to the near-universally condemned U.S. blockade of Cuba. While the U.S. has seemingly allowed one oil shipment in, Trump’s rhetoric on the country has not cooled. He repeatedly threatens military action to install a Cuban government aligned with U.S. interests. We all have a responsibility to fight against the immoral suffocation of an entire nation. We must say: End the blockade! Hands off Cuba!
