Cuba: economic transformations in the face of the tightening of the U.S. Blockade 

The Prime Minister of Cuba presented 176 proposals during the Extraordinary Session of the National Assembly of the Popular Power.

Author: "Estudios Revolucion".

For the first time, foreign investment in private companies will be allowed, as well as the extension of economic partnership contracts. 

During the Extraordinary Session of the National Assembly, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero presented to the deputies a set of proposals for economic and social transformations that seek to redefine the country's development model, in a context marked by the intensification of the U.S. blockade.

Unprecedented foreign investment

The most innovative measures focus on opening up foreign capital to hitherto restricted sectors. For the first time, foreign investment in private companies will be allowed, as well as the extension of economic partnership contracts. To guarantee greater stability to long-term projects, it is proposed to extend the surface right up to 99 years and the right of usufruct up to 50 years.

On the financial front, foreign investors will be able to open accounts abroad without prior authorization – only with notification – and directly access the foreign exchange market to operate with their currencies. In addition, the mandatory use of employing entities is eliminated, which opens the way to direct contracting schemes.

The regulatory package incorporates the principle of "positive administrative silence", reduces procedures and deadlines, and decentralizes the authorization process. Foreign investment is also allowed in specific areas such as Old Havana, and private companies and cooperatives are authorized to import and export directly, as well as to market trademarks and patents.

Banking and financial reform

The project recognizes the need for a profound transformation of the banking system and includes the possible creation of a private corporate bank under the supervision of the Central Bank. It also proposes the establishment of non-bank financial institutions for microcredits, the elimination of restrictions on payments in foreign currency between foreign suppliers and Cuban counterparts, and the updating of interest rates.

It also contemplates the creation of private exchange houses, a digital exchange market and currency auction systems, as well as the realization of successive devaluations of the national currency to adjust the exchange rate.

Tax reform and pricing policy

In tax matters, value added tax (VAT) is introduced with reduced rates in specific sectors, electronic invoicing is generalized and the tax burden for certain economic actors is reduced. The personal income tax is updated, with a modified progressive scale, fewer brackets and an exempt minimum equivalent to the average salary in 2025. In price policy, approval powers are decentralized and the approach based exclusively on costs is eliminated, moving towards a scheme determined by market correlation.

Social protection and subsidies

The proposals include the digitization of social aid through the Sovereignty platform, and establish that all economic actors contribute to the sustainability of social policies through banking agreements. They provide for the creation of a Social Protection Fund and the transformation of the subsidy scheme, moving from a product-centric model to a model focused on vulnerable people.

Tourism, transport and trade

In the tourism sector, the door is open to new business modalities such as leases, usufructs and sale of real estate, both for Cubans living and abroad. Real estate development is authorized in all strategic tourist destinations, the creation of private travel agencies and the incorporation of tourist guides and managers of local destinations. In transport, restrictions on the acquisition of equipment are eliminated and the import of electric vehicles is encouraged. In commerce, non-state forms of management and foreign investment are prioritized, chains of stores and restaurants are created, with the invitation to foreign franchises.

(With information from Cubadebate)

Translation by NSCUBA (Nova Scotia)

 

 When Calabria — one of Italy's poorest regions — faced a severe shortage of doctors, help arrived from an unexpected place: Cuba.

Today, we are proud to share the public release of our latest documentary, From Cuba to Calabria, which follows Cuban doctors as they serve on a medical mission in southern Italy. Rather than hearing about Cuba's medical missions through politicians and pundits, you can see one from the inside — through the voices of the doctors themselves and the patients whose lives they touch.

The Trump administration has claimed the doctors are victims of "forced labor" and pressured governments around the world to terminate the missions.

But the doctors tell a different story.

https://youtu.be/OWuf2I6Xhok?si=a5y_DLIJkNzbA5g5

Refining domestic crude oil: A path of great effort that continues to yield results

The processing of 20,000 tons of domestic crude oil in the Santiago de Cuba refinery demonstrates the resilience of Cubans and their boundless will to find solutions in the face of the most complex adversities

Author: Luis Alberto Portuondo | internet@granma.cu

June, 2026 

To process the national crude, it has been necessary to study, innovate, and experiment, the director of the Hermanos Díaz refinery affirmed. Photo: Archive

SANTIAGO DE CUBA.— In 2024, Granma had already investigated the processing of heavy crude oil, which our country imported, using a solvent that brought it to 16 degrees API—created by a team of specialists at the Hermanos Díaz Oil Refinery—to convert it into medium crude and, once distilled, obtain the derivatives.
"That technological feat allowed our company to leave behind the period between 2016 and 2021, marked by losses, meager production, and the regrettable exodus of engineers, technicians, and service personnel," acknowledged engineer Irene Barbado Lucio, general director of this branch of the Cuban Petroleum Union (Cupet).
But in 2026, "the situation became extremely complex due to the energy blockade imposed by the Trump administration, preventing the oil we once purchased abroad from flowing through our facilities," the director lamented.
"Once again, the option was to become self-sufficient through our own efforts, as advised by the Commander-in-Chief in his concept of Revolution. He was the one who promoted the expansion and modernization of our plant in the 1980s, but I want to emphasize that it was designed to process light crude," specified Víctor Manuel Díaz Despaigne, director of the refining area.
THE BEGINNING OF THE TRANSFORMATIONS
When refining of imported heavy crude began, the Hermanos Díaz refinery—one of the country's four refineries—processed "naphtha, gasoline, fuel for drilling wells, fuel oil for thermoelectric power plants and distributed generation, as well as for asphalt production and the nickel industry," explained its CEO.

  This was the result of the efforts of more than 700 workers, because the technological upgrades were numerous. Thanks to this collective ingenuity and the powerful movement of innovators and efficiency experts, profits were generated and distributed, and the emigration of skilled personnel to other Cupet companies and to centers in both the state and private sectors was prevented.

According to Barbado Lucio, "it was a complex process, involving much study and experimentation, in which our maintenance team—responsible, as its name indicates, for ensuring the operation of the industry—and Cupet's Refining Directorate also played a fundamental role."
"If at the end of the last decade we had resigned ourselves to the technological limitations that, obviously, made refining heavy crude impossible, the fate of this important industry would have been very uncertain. That is why, united, we overcame what seemed invincible," he affirmed.
With some seven decades of operation, work is underway at this site to improve infrastructure, production processes, and working conditions. In this regard, progress has been made on the flow measurement project to guarantee traceability of the processing, prevent fuel losses, and consequently strengthen fire suppression systems, lightning rods, and spill containment measures (which minimize environmental impacts in Santiago Bay).
ANOTHER TURNING POINT
Through coercion and blackmail, the U.S. government "dictated to our suppliers that they should no longer sell us crude oil. But the greatest risk was that the country would run out of naphtha, essential for continuing extraction in our oil wells," emphasized the member of the Party's Central Committee.
"If we were able to convert imported heavy crude into medium crude, given the urgency, we decided to do the same with domestic crude," stated the director of the refining area.
After intensive studies and adjustments, "we conducted an initial run of domestic crude in March; we obtained naphtha, diesel, and fuel oil, and, above all, the exploitation of our oil fields did not stop," the director pointed out.
Although these initial results were encouraging, the need for further adjustments to the plant also became apparent, given the viscosity and aggressiveness of Cuban oil due to its high sulfur and acidity levels.
That is why, in this initial stage, crude oil from the western region is being refined, as it "has better characteristics, flows better, and has lower viscosity," commented engineer Irenaldo Pérez Cardoso, deputy director of Cupet.
These actions were carried out in parallel with those developed by the Petroleum Research Center, based on thermoconversion, which were announced by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, along with members of the National Innovation Council.
According to the president, "we broke a precedent, a taboo that existed in the country, that national crude oil could not be used for other purposes, and we had practically condemned it to be used directly in a group of thermoelectric plants."
FOR GREATER AND BETTER RESULTS
Since the country has only received one Russian tanker in the last six months, Cupet continued working with domestic crude and processed 20,000 tons. Once again, the Hermanos Díaz team took on this colossal challenge, which happily "yielded results superior to the first run of this pilot phase, with the production of solvent naphtha destined for wells and fuel oil," said Irene Barbado Lucio.
Because the diesel obtained from domestic crude does not meet all the standards for commercialization, it was necessary to blend it with a higher-quality fuel to make it usable. The May run met the objectives; the extra-heavy fuel oil is even being used at the Antonio Maceo Thermoelectric Power Plant, with positive results, and its use in the nickel industry is being evaluated.
Even though the processed amount does not cover the country's demand, it represents a technological advancement for making more efficient use of endogenous energy resources. "Therefore, we reiterate that, given the high sulfur content, acidity, and viscosity of Cuban crude, specialists were required to perform calculations and adjustments to optimize and facilitate the refining process," stated Yanet Revé Luna, senior specialist in the Technology Department.
Thus, the crude oil washing systems were rehabilitated, "and the dosage of a new product called Vapen 220 pe was established. This product serves as a neutralizer at the top of the atmospheric distillation tower for the corrosive acids that form during the fractionation process," the specialist affirmed.
Taking into account the characteristics of Cuban oil, a line was constructed to collect the polluting gases released at the top of the vacuum distillation tower. These gases are then burned in the furnaces, thereby contributing to environmental protection and the health of the workers.
Since it was very difficult for the fuel to flow through the ten-inch diameter lines to reach the suction and processing unit, "we made an interconnection with a 20-inch line," Revé Luna noted.
And in complete accordance with the need to take a little bit away from the problems each day, this team—with many of its members working long hours and in complete anonymity—continues to apply science and innovation so that petroleum products—no longer imported, because they are denied to us—are present, to the extent possible, in the country's main activities.

The Santiago refinery is one of the four in the country and was expanded in the 1980s. Photo: Santiago Martí Photo: Granma

 

 

Díaz-Canel denounces new U.S. threats and sanctions against Cuba

With these measures, the US government intends to "strengthen the blockade and the conflict between Cuba and the United States," he stated

Author: International Editor | internet@granma.cu

June 5, 2026 15:06:18

                                                Photo: Dunia Álvarez

 "The US president has made new threatening statements against Cuba; and the Treasury Department has added new names of Cuban leaders, organizations, and companies to an illegitimate sanctions list," denounced Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and President of the Republic, this Thursday via his Twitter account.
Regarding this new episode, an expression of the White House's growing hostility toward the island, the Cuban president asserted that it is aimed at "strengthening the blockade and the conflict between Cuba and the United States."
Furthermore, he stated: "This political blindness adds to the coercive measures applied in recent weeks against our country, designed to harm the Cuban people."
Díaz-Canel warned that "the aggressiveness and perversion of the U.S. government will clash with our resolve to confront the worst-case scenarios and resist the imperial onslaught."
For his part, Political Bureau member and Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla expressed on his Facebook profile that "the vile inclusion of President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, members of his family, as well as Cuban institutions, civil society organizations, and companies on an illegitimate and unilateral list by the U.S. government, is the latest example of the U.S. interventionist plan to portray Cuba as a threat to U.S. national security."
The Cuban Foreign Minister asserted that "every U.S. action aimed at creating a scenario of conflict between the two countries is destined to fail."
"Every threat against Cuba’s independence and sovereignty will be met with even greater unity and determination from our people," he added.

 

Cuba: There will be no possible neutrality at this time. It will be either organized resistance or cowardly complicity.

June, 2026 By Crisis Observatory

La Tizza, Cuban magazine

The enemy forces us to think in terms of total war. Therefore, it is necessary to state clearly: all US bases in Latin America will become de facto legitimate targets.

If Donald Trump's language has one valuable quality, it's its starkness. He doesn't hide behind euphemisms or linger in diplomatic circumlocutions. His threat to send an aircraft carrier to take over Cuba once the job in Iran is done isn't campaign hyperbole, nor just another element of his chaotic negotiating style, nor a joke from some unlikely imperial dinner party. It's the explicit confession of a policy that was never anything other than the preparation for the final blow.

For decades, large sectors have been anachronistically debating between reforms yes and reforms no, between tactical concessions and gestures of goodwill, between the hope of a reasonable negotiation and the calculation of how much to give up so that the beast would calm its rhetoric. 

Trump has instantly shattered all faith in that supposed scenario, and, it must be acknowledged, has helped us to unveil that absurd nonsense. All those who naively believed in recent months that any reasonable negotiation scenario was possible have been sorely disappointed. Trump was never interested in negotiating; only in buying time. His blunt language has saved us the trouble of interpretation: there's no need to read between the lines anymore; now we can read the deck of a warship.

The less time we waste trying to unravel the chaotic dynamics of their back-and-forth, attempting to separate their rhetoric from our actual capacity for dialogue, or obsessively debating what we can concede to alter the enemy's policy toward Cuba, the less time we are giving to those who have already made up their minds. The only possible and realistic scenario today is to prepare without delay and with absolute responsibility for a comprehensive asymmetric war.

Cuba has made every possible effort to avoid war, without achieving the silence of the cannons implying sinking into the mire of shame.

II

But the nakedness of imperial language reveals something even deeper and more definitive. It's not that the current president despises the international order; it's that the order that supposedly guaranteed minimum security conditions for countries and peoples is dead. And some—even within our own ranks—insist on continuing to test the vital signs of a corpse that has been rotting for some time.

Cuba is a member of the BRICS, a signatory to the vast majority of agreements that place it within the United Nations' global architecture, and has provided decades of selfless humanitarian aid to the Global South, making it morally deserving of any order that claims to be civilized. And yet, the announced deployment of an aircraft carrier to Havana does not provoke an urgent meeting of the Security Council, nor preemptive sanctions, nor even a credible threat of multilateral diplomatic isolation. It provokes silence. It provokes petty calculations from powers that believe themselves safe. At best, it provokes lukewarm statements that no one fears and that no one will heed.

We should go further: what Trump is doing is not declaring the system dead, but rather exposing the shamelessness of its actual functioning. What has died is not the system itself, but the precarious harmony between its powerful elements. Along with the usual expendable lives, the classic hegemon has also sacrificed the system's supporting players and that scaffolding called the "international order," because they now hinder his geopolitical offensive against competitors who are no longer external to capitalism but emerge from its own cultural, rational, and ideological framework. 

When competition arose against what was perceived as "anti-systemic"—even if such opposition was more imagined than real, as ultimately happened in the case of the USSR—the system needed counterweights, checks and balances, a backdrop for its hegemony. Today, when the challenge is framed in openly inter-capitalist terms and comes from powers that have undermined the Bretton Woods Pact—through which Washington emerged unchallenged worldwide —that international order has become an obstacle. 

The same thing is happening with the international order as with classical liberalism: when the flexibility of the state ceased to be useful for absorbing the energy of popular struggles and demands, capital gave rise to the Washington Consensus and the neoliberal restructuring of Latin American dictatorships. This creation is now sacrificing the very framework it designed, deeming it insufficient.

Let us, then, spend less time summoning the reaction of an already dead order and instead employ all possible forces to build a new one at gunpoint. An order where the guarantee of security is not a piece of paper deposited in Geneva, but the certainty that every inch of land will be defended, and that this defense will be the founding act of an insurgent international legality, born from the cannons of dignity and not from the notarial deeds of empire or the delirious weekly jokes of a madman. But madness is not Trump's fundamental trait; rather, it is a capitalist order that needed to construct such a delusional architecture to sustain itself at all costs.

.III

Let no one expect, however, a seventeenth state to come and rescue us. Bitter reality has confirmed that Russian energy aid was a temporary, collegial, and pre-negotiated window of opportunity with the empire itself. Today, no geopolitical bloc exists with the genuine will and structural capacity to disobey Washington and modify the exceptional architecture imposed on Cuba. This is the stark reality of our tactical isolation, and acknowledging it is not defeatism: it is the first step in a true strategy.

But there is one fact that the United States, Trump, and his select group of fascists in power try to ignore with the arrogance of those who only know how to read kilotons and nuclear warheads: the enormous lesson of Iran and the Axis of Resistance, of the mobilized Iraqi forces, of the Yemenis who overcame Saudi logistics, of Hezbollah resisting the persistent attacks of Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, even amidst—let us avoid laughing at such dramatic events—a "ceasefire" that, as always, only the victims complied with. 

These peoples had no aircraft carriers, no Security Council to protect them, no geopolitical bloc to save them. They have a doctrine. A genuine and authentic pedagogy of resistance that the empire has never been able to decipher.

Imperialism can capitalize on "surgical" strikes, assassinate generals, destroy infrastructure, and orchestrate the spectacle of its air power. But there is one variable that eludes all its algorithms: attrition. Prolonged asymmetric warfare drains budgets, shatters domestic consensus, devours parliamentary majorities, and transforms every tactical victory into a political defeat. 

Resistance is certainly more costly in lives and infinitely more politically effective than submitting to preserve a life that, without sovereignty, is no longer truly a life or has minimal guarantees of being one. Choosing resistance is not an act of suicidal heroism; it is the rational calculation of those who understand that life under occupation is a deferred death, and that the only currency the empire respects is the unacceptable cost a people is willing to inflict and bear. We did not arrive at this point in history through poets; time and again, by force and coercion, we have been compelled to write with blood in order to dream and have a homeland, a flag, a people, "the land, the water, the air… the fire."

IV

The recent executive order signed by Trump is the tangible expression of this new state of affairs. It is not simply another tightening of the embargo: it is the written formalization of a total state of exception regarding Cuba. Any gesture toward the island, even one of solidarity or humanitarian aid, is completely prohibited under its provisions.

They seek to precipitate internal collapse through suffocation, without inconvenient witnesses, without aid workers, without food, without medicine. It is war by other means, codified in the language of decrees.

To justify this, the empire maintains a constant double narrative that urgently and precisely needs to be dismantled. On the one hand, "Cuba is about to fall," "it's next," "it's a failed state" that requires only a final push. On the other, Cuba is an "unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security of the United States," to the point that an aircraft carrier is being assigned to it.

So what's the truth? If we're a threat capable of inflicting damage of this magnitude, how come we're on the verge of collapse? If we're on the verge of collapse, why do they need a total state of emergency and the deployment of their naval power?

The answer is simple: neither statement is true. They are interchangeable parts of a propaganda machine designed to justify the unjustifiable. And what will we do? Become specialists in subtle, hidden, and subtle discourses?

Everything is on the surface; those who do not wish to see it should not expect to cure their presbyopia with an aircraft carrier a hundred yards off the coast of Cuba.

But let's take the adversary's logic seriously for a moment. If Cuba, this May Day, compelled 500,000 people to march in front of the U.S. embassy in Havana amidst this crisis, if it forced more than six million Cubans to sign a declaration against the empire's policies, then we are facing a regime with superhuman coercive power, capable of mobilizing wills on a scale that the empire itself cannot match. If that power is real, they should think twice before attacking: how can they deal with a country that controls its population in such a way?

But if, on the contrary, those marches and signatures were not the product of any coercion, if they arose from a genuine desire to defend Cuba beyond any threat, if they were the free gesture of a nation that does not need to be forced to defend what is its own, then they should think about it even more. Because what they face is not a failed state nor a population that will welcome them with open arms, but a cohesive people, willing to resist at any cost and by any means.

In either case, the conclusion is the same: invading Cuba would be the most costly and prolonged mistake in American imperial history.

And as our Fernando Martínez Heredia said before he died: "Let the Americans think of it, even if it's with a lunatic for a president; we don't care, it's all the same to us whether he's a nice guy or a lunatic, we don't care about either of them."

V

But we didn't get here by spontaneous generation. The attack on the Twin Towers was the pretext for establishing a state of domestic exception, enacted with the Patriot Act within the United States, breaking the pact of non-interference in private lives that capitalism supposedly upholds. This state of exception was then transferred to the world with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq: any legal framework ceased to matter. The internal needs of a world order defined and delimited by Washington became paramount.

Trump is not an anomaly or an accident; he is the product of the return of that neoconservative project that was left incomplete.

But let no one be mistaken, we would not have arrived at this point without the Gaza episode. There, in that genocide broadcast live, this new global order of exception was inaugurated. The international community accepted the commission of a genocide against expendable lives, lives that could be killed without legal or political consequence.

We failed to grasp at the time that what was happening in Gaza wasn't just a violation of international law; it was the establishment of a new order, one where barbarity is public, condoned, and televised. And that is the order under which an aircraft carrier threatens Cuba today.

Iran is in this era what the Soviet Army was in its time: the only power with a genuine will to stand firm and to alter the current balance of power against imperialism. But the burning question in Our America is different: where is the Axis of Resistance in Latin America? It is urgent to establish it, and for this, the logic of the state will be of little use. From it come only calls for dialogue, respect for a dead international order, and appeals to a multilateralism that reeks of death even before it has been born.

The war in the Persian Gulf has shown that in an asymmetric scenario, control over strategic routes and resources is crucial. Therefore, it is necessary to state unequivocally: all US bases in Latin America will become de facto legitimate targets. Every Caribbean country that lends its territory for troop movements against Cuba, or that leaves its waterways open for aircraft carrier transit, or its airspace open for US aircraft and drones, will place itself on the battlefield. All bases in Florida and along the US coast that can serve as supply routes will also be legitimate targets, as will the transit zones for goods used by the United States.

This is not a threat or trench warfare bravado. It is the technical description of what a prolonged asymmetric war against an empire logistically dependent on a hemispheric network of bases, sea lanes, and support points would mean. The enemy forces us to think in terms of total war. We must do so with the coldness and fervor of one who defends their existence, which, in reality, is not only their own.

All solidarity groups with Cuba, all movements committed to the highest possible level of internationalism, must prepare to unleash resistance within their own countries, including U.S. military bases as legitimate targets, both inside and outside the United States. Only organized, regional resistance can allow us to shift the balance of power. It is not simply a matter of defeating this new wave of aggression that the empire is imposing on Cuba and the entire region. It is about eliminating U.S. imperialism from Our America once and for all.

Trump, unwittingly, gives us a historic opportunity to unleash the true struggle for the independence of our peoples and close that nefarious chapter of our history that is the American empire. What he offers as a death threat, we receive as the long-awaited opportunity to complete our unfinished independence.

We do not ask permission to defend ourselves. We do not invoke an order that no longer exists. We do not seek the protection of institutions that validated genocide. We tell the empire, with the calm of those who risk things far more sacred than permits to receive investment, that every aircraft carrier deployed, every base used, every drone launched, every supply ship, will be met with a response in times, places, and ways that we will choose.

And we say to the people of the United States that there is still time to prevent them from being drawn into a confrontation, hatched in the comfortable halls of Washington, by the very same people who turn their backs on the serious social problems that afflict them as a nation. A confrontation they will know precisely the moment they enter, but they will not be able to say when they will get out, nor at what cost. To the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, we say that the time to decide has arrived.

There will be no neutrality at this time. It will be either organized resistance or cowardly complicity. It will be either definitive independence or permanent servitude.

We have already chosen.

What Western Media Gets Wrong About Cuba

"India and Global Left"

Interview to Arnold August

 Canadian Network on Cuba Member & Supporters. 

Next Saturday, June 6th at 7pm in Toronto, the Canadian Network on Cuba and the Canadian-Cuba Friendship Association will be hosting a public event themed "Building Solidarity Against United States Aggression - Cuba Under Siege" with special guest speakers from across the country. Here are the event details:

·       United Steelworkers Hall – 25 Cecil Street, Toronto

·       Guest Speakers & Refreshments!

o   Victor Manuel Sanchez Garcia, Cuban Consul General in Toronto

o   Camila Escalante, Journalist & correspondent for Sovereign News, founder of Kawsachun News

o   Kevin Edmonds, Assistant Professor of Caribbean Studies at the University of Toronto

o   Arnold August, Journalist, author & winner of Feliz Elmuza Award from Cuba Union of Journalists

o   Krista Laing, Durham Region Labour Council

o   Keith Bolender, Award-winning journalist & author on Cuba-U.S. relations

o   Julio Fonseca, Canadian Network on Cuba Co-Chair & President of the Juan Gualberto Gomez Asociacion de Cubanos en Toronto

o   Q&A Session

In solidarity

 

LIVE! Cuba's Foreign Minister Speaks

 Rise Up with Cuba peoples of the world!

Editorial, La Tizza

 

 “They injured me. Long live Cuba!” 1st Colonel Lazaro Evangelio Rodriguez (1)

“The air forms a tornado and in it, tied, are death and love…” Silvio Rodriguez Dominguez, “Prelude to Giron.”

After the imperialist’ invasion of Venezuela, past January 3, that tore President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from the bosom of their people, the fascist pack of Cuban-American politics has once again salivated for Cuba.

 

The end of the Revolution is uncorked, once again, in the hope that the toast will not remain only in the hangover.

 

The fall of 32 Cuban heroes, in fierce and unequal combat against the butchers of Yankee dispossession, does not anticipate — as some think — the defeat of Cuba. Their sacrifice announces something else: the activation of the mambisa fiber, which is the mother fiber of the homeland: "whoever tries to appropriate Cuba, will collect the dust of its soil flooded with blood, if he does not perish in the struggle." (2)

 

At this point when Yankee aircraft carriers are stalking the coasts of Cuba, when rumors of enemy air raids hover over the character and consciences, what remains to be explained?

 

With the naval blockade of entry of fuel, crowning the meticulous system of economic warfare aimed at collapsing our country, what questions remain to be answered? Now that international law shows as never before who has the right and between whom it is disputed...When almost all "non-aligned" governments, or those with "progressive" rhetoric, look the other way…When the blocs of the supposed integration, (3) the alliances, the forums, the mixed commissions and congresses evade the practical and material commitment to Cuba and offer, at most, declarations of their consternation and impotence. Who to turn to first if not to the peoples to confront this imperialist siege that intensifies the more alone and abandoned to its fate is Cuba?

 

The fields are demarcated. On the one hand, whether or not they sympathize with the Cuban government, whether or not they are communists, living in Cuba or wherever, believing in any God or none, there have been those who understand that the Homeland is threatened, and that we must close ranks. These days the differences between patriots are worthless. To insist on them today, with the beast in front of us, is a crime against the homeland.

 

On the other hand, the opportunists have positioned themselves, without the possibility or desire to hide or disguise their intentions, backed as they feel by the empire that organizes them. It is preferable that this be the case: it saves us from unmasking them and allows us to move directly to confrontation.

 

In the decisive hours, when all mist dissipates and the light allows us to see better, it has become clearer for whom the prospect of aggression against Cuba is not cause for anguish, indignation or rebellion, but an opportunity to beg.

 

The representatives of the Cuban-American fascist right — with their pathetic branches in Latin America and Europe — beg Emperor Trump to win them the power that they have not had the audacity or courage to conquer by themselves, and then to complete the revenge on the people who made the Revolution, and who have never respected them.

 

They can't even feel ashamed to be seen celebrating a possible military aggression or asking for Cuba to be governed by a gringo viceroy, by a renegade of his filial origins disguised himself as Cuban when the South Florida lobby demands it.

 

No one will be able to be scandalized when we call them "anti-Cubans" or "nationless." But on the sidewalk of opportunism not only the MAGA-Cubans walk. The arc of opportunism moves from Batista's heirs to Carlos Prío's moral executors. Those who take advantage of this moment of extreme danger to our homeland far from closing ranks with it go around begging — they believe that they demand, but in reality they beg — from the Cuban State some perks, some economic favor, some concession, some quota of power, as if power could be begged — or given away! —. What are those? Opportunists, too! Because today no particular or group agency should be above the survival of our nation.

 

The problem of the Yankee imperialists is not with the Cuban government; it is not with this or that characteristic of public administration; it is not with existing inequality or poverty. Their problem is not with "the situation of the Cuban people," but with the fact that neither the country nor that situation — despite the costs of their tenacious and failed blockade — belong to them. The problem of the Yankee imperialists is not one of names, it is of content. Reason why there was a "Republic" in Cuba: of them; "Freedom": to obey them; "Democracy": so that their servants would take turns in the feast of the national rent. They are not concerned about whether we do capitalism or socialism — as demonstrated by their offensive being at the time of the greatest enthronement of private property in Cuba.

 

They are worried that we are the ones doing things here, not them. They are irritated that we dare to be ourselves and that we have discovered the secrets of our identity: to exist, we must be against them, the Yankee imperialists. There is no other way. This is why nation and anti-imperialism are presupposed. Why social justice and freedom are stitched together on the same flag.

 

Social media activists, rebellious and iconoclastic in the face of the victim, but always cautious and well-behaved in the face of the aggressor: why do they demand a willingness to negotiate from Cuba? What should and how can Cuba negotiate with a murderer who lives under constant ambush by his retinue of persecutors?

 

With their eyes on our heads, "understand each other," "dialogue," "negotiate" are recommendations that, in reality, sound a lot like "surrender." In the midst of the sharp ideological struggle that accompanies this battle for the survival of an entire people, we must prevent that fear masquerades as reason. This last one should be recommended, in any case, to the spiritual leaders of cowardice for whom life and death are credited in a video game that they program from the safety and comfort of their engine room.

 

Those who have rushed to demand reforms from the Cuban government, with the vain hope that they will forgive us for the revolution we made—even though dignity cannot survive the "favor" of such "forgiveness"—should know that the revolution had to be socialist in order to be one of national liberation. That was the only historical way in which the idea that obsessed Cuban patriots for more than a hundred years could be realized, an idea that Diego, the character in "Strawberry and Chocolate," summarized perfectly: "I don't want the Americans, or anyone else, coming here to tell us what to do."

 

The will to achieve sovereignty for the enslaved individual and the nation has marked the history of Cuba for two centuries. An identity that has forged its path against all odds, that has struggled to exist against the grain of powerful, corrosive forces of yesterday and today. The gendarmes of the "turbulent and brutal North that despises us" assert themselves insofar as they possess, insofar as they subjugate, insofar as they destroy, insofar as they buy and sell, insofar as they plunder. We Cubans, on the other hand, assert ourselves insofar as we are, not what they have wanted to make of us, but what we have chosen to be for ourselves.

 

The animosity towards Cuba hides the terror that our promise provokes in them, as besieged and incomplete as it is un-renounceable.

 

The defeat of that promise, the definitive acceptance of a colonial and subordinate position, would be nothing less than the suicide of the nation: the death of what Cuba has been, not just since 1959, but for more than 150 years.

 

There is no possible compromise with imperialism. Its existence and ours are antagonistic and will continue to clash. The aggression of U.S. imperialism toward Cuba—its blockades, its institutional forms oscillating between the stick and the carrot, its blackmail of the rest of the world—has only two paths to disappear: the complete defeat of that imperialism or the complete surrender of Cuba. The bilateral relationship between the two states does not exhaust such a dilemma; it is embedded within it.

 

Faced with this scenario, the leaders of the Cuban state, in order to lead the nation and fulfill their sacred duties to it, cannot be prey to hesitation or weakness. Granting the initiative to the enemy—external or internal—would not bring peace or stability, but defeat.

 

Defending sovereignty requires political will, strategic clarity, and firm leadership: or, to put it in other terms we know well: "challenging powerful dominant forces... fighting with boldness, intelligence, and realism."

 

The ongoing naval blockade and tariff blackmail imposed on third parties, which prevent the arrival in Cuba of essential oil supplies needed to sustain daily life, deepen an imposed and planned crisis scenario. In this context, our ability to manage the limited room for maneuver becomes a matter of national security. Simultaneously, an uninterrupted sequence of psychological operations is being deployed, designed to generate fear, anxiety, despair, and the illusion of a bright national future under U.S. tutelage. This combines rumors and vague threats with artificial intelligence projections of how prosperous and beautiful our cities would look if this 67-year "ordeal" were to end.

 

Cuba is not "next" on the list; it has always been first. From Honduras in 2009 to Venezuela in 2026, passing through Paraguay, Ecuador, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, and Bolivia, the weakest links in the chain were targeted with a well-known ultimate goal: to isolate and suffocate the Cuban Revolution. The imperialist intervention in Venezuela was not only against that nation, but against all of Latin America and the Caribbean, and especially against Cuba. This was not an excess or a deviation, but the culmination of a regional strategy.

 

The current context of effective solidarity from other governments with Cuba is shameful, in contrast to the solidarity shown person to person and people to people. Mexico remains the sole supplier of oil, and strong pressure is already being exerted to terminate that aid. This scenario cannot be ruled out, given Donald Trump's style, which combines brutal aggression, direct blackmail, and open pressure of various kinds.

 

China and Russia express support and condemnation through rhetoric, but neither has shown any willingness to share the Cuban people's fate in the face of direct aggression. Symbolic support, strategic calculation, and an island forced to confront the carefully provoked escalation of war almost alone. We expect nothing from external powers. As Antonio Maceo said, "It is better to rise or fall without help than to incur debts of gratitude to such powerful neighbors." We had already learned long ago that in decisive moments, Cuba can only count on its own people.

 

To this isolation is added the silence of the major diplomatic institutions in the region and the world. These structures exist on paper, but offer no concrete gestures of support capable of altering the course of events.

 

All those who abandon Cuba to its fate—whether due to geopolitical calculation, diplomatic pragmatism, or simple fear—must understand that they are not neutral and, therefore, become de facto collaborators. Their silence or inaction does not prevent war, but rather clears the path for it from afar. Every gesture that fails to materialize and every instance of delayed support contributes to setting the stage for an invasion of Cuba or a social upheaval, born of popular desperation, that could sweep everything away.

 

Those who today, through action or inaction, place themselves at the service of aggression against their own country, must understand that there will be no historical or political impunity. People have long memories, and the responsibilities assumed in crucial times are not erased by time or exile.

 

Committed to confronting the plan to turn Cuba into the Gaza of the Caribbean, we speak first to you, the people of the United States, in all your infinite diversity. To every citizen who can no longer endure the dictatorial madness that governs the White House. To you, who live besieged by the countless problems of a society that is far from being "great again."

 

We speak to you, who remember each of the wars in which the rich grew richer and the poor poorer, and in which the only thing that returned home—when anything did—were the lifeless bodies of your children. Wars that weren't yours, decided in offices, fought by young men who, to earn a living, were forced to destroy others.

 

We also speak to the large community of Cubans residing in the United States who are not victims of the hatred of the "historical exile." Many were raised in the humanism and fraternity of our schools and streets, and they are not willing to silently condone aggression against their own people.

 

Don't let your children go to another war. Don't let them say goodbye only to go and die fighting in Cuba against another people who are not your enemy.

 

There are many ways to mobilize. We call upon the many academic groups that maintain relations with Cuba, Pastors for Peace, the World Council of Churches, cultural figures, actors, and actresses who have spoken out strongly against the human rights violations and the fascist drift that Trump represents. We also call upon members of Congress and the Senate who have long demanded a change in relations with Cuba, without any intention of submission or warmongering.

 

To all who feel compelled by this call to avoid certain and inevitable death in the assault being prepared behind their backs: Help stop the barbarity. Stand in solidarity with Cuba.

 

To the sister nations of Cuba, to solidarity organizations, to all who know that imperialist war never brings democracy or freedom: now is the time for effective, sustained, and visible mobilization, by all possible means, against war and in defense of life. Every country and diplomatic mission must become a stage for fraternity and commitment. Every embassy of the United States must feel the weight of mass solidarity.

 

If you were ever treated by Cuban medical missions; if you ever learned to read with the "Yes, I Can" method, or if you studied in this land, we say to you: Rise up with Cuba!

 

Peoples of Africa who, at your call, relied on our soldiers, combatants, doctors, and teachers: the crucial hour of solidarity with Cuba has arrived!

 

Peoples of the Americas, with whom our destiny was sealed in that final glance of Che: Mobilize now!

 

Peoples of the world, Cuba offers you a place to fight.

 

 

NOTES:

[1] Last words of First Colonel Lázaro Evangelio Rodríguez, who fell in combat protecting the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro Moros.

[2] Letter from Antonio Maceo to the Cuban patriot José Dolores Poyo, director of the pro-independence newspaper El Yara, of Key West, written on June 13, 1884, from San Pedro Sula, Honduras. In: https://www.sld.cu/sitios/histologia/temas.php?idv=15549

[3] Community of Latin American States (CELAC), Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – Peoples' Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP), Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), among others.

Translation by NSCUBA (Nova Scotia)

Analyst: Accusation versus General Raul Castro a false flag...