Cuba: US Empire Imposes Starvation Siege

21-02-2026: On February 17, US President Donald Trump stated that Cuba was a “failed nation”, and called on Havana to make a deal – though he dismissed the suggestion of conducting yet another regime change operation.[1] Yet regime change in Cuba is very clearly the aim of US imperialism, as it has been since the revolution in 1959 overthrew the US installed Fulgencio Batista and Cuba took the first crucial steps towards socialism. Today, however, with the decline of Western capitalism and the rise of the multipolar world in its place, the stakes are arguably higher than what they have been at any time in the past. Trump’s bluster comes after his January 29 Executive Order 14380 “Addressing Threats to the United States by the Government of Cuba”. This authorised the US to impose new tariffs on imports from countries that directly or indirectly supply oil to the government of Cuba.[2] On top of the economic blockade which the US has imposed on Cuba for more than 60 years, the attempt to block fuel oil being sent to Cuba amounts to a starvation siege.

Allies step up

The leading exporters of oil to Cuba in recent years have been Venezuela, Mexico, Russia and Algeria. Yet after the latest US imposed blockade, deliberately aimed at collapsing basic services, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has stated that no fuel has entered the country since December.[3] The new blockade will potentially cause a humanitarian catastrophe, as there are already daily electricity blackouts, shortages of food, medicine and basic goods. There is pressure on water systems and commercial airlines have had to cancel flights.[4] Rubbish is piling up on the streets in Cuba, as the garbage trucks which usually collect it do not have fuel to drive. Cuba’s famous cars from the 1950s are also barely able to be driven without fuel, so many have to transport themselves on bicycles and pedicabs.[5] The situation is dire, with some commentators saying the Cuban state could collapse within weeks or months.

The Mexican government, historically one of Cuba’s strongest allies in the region, has halted oil shipments to Cuba under pressure from the US sanctions, though it is also attempting to engage the US diplomatically in an effort to allow the resumption of exports. In the meantime, Mexico has since sent two shipments of humanitarian aid, transported by the Mexican navy.[6] The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has stepped up with an emergency financial package worth $80 million and a donation of 60 000 tons of rice, conveyed by China’s ambassador Hua Xin.[7] The government of Vietnam handed over 250 tons of rice as a donation, but in April last year it had donated 10 000 tons.[8] The Russian Federation has announced that it will supply oil and humanitarian aid to Cuba,[9] regardless of the new US sanctions. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov stated that Russia does not seek any escalation, but they currently have virtually no trade with the US. This means any US sanctions on Russia, on top of the mountain of sanctions already imposed, would have little to no effect. It is unclear how large the oil shipment from Russia will be, but if the volume is 100 000 tons of oil, which is the same as the last shipment in February last year, it may only last four weeks. This is because Cuba consumes an average of 37 000 barrels of oil per day, for all of its fuel needs.

War on BRICS

Trump’s hideously cruel siege of Cuba is yet another theatre of US imperialism’s war on BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa plus 15 other Global South nations) and the rising multipolar alternative. The Republic of Cuba is a partner member of the BRICS bloc, and socialist leaning Venezuela was the next in line to join BRICS. This is arguably why Washington carried out the kidnapping of Venezuela’s President Maduro, an exercise in which 32 Cuban military operatives died during the US strike.[10] Venezuela’s “Socialism of the 21^st Century”, begun under former President Hugo Chavez, had provided a vital lifeline to Cuba after decades of being the only outpost of socialism in Latin America. Cuba, along with Venezuela, has very strong alliances with the pillars of the multipolar world – Iran, Russia and China. Washington, with its declining capitalism hanging on to an empire fraying at the edges, is attempting to break off the allies of Iran, Russia and China one by one – while gunning for a suicidal course of eventual regime change against the Russian and Chinese superpowers.

Cuba remains a bureaucratically deformed workers’ state, with its near total state-owned means of production and a planned economy. Overwhelmingly, Cuba’s economic problems today, and for the past 60 plus years, are caused directly by the privations imposed by US imperialism. Billions of dollars of revenue may have been raised if simple trade and commerce was allowed between the US and other states which might interact commercially with Cuba. At the same time, the Stalinist politics of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) has been a barrier to developing working class struggle in the Caribbean and in Latin America. Rigidly adhering to the twin Stalinist nostrums of “socialism in one country” (or one island) and “peaceful coexistence with imperialism”, the PCC leadership has not sought to extend the gains of the Cuban revolution even to neighbours, let alone internationally, even from a political or propagandistic standpoint. Despite this, Cuba’s free health care and education are renowned worldwide.

What Cuba needs is a proletarian political revolution, to sweep away the hidebound pillars of the PCC, while maintaining at all costs the workers’ state – the principal fruit of its revolution. Today, however, this has to be combined with a defence of multipolarism, BRICS and the overwhelming majority of the Global South, who are also zealous in their embrace of the rising alternative to 500 years of US and European colonialism. Whatever the political limitations of the governments of BRICS undoubtedly are, the BRICS process – total respect for the sovereignty of all nations, no matter how large or how small, a greater representation of Global South states in world governance, a financial and economic alternative to Western established systems, and much more – is a progressive step forward for humanity. Cuba, along with all other Global South states which resist imperialism, is a part of this historical advance.

As it stands, BRICS is not a military or security alliance. Hence, the superpower BRICS states of Russia and China will not go out of their way to get involved with a military confrontation with the US, and specifically not on its doorstep. Even if the governments of Russia and China were motivated by an international class struggle against imperialism, it may still not be possible to intervene militarily given the geographical circumstances. So, Russia and China will probably send as much humanitarian aid as is possible, and potentially some military assistance. In short, BRICS member states may well assist Cuba in the best way they can, but the BRICS bloc is likely to keep its powder dry. In time, political developments may trend towards the multipolar world forging its own political and military organs, but that time has not arrived. Yet just by beginning to offer a financial and economic alternative, the multipolar world has earned the wrath of imperialism. This is one reason for the Ukraine/NATO proxy war on Russia, Al Qaeda installed regime change in Syria, the genocidal war on Palestine, repeated regime change war threats and operations against Iran, and repeated colour revolutions in Nepal, Bangladesh and elsewhere.

Just the first steps towards a better world has sent the US war machine into a frenzy. In order to save Cuba and stem the enraged lashing out of the US empire, workers internationally need to defend Cuba and its Global South multipolar allies. Simultaneously, a Marxist political leadership needs to be forged out of those who can identify the clear class lines afflicting the current world. Vanguard parties in the East and West need to guide the masses towards socialism, which may well come about via or through the burgeoning multipolar world. The horrors of the Epstein class and its putrid capitalism need to be buried in the past, as Cuba did in the early 1960s. Lift the blockade on Cuba! Lift all secondary sanctions!

Workers League

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[1] www.english.aawsat.com/world/5241693-trump-says-cuba-failed-nation-should-make-deal-us (18-02-2026)

[2] www.sanctionsnews.bakermckenzie.com/u-s-declares-national-emergency-with-respect-to-cuba-and-threatens-new-tariffs-on-countries-supplying-oil-to-the-country/ (18-02-2026)

[3] www.peoplesdispatch.org/2026/02/16/over-100-cuban-artists-call-for-international-solidarity/ (18-02-2026)

[4] www.zeteo.com/p/why-is-trump-strangling-cuba (18-02-2026)

[5] www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpLcDNXAZBk (18-02-2026)

[6] www.mronline.org/2026/02/14/mexico-says-humanitarian-aid-to-cuba-arrives-amid-u-s-sanctions/ (18-02-2026)

[7] www.cubaheadlines.com/articles/318957 (18-02-2026)

[8] www.havanatimes.org/news/vietnam-donates-10000-tons-of-rice-to-cuba/ (18-02-2026)

[9] www.en.cibercuba.com/noticias/2026-02-12-u1-e129488-s27061-nid320679-rusia-anuncia-enviara-petroleo-crudo-combustible (18-02-2026)