Cuba condemns and denounces new escalation of U.S. economic blockade
Statement by the Revolutionary Government
Photo: Ricardo López Hevia
The Revolutionary Government condemns in the strongest terms the new escalation by the U.S. government against Cuba in its efforts to impose a total blockade on fuel supplies to our country.
The executive order issued by the U.S. President on January 29, 2026, declares a supposed national emergency, under which his government will be able to impose trade tariffs on imports of products from countries that supply oil to Cuba.
To justify such extreme action, the text of the order contains an extensive list of lies and defamatory accusations against Cuba. Among them is the absurd assertion that Cuba constitutes an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to the national security of the United States. The President himself and his government are aware that no one, or very few, can believe such mendacious arguments, but they do not care. Such is their contempt for the truth, public opinion, and government ethics when it comes to endorsing their aggression against Cuba.
With this decision, the United States government, through blackmail, threats, and direct coercion of third countries, is attempting to impose additional pressure on the economic suffocation measures that have been in place since Trump’s first term to prevent fuel from entering our country. It consolidates a dangerous way of conducting U.S. foreign policy by force and exercising its ambitions to guarantee its imperialist hegemony. As announced, that country claims the right to dictate to sovereign states which nations they can trade with and to which they can export their domestic products.
The executive order issued by the President of the United States therefore constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and also contravenes the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace. It confirms that it is the government of that country that is threatening the security, stability, and peace of the region and the world.
The government of the United States has reached this point after 67 years of failing to surrender and destroy a genuine and legitimate political and revolutionary process of full sovereignty, social justice, and the promotion of peace and solidarity with the rest of the world.
Cuba’s historical willingness to engage in serious, responsible dialogue with the United States government, based on international law, sovereign equality, mutual respect, reciprocal benefit, non-interference in internal affairs, and absolute respect for the independence and sovereignty of states, is widely documented.
As everyone knows, including the U.S. government itself, Cuba poses no threat whatsoever to the United States, its national interests, or the well-being of its citizens, who, moreover, have always been treated with respect and hospitality when their government has allowed them to visit the island. Cuba does not threaten or attack any country. It is not subject to sanctions by the international community. It is a peaceful, supportive, and cooperative country, willing to help and contribute to other States.
It is also a country of a brave and combative people. Imperialism is mistaken when it believes that economic pressure and the determination to cause suffering to millions of people will break their determination to defend national sovereignty and prevent Cuba from falling, once again, under US domination.
The international community faces the inescapable challenge of determining whether a crime of this nature could be a sign of things to come or whether sanity, solidarity, and the rejection of aggression, impunity, and abuse will prevail.
We will face this new attack with firmness, equanimity, and the certainty that reason is absolutely on our side. The decision is one:
Even with fuel shortages, Cuba will not be defeated by the empire
“Surrender will never be an option, and hard times like these must be faced with courage and bravery,” said the Cuban president.
Our premise will continue to be to prepare ourselves to move forward even when aggression and restrictions become more acute, Díaz-Canel said. PhotoPhoto: Estudios Revolución
“We are living in a time when imperialism is emboldened and has once again set its sights on Cuba with increased aggression, which grows with each passing day,” denounced Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, on Friday morning during the Extraordinary Plenary Session of the Provincial Party Committee in Havana.
The Head of State made an incisive analysis of the events that have unfolded in the region and the world since January 3, following the aggression against Venezuela by the U.S. government, and which now threaten the island.
Faced with imperialism’s aggression against Cuba, whose direct lines of action have been clearly announced by Trump, Marco Rubio, and other spokespeople for that government, “we,” Díaz-Canel said, “have to be prepared, and we are preparing ourselves.”
The president explained that these lines of action consist, first, of total suffocation, continuing economic pressure, as reflected in the decisions announced Thursday by Trump on the blockade through tariffs on oil supplies to Cuba, and second, military aggression.
He recalled the comments made by the White House occupant in early January, after the aggression against Venezuela and the kidnapping of its legitimate president, when he said that not much more pressure could be exerted on Cuba and that what had to be done was to go in and destroy the place.
The first of these comments, when he said “I don’t think much more pressure can be exerted” against Cuba, Díaz-Canel pointed out, is confirmation of the extreme levels of pressure of all kinds that have been exerted on our country, although, indirectly, Trump has had to acknowledge that we have resisted.
They “have applied all the pressure they can, and here we are. And that statement, made with such arrogance, debunks the lie that Cuba is a failed state, because they have had to acknowledge that the fundamental cause of the economic crisis the country is experiencing has to do with that pressure, which they themselves describe as maximum.”
With this statement, the First Secretary added — Trump has also had to acknowledge that there is nothing left to deprive and block the Cuban people of, and now, with the executive order to impose tariff sanctions on those who supply us with oil, they want to deprive us of fuel, something necessary for any country to develop its economy, to develop its life, and “we must see,” he denounced, “with what malice, with what perversity, they are proposing this policy.”
Regarding the second part of Trump’s comments earlier this month, when he said that with Cuba, the only option left is to “go in and destroy the place,” Díaz-Canel pointed out that this is “a phrase that provokes outrage and popular revulsion because it implies the ruthless massacre of our country.”
The head of state condemned “the unveiling of the annexationist swarm” that is euphorically celebrating Trump’s executive order to block our access to oil on social media.
Imperialism, he emphasized later, “is concerned about the example of Cuba, what Cuba can do without the blockade, what another type of model, another type of construction, another type of popular empowerment can mean for the world, which, even under blockade, has had social results in 65 years that the United States does not have.”
Díaz-Canel analyzed the elements that are facilitating or imposing the behavior of the current U.S. administration.
He spoke about the updating of the Monroe Doctrine with the Trump corollary and the criterion of imposing peace through the use of force, although, he noted, we must see what that peace is, because wherever force has been applied, in all the conflicts in which the United States is involved, there is no peace; what there is is chaos. By using force, he stressed, the US is crushing the concept of multilateralism that is defended by most of the world.
Díaz-Canel asserted that “when an empire is in decline, it is totally irrational,” and what can be expected from it is “a reaction of arrogance, bullying, blackmail, pressure, coercive measures, violence, slander, and lies.”
EMPIRE OF EVIL
The President returned to his assessment of the Empire’s military invasion of Venezuela and the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro Moros and his wife Cilia Flores.
This aggression, he recalled, was preceded by an intense campaign of economic, political, and propaganda pressure that intensified beginning in September 2025 and the largest U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean area in more than 20 years.
The way in which the aggression against Venezuela was structured, the Caribbean leader commented, also contains elements of the war we are facing, because this, he emphasized, is also an ideological war, a cultural war, and a media and communications war.
“Ideological, because what is being imposed here is the hegemony of an empire and its desire to conquer and dominate the world. And it is a hegemony that responds to the great imperialist powers and responds to the rich minorities of the world.
“It is a cultural war because, in order to conquer the world hegemonic ally, it is necessary to break each people’s relationship with their culture and their historical roots so that people see their values and history as obsolete and then accept the patterns that imperialist hegemony wants to impose.”
In the media sphere, the dignitary exposed the multiple communication matrices that were generated from the Empire’s propaganda platforms, including social media, to shape public opinion that would justify what they were going to do next, which intensified starting last September.
Then, following the thread of events, came the pressure, the naval blockade, the illegal bombing of ships allegedly involved in drug trafficking, the blockade on hydrocarbons and the hijacking of oil tankers, and finally, the invasion and kidnapping of the legitimate president of a country and his wife to try them illegally in another country.
And these, Díaz-Canel denounced, “are the same pretexts that are already being constructed against us to justify an aggression against Cuba, to justify coercive measures, to continue increasing pressure against Cuba.”
We are facing an imperial doctrine that also has its sights set on Greenland and Iran; in other words, he said, we are facing a stark imperialist and fascist aggression in which the president of the Empire is behaving like Hitler, with a criminal policy of contempt that aims to take over the world.
SURRENDER WILL NEVER BE AN OPTION
Delving deeper into the threats looming over Cuba, Díaz-Canel pointed out: “Now they are deluded into thinking that the days of the Revolution are numbered, that we are going to collapse under our own weight, that they are going to suffocate us, and that is, once again, an expression of imperial arrogance.”
It is an illusion that contrasted with the reaction of the Cuban people to the aggression against Venezuela on January 3. A people, he recalled, that “reacted with indignation, with patriotism, against imperialism and with unity.”
During the aggression, he recalled, “the Cubans fought and fought hard, confronting elite U.S. forces that had rehearsed an operation to kidnap the president in a matter of minutes, with superior manpower, superior technology, superior weaponry, drones, a sophisticated deployment of technology, and tremendous firepower.”
One day, Díaz-Canel emphasized, we will have to recognize how much the courage and example of the 32 Cubans who fell fighting the US invasion of Venezuela contributed to everything that is happening and everything that may happen in the future. And the Empire, he said, has to calculate “what an attack on Cuba would cost it.”
That is why, he said, our premise will continue to be to prepare ourselves to move forward even when aggression and restrictions become more acute. “Surrender will never be an option,” the Cuban president assured, “and hard times like these must be faced with courage and bravery.”
“Our Party, the State, the Government, the Revolutionary Armed Forces, the Ministry of the Interior, and the united people are prepared to face any additional blockade measures and any military threat or aggression with the same courage and determination as the 32 Cuban combatants who fell heroically on January 3 in Venezuela,” he emphasized.
In view of the growing aggressiveness of the United States, the First Secretary said that an international complaint will be made in all possible forums about this new coercive measure and that work will continue with friendly countries and the international community.
“We,” said the president, “are a country of peace. Even in the midst of all this aggression and the blockade of all these years, we have said that we have the capacity and willingness to dialogue with the U.S. government. The thing is, dialogue cannot take place under pressure. Dialogue must be on equal terms, with respect, and without preconditions.”
With the “imperative duty to protect” the United States, the Republican president announced that he will impose new tariffs “on imports of goods from a foreign country that sells or supplies, directly or indirectly, oil to Cuba”
From the White House on January 29, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency regarding Cuba, which he declared an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States,” the same country that has been blockaded for more than six decades.
Although they want to make it look like a security measure, it really is the use of pressure as a geopolitical and destabilization tool. Among its aims, it seeks to collectively punish the Cuban people for their firm decision to choose the path of sovereignty and the right to self-determination, which they will not renounce.
Thus, the Executive Order signed by the U.S. president comes into force today, declaring a national emergency in that country, given that – according to the document full of fallacies – Cuba possesses “sophisticated military and intelligence capabilities on its territory that directly threaten the national security of the United States” and maintains relations with “hostile countries, transnational terrorist groups, and malign adversaries” of the northern nation.
The U.S. government is lying again, as it does systematically. It knows full well that Cuba does not harbor terrorists, does not give refuge to terrorist organizations, does not torture alleged opponents, and does not cooperate illegally with any country. It is in that territory that murderers such as Luis Posada Carriles, responsible for the Barbados plane crime, and others who still walk the streets of Miami have found shelter.
With the “imperative duty to protect” the United States, the Republican president announced that he will impose new tariffs “on imports of goods from a foreign country that sells or supplies, directly or indirectly, oil to Cuba.” This will hit a cross-cutting player in the national economy.
The consequences will not only affect the government, but will also have a direct impact on the well-being of the population and all sectors.
The measure constitutes an act of economic genocide disguised as national security. The United States cannot impose its will by force, and the world will have to decide which side is right and whether it approves or rejects this ignominy.
Trump’s Executive Order speaks of human rights violations, repression, and regional destabilization in the largest of the Antilles. What it does not say is that the extraterritorial measure it endorses meets the criteria for qualifying under those same elements, in addition to causing human suffering and affecting the lives of millions of people.
The U.S. administration insists that the Caribbean nation supports drug trafficking, even though our country is not a destination, transit point, or warehouse for drugs, as a result of its commitment to a zero-tolerance policy.
The island’s longstanding record in combating terrorism and drug trafficking on the continent has yielded concrete results, cooperating with the United States itself in the fight against drugs and crime. The Executive Order ignores this.
However, it is known that Cuba, due to its geographical location, is part of one of the most active international drug trafficking routes, connecting the production areas in South America with the main consumer market in the United States, First Colonel Yvey Daniel Carballo Pérez, Chief of Staff of the Border Guard Troops Directorate of the Minint, recently told the press.
So, is Cuba—free, independent, sovereign, democratic, with social justice and human solidarity—a threat to U.S. national security or to the development of its hegemonic, expansionist interests and the perpetuation of the serious health crisis generated by fentanyl within its borders?
The Cuban people, descended from Martí, know the monster’s guts and can decipher its lies. They will not be fooled. They have endured almost 70 years of genocidal blockade and have stoically resisted all the empire’s aggressions without renouncing their principles. This time will be no different.
The only threat to peace in the region comes from the US government
The Cuban foreign minister denounced the brutal act of aggression against Cuba and its people, whom the US government now seeks to subject to extreme living conditions
Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, member of the Political Bureau and Minister of Foreign Affairs, condemned “in the strongest terms” the new escalation by the U.S. government against Cuba in a publication in X.
“Now it intends to impose a total blockade on fuel supplies to our country.”
“To justify this, it relies on a long list of lies that seek to portray Cuba as a threat that it is not. Every day there is new evidence that the only threat to peace, security, and stability in the region, and the only malign influence, is that exerted by the U.S. government against the nations and peoples of Our America, which it seeks to subjugate to its dictates, strip of their resources, mutilate their sovereignty, and deprive of their independence.”
Rodríguez Parrilla also said that the White House “also resorts to blackmail and coercion to try to get other countries to join its universally condemned policy of blockade against Cuba, threatening those that refuse with the imposition of arbitrary and abusive tariffs, in violation of all free trade rules.”
In this regard, he denounced before the world the brutal act of aggression against Cuba and its people, who for more than 65 years have been subjected to the longest and cruelest economic blockade ever imposed on an entire nation, and who are now promised to be subjected to extreme living conditions, he remarked.
