The U.S. Secretary of State continues to punish Cuban companies with the deliberate purpose of harming the country’s economy and preventing the Cuban government from guaranteeing basic services to the population, which is already in a critical situation due to the blockade. This was denounced Thursday by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla on his social media account, referring to the measures the U.S. administration maintains against the island.
In his message, the Foreign Minister pointed out that, in particular, the transportation of containers with food, medicine, and medical devices, mostly acquired by Cuban private micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), is being obstructed.
Rodríguez Parrilla added that, in its failed obsession against Cuba, the United States government is now incorporating directors and officials of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), an institution that for more than six decades has promoted friendship, international solidarity, justice and peace, the complete opposite of what the Secretary of State has always promoted in his corrupt policy.
The Cuban Foreign Minister also addressed the impact of the U.S. energy blockade against Cuba. “The U.S. energy blockade against Cuba has a real and serious impact on the Cuban population,” he stated.
Rodríguez Parrilla asserted that this policy “is part of the collective punishment that the U.S. government is applying against the Cuban people” and added that “it not only limits the performance of the Cuban economy, but also hinders the work of international agencies and organizations, demonstrating its extraterritorial nature.”
This denunciation comes after the U.S. government announced new sanctions against Cuba on Thursday, adding nine state entities and three individuals linked to the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) to its list of Specially Designated Nationals. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated in a press release that the measures target ICAP for allegedly sponsoring “a broad subversive network in the United States aimed at identifying, recruiting, and radicalizing subversive elements.”
Among those sanctioned are three ICAP executives: its president, Fernando González Llort; first vice president, Noemí Rabaza Fernández; and director for North America, Leima Martínez Freire. The nine sanctioned entities include Cuba’s Ministry of Construction, as well as companies in the mining, metallurgical, and foreign trade sectors.
These measures are in addition to the oil embargo imposed by Washington and other sanctions issued under Executive Order 14404, signed by President Donald Trump on May 1st, 2016.
Havana will host the First International Colloquium “Fidel: Legacy and Future” from this Monday until August 13th. This event, convened by the Fidel Castro Ruz Center, along with Cuban academic and cultural institutions, aims to foster the exchange of ideas about the work and thought of the Commander-in-Chief, on the one hundredth anniversary of his birth.
Historians, researchers, academics, social and political leaders, diplomats, journalists, students, and friends of Cuba from around the world will participate in four days of discussions that will explore the enduring relevance of Fidel Castro’s legacy and its application to the challenges of the present and future.
The program includes a meeting of Fidel Castro Ruz Chairs and a symposium dedicated to the Cuban Revolution, as well as sectoral forums for youth, women, parliamentarians, and artists, intellectuals, and social movements in defense of humanity.
Among the topics that will be the focus of the sessions are Fidel Castro’s political, social, internationalist, and humanistic thought; his influence on national liberation movements, the Global South, and the geopolitics of the 20th and 21st centuries; and the continued relevance of his ideas in the face of imperialism, inequality, climate change, and the defense of peace and the sovereignty of nations.
More than a look back at the past, the meeting aims to place Fidel’s ideas in dialogue with contemporary challenges and contribute, through international exchange, to keeping his thinking alive as a reference point for the struggles for social justice, sovereignty, solidarity, and peace.
Speech delivered by Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, at the closing ceremony of the 24th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties, at the Convention Palace, on August 8th, 2026, “Year of the Centennial of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz”
(Shorthand Versions – Presidency of the Republic)
Comrades of the communist and workers’ parties of the world;
Dear Comrade Kemal Okuyan;
Brothers and sisters from all corners of the world who honor us with your presence in this rebellious capital today:
It is an honor to have celebrated this meeting in the context of Fidel Castro’s Centenary, whose undeniable legacy calls us to confront the enormous challenges of this turbulent and threatening present we are living through.
Cuba, island of dignity and historical resistance against imperialism, and today also against fascism, welcomes you with open arms and thanks you for your courage and determination in coming here, amidst so much pressure, blackmail, and lies.
At the previous meeting in Havana, in October 2022, representatives of communist and workers’ parties from more than 60 countries, who gathered at that time, agreed to warn about the dangerous situation humanity was facing. Almost four years later, we can reaffirm, without a doubt, that the world is going through one of its most uncertain and dangerous periods.
We are living through a period of extreme intensification of capitalist contradictions: excessive concentration of wealth in the hands of a few, inequalities in its distribution, environmental destruction, and wars fought over markets, resources, and spheres of influence.
Marxist-Leninist analysis remains fully relevant in asserting that these crises are not accidents, but rather the result of the laws governing the development of monopoly and imperialist capitalism.
Capitalism, consumed by its own contradictions, has unleashed a perfect storm: wars of aggression in Eastern Europe and the Middle East; open genocide in Gaza; a climate crisis that is no longer a warning, but a reality; structural hunger that devours millions; and an external debt that the peoples of the Global South will never be able to repay, because it was conceived to enslave us, not to develop us.
In this scenario, the resurgence of fascism sends us a stark warning. Fidel warned us about this years ago, about how it was transforming its appearance, but maintaining its essence. Today we denounce the reestablishment of fascist regimes around the world.
Nationalism, hegemony, supremacy, and racial discrimination; xenophobia, displacement, and population extermination; wars of conquest for territories and natural resources; punishments that fall upon millions of human beings; and the proscription of ideologies and civil liberties are unmistakable features of this current fascism and its Hitlerian predecessor
Independent Experts and Special Rapporteurs of the UN Human Rights Council condemned on Thursday the unilateral coercive measures applied by the United States against Cuba, which they described as an attempt to alter the constitutional order of a sovereign state through threats and coercion, the multilateral body reported.
From Geneva, the experts called on the international community and civil society to act swiftly to prevent the establishment of a “silent Gaza” on the island as a result of U.S. hostility.
The imposed blockade means that energy, transportation, irrigation, and basic services are failing simultaneously, disproportionately affecting women, children, the elderly, and other vulnerable groups, they asserted.
The statement issued denies that Cuba poses a threat to the national security of the United States and hemispheric stability, as the State Department report published on July 20th, entitled “Cuba, the Capital of 21st-Century Communism,” attempts to portray.
Deliberately depriving a population of the means to survive violates the most basic guarantees of the right to life and undermines the very essence of human dignity, the experts acknowledged.
They also stated that it is the duty of the U.S. government to cease all threats and hostile acts against Cuba’s sovereignty and to revoke all measures it has imposed on the country, which they denounce as contrary to international law.
“The Security Council and the General Assembly should urgently address these threats as a matter of international peace and security,” they stressed.
The day before, the Deputy Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General confirmed that his organization is in contact with several countries to facilitate the supply of fuel to Cuba for humanitarian purposes.
According to Ernesto Soberón, Cuba’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, the official also expressed concern about the humanitarian impact of this collective punishment imposed by the U.S. government against the Cuban people.