Between Sept. 7 and the weekend of Sept. 11-13, in a series of international events, the Cuban government has put a spotlight on the U.S.’s genocidal assault against Cuba, that began with the 1961 imposition of a financial and commercial blockade—in effect to date but exacerbated by the life-threatening ban on all oil shipments to the island begun on Jan. 29 of this year. In a Sept. 7 press conference in Havana reported by Granma, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla outlined the results of an annual report detailing the hideous results of six decades of a U.S. economic and commercial blockade, with special emphasis on the human and economic toll of the murderous oil and energy siege of the last eight months. The UN Special Rapporteur on the negative effects of Unilateral Coercive Measures forcefully addressed the same subject at a Sept. 9 meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, and the BRICS summit in New Delhi included a statement in its final 140-point declaration, demanding the immediate lifting of coercive measures on Cuba.
On Sept. 7, Foreign Minister Rodriguez Parrilla’s press conference in Havana, attended by domestic and foreign media, diplomats, UN and NGO officials, and others, presented the findings of an annual report dating from March of 2025 to Feb. 2026. Every year, Cuba presents an annual report to the UN General Assembly, documenting the effects of the U.S. blockade, after which a vote is taken by member states on a resolution to lift the blockade. This will be done again at this year’s UNGA in late September.
In Havana, Rodriguez spared no details in describing how Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s constant imposition of sanctions has affected every man, woman, and child in Cuba—every aspect of daily life touched by the lack of electricity, water, food, and fuel. Rubio claims that there is no blockade and that the government, itself, is to blame for the suffering of the Cuban people. But Rodriguez provided detailed statistics on the increase in infant mortality, the destruction of the once excellent healthcare system (100,000 people awaiting surgery), and $8 billion in lost revenue just over the past year because of sanctions and financial warfare. U.S. threats of secondary sanctions have caused foreign shipping companies to abandon 7,000 containers containing food, medicine and medical supplies at several ports around the Caribbean region. Rubio’s sanctions have focused on shutting down any state entity capable of generating foreign currency, to bring the economy to a halt.
