They've received free oil from Venezuela, Mexico, and Russia for decades. This whole crisis is because the country is horribly mismanaged and the free ride is over.
Most countries have to purchase their oil at market prices. Cuba has been spared that burden yet is still worse off than the average country.
IIRC both Russia and China have demanded economic reforms which are not forthcoming. The Chinese aren't stupid and they don't seem too interested in pissing their money away indefinitely on a 'partner' who ignores them.
You don't get to criticize the quality of someone's system until you take your foot off their neck.
Reducing the root cause to the US is ludicrous. Cuba had agency and their government made some horrific choices for their citizens.
I was there about 20 years ago and it was the most depressing place I've ever visited: the authoritarianism and corruption and tragedy was so visibly prevalent . . . even to a tourist. It was frightening because problems are usually better hidden from foreigners.
Summarising a complex situation as though it has one simple cause is a human sign of ignoring complexity or systems.
Yes, the impact of US political choices was deeply hideous. That doesn't excuse the Cuban government from their choices about how to deal with that.
"THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA - ZERO! I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE." The Cuban government is "ready to fall" or "failing pretty soon" due to this cutoff!
Rubio has in slightly less pompous fashion confirmed that the U.S. has now successfully weakened Cuba.
Personally, I despise the current U.S. administration's glee at causing suffering. "Might Makes Absolute Right" & "Vae Victis" are the current American mottos. No old-fashioned velvet glove over the steel fist - it is barbed with titanium and doused with hellfire now.
There is no world in which that is OK!
Err when was this decade plus of zero economic blockade ? I think you have confused less than two tiny years from 2015-2017. Nothing can be done in 2 years. By the time you setup trade, you are blockaded by the big bully who wants to make you suffer pain and you can do nothing. There is also a big bully base at home to ensure complete compliance to pain.
Blaming a victim for being abused is a really terrific argument.
Canadians have famously enjoyed tourism in Cuba for decades. I've purchased Cuban cigars in Europe. European and Canadian divers have gushed to me about their amazing dive sites.
I'm not going to say US trade policy hasn't hurt Cuba. But it's not like they're totally economically cut off from the world. They ought to be doing much better than they are.
Cuba's problems emanate from Havana, not Washington D.C.
Irrelevant distinction presently. Kindly do your research and study what is absolutely enforced via both law and unofficial pressure on third parties. Some mere cigars available in Europe and some tourists don't change the essentials.
"Cuba's problems emanate from Havana, not Washington D.C."
Only said so arrogantly by a citizen of a nation who has never suffered from economic suppression. Like slavery, you will need to experience the chains yourself, before you understand the pain and suffering. I am frankly just disgusted at citizens of the West who support such suppression through threats and force and then blame the native government. Your own nations would have experienced severe pain if forced to the same situation, but it must be great to issue declamations from your holier-than-thou throne.
Given your apparent desire to put us in chains to experience pain and suffering, perhaps that's the next place we ought to suppress through threats and force.
It must be great to issue declamations from your holier-than-thou victimhood. It's much easier, too, as you never have to defend anything, because it's always someone else's fault.
PS: Food, medicine, and medical equipment--the essentials--are exempt from the embargo.
> PS: Food, medicine, and medical equipment--the essentials--are exempt from the embargo.
So deeply ignorant and deliberately blind to the real world. The U.S. significantly constrained Cuba’s ability to buy medical equipment from other countries, not just from the U.S. itself. Cuba cannot legally import any product containing more than "10% U.S. origin components". For some years, it was even 25%!
Even when a product was made in Germany, Japan, or Canada, U.S. parts could make it illegal to sell to Cuba.
2nd order threats and suppression are very effective for propaganda. Permits western supremacists like you to falsely claim that that "the essentials" are exempt.
You deftly avoided the question, so I'll ask again: Where are you from?
Here is a UN report.
"Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba"
https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/4090890/files/A_80_83-E...
Here is another report from Cuba Solidarity, which details the cost of the blockade
https://cuba-solidarity.org.uk/resources/2025%20blockade%20r...
Here is another report from Cambridge University Press which illustrates an example in Chapter-8
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/economic-sanctions-from...
"For example, the purchase of Vitek 2 Compact 15 laboratory equipment for one of the enterprises that manufactures the Cuban vaccine candidates was cancelled when Canadian supplier North World Industry Inc. (NWI) informed its Cuban customer that the company’s supplier, Biomeriux Canadá, had refused to supply the equipment and its consumables, because the components were manufactured in the US. NWI sought to procure the equipment from Spain, through Biomereux’s European subsidiary, and from Panama, through a Latin American subsidiary, to no avail."
Antoher report of denial during Covid crisis
https://cuba-solidarity.org.uk/news/article/3985/us-company-...
There are a dozen other reports/articles that I can bring up. Most of this research, you could easily find out by yourself. You are just not willing to admit the basic truth to yourself and chosen to deliberately blind your eyes.
(PS: My origin is irrelevant to the evidence. I am not from any NATO nation, obviously not from Cuba myself, belong to a nation formerly under colonial rule and which also experienced Western harsh sanctions in the past.)
The economic, commercial, and financial blockade imposed by the US
government against Cuba is an act of genocide
> the purchase of Vitek 2 Compact 15 laboratory equipment
Was not actually prohibited by the US. The Canadian company denied the sale on its own. Anyway that is dual-use laboratory equipment ostensibly intended for the benefit of Cuba's biomedical industry, not medical equipment intended for the benefit of patients.
> Antoher report of denial during Covid crisis
That looks like either overly-conservative risk management from a company's own leadership, or else a convenient excuse to redirect supply to the US where ventilators were in high demand and short supply and they could command a premium.
> PS: My origin is irrelevant to the evidence.
Your "evidence" is Cuban government propaganda and your origin is highly relevant to understanding your geopolitical motives. But it's clear enough that you hold a grudge against America, just like the Cuban regime.
I actually think the humanitarian exemptions and light restrictions on foreign vessels trading with Cuba are misguided policies. Half measures are usually ineffective, there's no good reason to provide aid and succor to Cuba, and there's no good reason why we should be lenient with those who do. Nobody has a human right to trade with a country against their will.
Cuba has the sovereign right to give the US the middle finger and the US has the sovereign right to return the favor. Why should we trade at all with a regime that hates us and wishes to see us suffer? Let Cubans grow their own food and diagnose and treat themselves with their own equipment. They can build their own supply chains for their own industries. Your bank wants access to US dollar accounts? Don't transact with Cuba. Your company wants access to the US market? Don't transact with Cuba. You wanna dock your ship in US ports? Don't dock your ship in Cuba.
It is clear that no amount of evidence from any source that opposes your belief is valid in your eyes - everything is dismissed in your absolute blindness.
You are unfortunately firmly fixed in the Imperialist mindset. Do note that your nation is the one that is making Cuba suffer constantly. Why else would Cubans hate you ? Your nation is the one that also has a torture base on Cuban soil. Anyone objecting to such needless oppression has a "grudge" against America. Good lord.
like not fighting against US' embargo ?