Skip to main content
Cuba stands defiant, but the Trump menace is growing

Cuba Solidarity Campaign secretary BERNARD REGAN says the inhuman blockade of Cuba not only continues, but the Donald Trump administration is ratcheting up aggression against both Havana and Latin America more widely

Cubans march to Revolution Square to mark May Day, in Havana, May 1, 2025

ON MAY Day over one million Cubans demonstrated in Havana in the Plaza de la Revolucion led by the trade union movement.

The event was a positive reaffirmation of the values of the revolution and an expression of Cuba’s determination to resist the pressures of the blockade imposed on the island by successive United States administrations and most recently by President Donald Trump.

The blockade has been imposed on Cuba despite the United Nations general assembly voting 32 times consecutively to call for its complete removal. From March 1 2023 to February 2024 the blockade caused material damages estimated at $5,056,800,000. Just 15 minutes without the blockade would enable Cuba to provide hearing aids for all the children who needed them; 30 minutes without the blockade and all the electrical and conventional wheelchairs needed could be provided. The list goes on and on. It is a totally unjustifiable persecution of the Cuban people.

In November 2024 the most recent vote recorded 187 countries against the blockade and only two (the US and Israel) voting for its continuance whilst one nation (Moldova) abstained. Despite this overwhelming vote Trump continues these vindictive policies. Far from having any negative impact on the world Cuba has displayed an exemplary record of sending medical support to countries across the globe in need of practical solidarity.  

Since 1960, over 600,000 medical professionals have gone to over 160 countries to provide their expertise. In 2020 it was estimated that there were 30,000 Cuban doctors in 67 countries.  

Britain’s population is over six times that of Cuba. Just imagine if Britain had acted with such a selfless sense of solidarity for people across the globe, how many more millions of lives could have been saved and sick and injured treated.

Over the whole period of Cuba’s existence, it has not been possible to put a cigarette paper between the policies of Democrats or Republicans. Occasionally there have been changes of tack — as when President Obama established diplomatic relations with Cuba. But he did not remove the most vicious of the legislation that was imposed on the island.  

Trump has never made a secret of his animosity towards Cuba or indeed for that matter towards any nation that asserts its sovereignty.  

In 2018 speaking at the United Nations general assembly he said: “It has been the formal policy of our country since President Monroe (1823) that we reject the interference of foreign nations in this (western) hemisphere and in our own affairs.” It was a clear declaration of intent that he wished to make the Latin American economies, along with others globally, subservient to Wall Street’s interests.

On taking office on January 20 2025 Trump placed Cuba on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT) within 24 hours. President Biden had taken Cuba off the list — but only a week before he was to cease being president. The appointment by Trump of Marco Rubio as his secretary of state signalled the president’s clear intention to follow the vicious anti-Cuban policies of his co-Republican.

The SSOT status has been described by some economists as equivalent to an economic “death sentence.” It is designed to cut Cuba off from any access to international banking agencies making it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to trade and, for example, to obtain vital medical, foodstuffs, materials and equipment critical to the functioning of the island’s economy from other countries worldwide.

Cuba is trying to deal with this by reducing its dependency on oil to generate electricity.  

It has reached agreements with China to provide around 100 photovoltaic farms which are currently in the process of being installed. Whilst some hope that the Brics group of countries might provide an alternative international currency to rival the almighty dollar, that seems unlikely in the short term and may indeed not come to fruition given the tariff war that the White House is unleashing which may create divisions between China and India.

The US’s tariff wars will continue. Trump is fearful of China’s influence in Latin America where some 20 countries have already joined the Belt and Road Initiative, hence his obsession with the Panama Canal and the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico.

However, the opening of the Chancay mega-port in Peru and the much talked about potential alternative of a Nicaraguan “Panama Canal” threaten Washington’s aspirations for the region.

Whilst China will undoubtedly pursue its own economic interests in a pragmatic manner, unlike the US, it is almost certain given its track record that it will not interfere in the internal politics of the countries it enters into trade agreements with.

The preoccupation displayed towards the Panama Canal, the Gulf of Mexico, and the western hemisphere in general are an indication of the economic war for domination of the continent that Trump is waging against China.

Like Monroe before him, he is now engaged in a war to exclude China from markets across the globe, but Latin America is a major concern. The continent holds invaluable resources of rare earth minerals as well as oil in abundance and Washington has already mobilised the Pentagon in this economic conflict.

The recent “agreement” with Ukraine on minerals is evidence  of this obsession.   Admiral Alvin Holsey, the current head of the United States Southern Command, has followed in the footsteps of his predecessor General Laura Richardson in identifying the economic resources, including the large reserves of rare earth minerals, that the continent holds as being of strategic interest to the US.

Any display of independence is met with hostility not only from the administration but also amongst its epigones in the US. On January 14 — just a week before Trump was inaugurated — the influential columnist Bret Stephens wrote a column in the New York Times, calling for US military intervention to overthrow President Maduro in Venezuela. Whilst such policies are unlikely to be enacted they are indicative of the trajectory of the Maga movement.     

The British government casts its vote against the inhuman blockade of Cuba but does nothing to challenge its punitive affects.  

The solidarity campaign with Cuba is as vital as it has ever been. Trump wants to create a unipolar world with Washington and Wall Street at its centre.  

Cuba demonstrates that another world is possible — one in which human life is valued and prioritised, in which people can live in dignity and at peace.

It is those values which have led to Cuba standing alongside the people of Palestine against tyranny and oppression.

Cuba is not alone but we must continue to raise our voices and encourage others to do so to end the unjustifiable assault against its sovereignty which continues to be inflicted on it by successive presidents of the United States of America.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
BROTHERS IN ARMS: Fidel Castro welcomes Yasser Arafat on his
Features / 24 February 2024
24 February 2024
Cuba has stood unswervingly by Palestine since 1947 guided by its own rejection of imperialist lawlessness, writes BERNARD REGAN
British policemen disperse an Arab crowd during the Jaffa ri
Features / 18 February 2024
18 February 2024
BERNARD REGAN traces the origins of the Israeli armed forces’ barbaric practices back to the past masters — the British
Children wear masks against coronavirus in Havana, Cuba
Features / 26 August 2021
26 August 2021
President Biden has not removed a single one of Trump’s sanctions since taking office, writes BERNARD REGAN
Features / 16 May 2021
16 May 2021
The Johnson government has already passed laws – and is proposing new laws – which will restrict freedom of expression. The left must resist this assault on our rights, says BERNARD REGAN
Similar stories
A classic American car with tourists is driven at sunset alo
Features / 24 March 2025
24 March 2025
The US Republican administration has wasted no time in tightening the economic vice on the Caribbean island, with State Department officials making it clear that the aggression is only just beginning, writes NATASHA HICKMAN
A Cuban flag shredded by the winds of Hurricane Rafael flies
Features / 9 November 2024
9 November 2024
FRANCISCO DOMINGUEZ gets the measure of what the new administration in Washington could have in store for Latin America, where Trump’s previous government had a notorious track record of hostility
Labour Conference 2024 / 21 September 2024
21 September 2024
Despite cruel US sanctions, Cuba continues to offer global humanitarian aid and support peace processes, writes KIM JOHNSON MP, urging others to follow Unison’s lead in practical solidarity with the besieged socialist island
Cubans demonstrate in support of their government in Havana
TUC 2024 / 9 September 2024
9 September 2024
Cuba’s designation as a ‘state sponsor of terrorism’ is inflicting incalculable damage on the country and its people, and leaving its health service in desperate need. KEVIN COURTNEY calls for one last push for the Cuba Vive medical aid campaign to get it over the line