THE INTENSIFYING US blockade of Cuba threatens “basic human safety,” Cuban Health Minister Jose Angel Portal Miranda warned at the weekend.

Decades of illegal sanctions against the socialist island have long stretched Cuba’s health system, which nevertheless boasts one of the highest life expectancies in the region and the highest doctor-to-patient ratio in the world.

“You cannot damage a state’s economy without affecting its inhabitants,” Mr Portal said in an interview with Associated Press. “This situation could put lives at risk.”

He said five million people in Cuba living with chronic illnesses will see their medications or treatments affected, including 16,000 cancer patients requiring radiotherapy and another 12,400 undergoing chemotherapy.

Cuba’s energy crisis entered new extremes last month when US President Donald Trump signed an executive order that would impose a tariff on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba, weeks after kidnapping Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and cutting off oil supplies from Caracas.

Former Caribbean leaders branded the executive order “economic warfare” in a statement on Thursday.

Ex-presidents and prime ministers of Barbados (Freundel Stuart), Dominica (Edison James), Grenada (Tillman Thomas), Guyana (Donald Ramotar), Jamaica (Bruce Golding and PJ Patterson) St. Lucia (Kenny Anthony) and Trinidad & Tobago (Keith Rowley) praised Cuba’s long-standing commitment to their Caribbean neighbours through medical brigades, educational scholarships and and disaster relief.

They said: “The global community cannot remain mute and indolent while a fatal, pernicious fuel tourniquet stifles the Cuban economy and suffocates human lives there.”

Economic problems are expected to worsen in the coming weeks as Cuba’s government adjusts to the new reality, Mr Portal said. Solar panels have been installed in clinics while authorities prioritise care to children and the elderly.

“We are facing an energy siege with direct implications for the lives of Cubans, for the lives of Cuban families,” said Mr Portal.

Cuba’s Ministry of Finance and Prices announced a new boost to green energy in response to the tightening blockade last week.

A new measure exempts individuals and non-state management entities that invest in renewable energy sources from paying income and profit taxes.