NO TALKS are taking place with the United States despite the “genocidal” blockade, the Cuban government said on Monday.

Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said that Havana and Washington are not negotiating and that there are no plans for future talks.

His comments came during a media conference, as he set out Cuba’s latest estimate of the damage caused by the decades-old US embargo, imposed since the Cuban revolution in 1959.

Cuba says the US embargo cost its economy $8 billion (nearly £6bn) between March 2025 and February 2026, the highest figure yet recorded and 7 per cent more than in the previous reporting period.

Mr Rodriguez said the new total does not include some of Washington’s most recent round of illegal sanctions, which include restrictions on the island’s energy supply imposed in January and secondary sanctions imposed in May.

In a social media post Mr Rodriguez blasted the policy, labelling it “economic asphyxiation,” and described the blockade, which Havana has long blamed for shortages and economic hardships, as “genocidal.”

He wrote: “These are long months of living with only two or three hours of electricity per day or less.”

He described food spoiling without refrigeration, parents fanning their babies through the heat, children trying to do their schoolwork in the dark and young people going without internet access.

Mr Rodriguez called the situation “collective punishment,” blaming what he described as a US “energy siege,” an “extreme tightening of the blockade” and secondary sanctions.

The diplomatic fight will soon move back to the United Nations.

Mr Rodriguez said the UN general assembly will take up its annual resolution calling for an end to the US blockade on October 27 and 28.

He accused Washington of putting “extraordinary pressure and intimidation” on other UN member states ahead of the vote, but said Cuba still expects “overwhelming support” for ending the embargo.