The total cost of the damage inflicted on Cuba by the blockade during the period 1 March 2025, to 28 February 2026, reached a record figure of USD 8,083,300,000—7% higher than the in the previous year. The details of the cost of the blockade and devastating damage are laid out in the Cuban government’s report to the UN in the run up to the vote on the resolution against the blockade by the UN General Assembly in late October.
This massive figure comes as no surprise, given that U.S. President Donald Trump stated on 8 January this year, regarding his administration’s policy toward Cuba: “I don’t think much more pressure can be applied, short of going in and destroying the place.”
Losses in the Culture sector alone during this period are reported as 435,523,400 USD
Losses in the Education sector were 100 million USD
Losses in the Sport sector 36 million USD
Losses in the tourism sector were over 2 billion USD
After more than 60 years of strict enforcement, the purpose of the blockade remains the same: to destroy the Cuban Revolution. To this end, shortages are fostered, attacks are made against Cuba’s social and productive fabric, and attempts are made to isolate the country, in the hope that Cubans will abandon their resolve to determine their own destiny. Over the past year, the U.S. government has intensified its efforts.
As a result the Cuban people have endured a sharp decline in their quality of life and immeasurable humanitarian harm. On 29 January Trump signed an Executive Order imposing tariffs on imports from any country that sold or supplied oil to Cuba creating an energy blockade. The US effectively pushed Cuba out of the global fuel supply chain. By half way through the year only 1 tanker had got through. Since early 2026, daily life has been marked by an almost total absence of fuel, long and distressing blackouts, widespread disruptions in the national power grid, recurring failures in water supply, severe obstacles to solid waste collection, and persistent shortages of food and medicine. Consequences of this are rising infant mortality rates, less children surviving cancer and more.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights warned in June 2026 “fuel restrictions imposed since early 2026 and the recent tightening of extraterritorial sanctions together are directly harming the Cuban population, especially the most vulnerable.”
The president, Miguel Díaz Canel Bermúdez, has described how many communities have endured more than 30 hours straight without electricity. This ordeal has bred irritability, malaise, hardship, and deep anxiety among the population.
This compounds the disastrous effects of Cuba’s unjustifiable inclusion on the US State Department’s unilateral list of countries allegedly sponsoring terrorism, as well as the aggressive financial persecution and strict enforcement of the laws codifying the blockade—primarily the Helms-Burton Act.
As regards the cultural sector, Cuba’s inclusion on the list of state sponsors of terrorism prevents, for example, Cuban artists from participating in cultural exchange programs sponsored by U.S. entities. Previous collaborations with contemporary dance and physical theatre companies from New York or California have been halted due to the inability to obtain OFAC permits within a reasonable timeframe, or because projects were cancelled when payments could not be made to Cuban creators. Of course the general lack of electricity, repairs to equipment, difficulties with transport have massively affected cultural workers to do their jobs, develop projects, entertain and enrich people’s lives.
Read more about the report and the effects of the blockade here
You must be logged in to post a comment.