Cuba Has a Rich History of International Solidarity. US Wants to Extinguish It.

A U.S. naval base in Guantánamo is brightly lit at night, while nearby Caimanera remains dark due to Cuba’s energy blockade tightened by President Donald Trump. The U.S. claims the embargo is meant to promote democratic transition, and U.S.-backed opposition figures in Miami portray sanctions as beneficial. The impact described is severe: Cuban industry is immobilized, public services are gutted, and more than 10 percent of the population has left the island in recent years. Hospitals lack electricity and grocery shelves are empty amid rolling blackouts. New sanctions target senior Cuban officials while military reconnaissance flights operate off the coastline. Economic pressure and military preparations are presented as part of a longer pattern of aggression toward Cuba’s independent policies and wealth redistribution.

"At night, the U.S. Naval Base in Guantánamo, Cuba appears like a tangled string of Christmas lights along the coastline, casting colored silhouettes across the waves that lap ashore. Sailors and Marines pack the local sports bar blaring pop music. Others frequent the bowling alley or play video games under intense strobe lights. Yet in contrast to the brightly illuminated base, nighttime blots out the nearby town of Caimanera, as a result of the energy blockade on Cuba that President Donald Trump tightened this January."

"Trump claims that the embargo is necessary to promote a democratic transition in Cuba. Similarly, U.S.-backed opposition leaders in Miami such as Rosa María Payá argue that "the Cuban people [are] grateful" for the sanctions, which will help "make Cuba great again." But the truth is far more bitter. Trump's sanctions are accelerating a social crisis that has immobilized Cuban industry, gutted public services, and forced over 10 percent of the population to leave the island in recent years."

"Hospitals lack electricity, and grocery store shelves are empty amid rolling blackouts. Ratcheting up pressure, U.S. authorities issued a new raft of sanctions against senior Cuban officials this May, while conducting military reconnaissance flights off the coastline. Trump's economic powerplay and preparations for a potential invasion are only the latest moves in an ongoing saga of aggression toward Cuba."

"Rather than prioritizing democracy, Washington has long deployed economic pressure to challenge the island's fiercely independent social and foreign policies - above all, its commitment to wealth redistribution, solidarity with liberation struggles, and opposition to U.S. imperial hubri"

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