VENCEREMOS!
First international aid convoy arrives in crisis-hit Cuba
By AFP
March 18, 2026
A group of people transporting humanitarian aid from Europe arrived in Havana with five tons of medical supplies and other essential items. - Copyright AFP Ilia YEFIMOVICH
The first shipment of international aid for crisis-hit Cuba has arrived in the country in the shape of five tons of medical supplies, official sources said Wednesday.
A delegation of around 100 European activists arrived overnight at Havana airport with the aid, which will be distributed to hospitals, the sources said.
Cuba has been mired in an economic crisis exacerbated by the sudden suspension of oil supplies from Venezuela in January after the United States ousted president Nicolas Maduro, a Cuba ally.
The island nation of 9.6 million was already battling the effects of the US fuel blockade against the island.
The aid activists from several European and Latin American countries as well as Turkey belong to the Nuestra America (“Our America”) flotilla who are out to show their solidarity with the Cuban people.
All told, humanitarian organizations and public figures plan to deliver 20 tons of aid to the island by air and sea to help Cuba through its worst economic crisis in three decades exacerbated by the US capture of Maduro and the cut-off in oil shipments from Venezuela.
US President Donald Trump has threatened retaliation against any country sending oil to the Caribbean island.
Official Cuban media said another convoy was leaving Chile on Wednesday with “medicines, supplies and food to help Cuba cope with the tightening of the energy blockade imposed by the United States.”
Additionally, a group of 140 people — including doctors, lawyers, labor leaders and activists — will be flying from Miami, Florida, to Havana on Friday to deliver 2.8 tons of medical supplies to clinics and hospitals, according to the pacifist group CODEPINK, one of the operation’s organizers.
A flotilla from Mexico is also expected to reach Havana by the end of the week.
Separately, leftist activists are also planning to hold a solidarity event along the Havana waterfront.
Among expected attendees are Pablo Iglesias, a former Spanish politician and founder of the left-wing party Podemos, Irish punk-rap group Kneecap, Brazilian climate activist Thiago Avila and leftist British Parliamentarian Jeremy Corbyn, according to a statement by organizers.
In their statement, organizers quoted Corbyn as saying that the United States had blockaded Cuba for six decades and “now the Donald Trump administration is intensifying” it.
Corbyn insisted that a majority of people around the world sided with the Cuban people.
Iglesias said that “to defend the Cuban people is to defend sovereignty and freedom against the criminal logic of the blockade” imposed by Washington.
Cuba hit by second nationwide blackout in a week
By AFP
March 21, 2026
Cuba has been hit by several blackouts due to an aging power grid and a US fuel embargo - Copyright AFP Yamil LAGE
Laurent Thomet and Rigoberto Diaz
Cuba plunged into darkness for the second time in less than a week on Saturday after its national power network failed again, strained by aging infrastructure and a US oil blockade.
As night fell, Havana’s streets were mostly pitch black, with people navigating using phone lights or flashlights, just five days after the previous blackout.
In the touristy old city, some restaurants were able to stay open thanks to generators, with musicians playing music, but the regular blackouts have made life more difficult for Cubans.
“This is becoming unbearable,” Ofelia Oliva, a 64-year-old Havana resident, told AFP.
“It hasn’t even been a week since we experienced a similar situation. It is getting tiresome,” Oliva said as she returned home after giving up on plans to visit her daughter.
The “total disconnection” of the national electricity system was due to an outage in a power unit at one of the country’s thermoelectric plants, causing a “cascading effect”, the state-owned Cuban Electric Union said.
It said it was activating micro-grids to provide power to critical facilities, including hospitals and water treatment plants.
“I wonder if we’re going to be like this our whole lives. You can’t live like this,” Nilo Lopez, a 36-year-old taxi driver, told AFP.
– US blockade –
The country’s electricity generation is sustained by a network of eight aging thermoelectric plants — some in operation for over 40 years — that suffer frequent breakdowns or must be shut down for maintenance cycles.
Cubans face daily blackouts of up to 15 hours in Havana. In the interior of the island, these outages can exceed 40 hours.
The breakdowns have intensified since Cuba’s main regional ally and oil supplier, Venezuela’s socialist leader Nicolas Maduro, was captured in a US military operation in January.
And US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on countries that sell oil to Cuba.
No oil has been imported to the island since January 9, hitting the power sector while also forcing airlines to curtail flights to the island, a blow to the all-important tourism sector.
The blackout occurred as an international aid convoy began to arrive in Havana this week, bringing sorely-needed medical supplies, food, water and solar panels to the island.
– ‘Honor of taking Cuba’ –
The crisis in the country of 9.6 million people comes as Trump has made no secret of his desire to see regime change in Havana.
“I do believe I’ll be…having the honor of taking Cuba,” he said.
“Whether I free it, take it — think I could do anything I want with it, you want to know the truth. They’re a very weakened nation right now.”
The next day, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel warned that “any external aggressor will encounter an unbreakable resistance.”
Tanieris Dieguez, Cuba’s deputy chief of mission in Washington, told AFP earlier this week that Havana was open to broad talks with Washington and allowing more investment.
But she said Cuba’s political system would “never” be part of the negotiations.
The outages as well as regular shortages of food, medicine and other basics are spurring frustrations, with demonstrators vandalizing a provincial office of the Cuban Communist Party last weekend.
With Cuba in desperate need of fuel, maritime trackers reported this week that two tankers carrying Russian oil and diesel appeared to be on their way to the island, but their status remains unclear.
Some took the latest outage in stride.
Meiven Rodriguez, 40, kept working in a small shop, selling cigarettes and using her phone light to count money.
“You have to keep going, otherwise you won’t bring money home,” she said.
A few fishermen cast for sardines into the dark waters of the oceanfront city.
“What would we do at home?” said Leonsio Suarez, 50.
By AFP
March 21, 2026
Cuba has been hit by several blackouts due to an aging power grid and a US fuel embargo - Copyright AFP Yamil LAGE
Laurent Thomet and Rigoberto Diaz
Cuba plunged into darkness for the second time in less than a week on Saturday after its national power network failed again, strained by aging infrastructure and a US oil blockade.
As night fell, Havana’s streets were mostly pitch black, with people navigating using phone lights or flashlights, just five days after the previous blackout.
In the touristy old city, some restaurants were able to stay open thanks to generators, with musicians playing music, but the regular blackouts have made life more difficult for Cubans.
“This is becoming unbearable,” Ofelia Oliva, a 64-year-old Havana resident, told AFP.
“It hasn’t even been a week since we experienced a similar situation. It is getting tiresome,” Oliva said as she returned home after giving up on plans to visit her daughter.
The “total disconnection” of the national electricity system was due to an outage in a power unit at one of the country’s thermoelectric plants, causing a “cascading effect”, the state-owned Cuban Electric Union said.
It said it was activating micro-grids to provide power to critical facilities, including hospitals and water treatment plants.
“I wonder if we’re going to be like this our whole lives. You can’t live like this,” Nilo Lopez, a 36-year-old taxi driver, told AFP.
– US blockade –
The country’s electricity generation is sustained by a network of eight aging thermoelectric plants — some in operation for over 40 years — that suffer frequent breakdowns or must be shut down for maintenance cycles.
Cubans face daily blackouts of up to 15 hours in Havana. In the interior of the island, these outages can exceed 40 hours.
The breakdowns have intensified since Cuba’s main regional ally and oil supplier, Venezuela’s socialist leader Nicolas Maduro, was captured in a US military operation in January.
And US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on countries that sell oil to Cuba.
No oil has been imported to the island since January 9, hitting the power sector while also forcing airlines to curtail flights to the island, a blow to the all-important tourism sector.
The blackout occurred as an international aid convoy began to arrive in Havana this week, bringing sorely-needed medical supplies, food, water and solar panels to the island.
– ‘Honor of taking Cuba’ –
The crisis in the country of 9.6 million people comes as Trump has made no secret of his desire to see regime change in Havana.
“I do believe I’ll be…having the honor of taking Cuba,” he said.
“Whether I free it, take it — think I could do anything I want with it, you want to know the truth. They’re a very weakened nation right now.”
The next day, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel warned that “any external aggressor will encounter an unbreakable resistance.”
Tanieris Dieguez, Cuba’s deputy chief of mission in Washington, told AFP earlier this week that Havana was open to broad talks with Washington and allowing more investment.
But she said Cuba’s political system would “never” be part of the negotiations.
The outages as well as regular shortages of food, medicine and other basics are spurring frustrations, with demonstrators vandalizing a provincial office of the Cuban Communist Party last weekend.
With Cuba in desperate need of fuel, maritime trackers reported this week that two tankers carrying Russian oil and diesel appeared to be on their way to the island, but their status remains unclear.
Some took the latest outage in stride.
Meiven Rodriguez, 40, kept working in a small shop, selling cigarettes and using her phone light to count money.
“You have to keep going, otherwise you won’t bring money home,” she said.
A few fishermen cast for sardines into the dark waters of the oceanfront city.
“What would we do at home?” said Leonsio Suarez, 50.
After Cuba beckons, Miami entrepreneurs are mostly reluctant to invest in the island
By AFP
March 21, 2026
Havana's communist authorities have said exiled Cubans can invest on the island to help its ramshackle economy but the idea is being met with caution in Florida A coconut water stall is seen on a street in Havana with a sign reading "Ice-cold coconut water", on March 16, 2026. Cubans living abroad and their descendants will be able to invest and have their own businesses on the island, the communist government announced on March 16, 2026, at a time when the country’s economy is almost paralyzed by the energy blockade imposed by Washington. - Copyright AFP YAMIL LAGE
Gerard MARTINEZ
Havana announced this week that it would allow Cuban emigrants to invest to address the communist island’s severe economic and energy crises. But in Miami, the epicenter of the diaspora, entrepreneurs are generally reluctant.
“I don’t think a single businessman, not a single Cuban in exile, will invest in this island where there is no legal security,” said Ivan Herrera, director of the Univista insurance company, calling the initiative “a huge scam.”
The entrepreneur, whose grandfather was a political prisoner for 12 years before fleeing to Miami, refuses to invest under what he calls the “criminal” government.
This opening by Havana, a serious breach in the island’s anti-capitalist system, comes as the Cuban economy teeters on the brink of collapse. The shortage of essential goods is worsening daily, and power outages have multiplied since President Donald Trump’s administration cut off Venezuelan oil supplies.
Carlos Saladrigas, president of the human resources company Regis HR Group and the think tank Cuba Study Group, viewed the move as a step in the right direction, but said that Cuban authorities needed to resolve many unanswered questions to attract investment.
“Reintegrating the diaspora into the country’s economic life is essential for Cuba’s future,” he said.
“But behind their words lies an entire legal framework that needs to be reformed,” Saladrigas said.
“The government has to say: ‘We are going to discard traditional socialism and a centrally planned economy and adopt market-based measures.'”
– ‘Extremely risky’ –
Hugo Cancio, owner of the digital media outlet OnCuba and Katapulk, an online supermarket that allows the purchase and delivery of products in Cuba, was more enthusiastic.
“Of course I would invest in Cuba, and I would do so with great pleasure,” he said. “Do you know why? Because it’s not just an investment; I would be helping to rebuild my country.”
But Pedro Freyre, a Cuban-American lawyer specializing in the island’s regulatory framework, considers Cuba an “extremely risky” investment destination.
He justified this view by citing a dysfunctional banking system, a highly unstable currency, the absence of the rule of law guaranteeing private property, the failure of the centrally planned economy, and “completely dilapidated” infrastructure.
“It’s very difficult to say to yourself, ‘I’m going to take the money I’ve saved my whole life to open a McDonald’s on the Malecon (Havana’s famous seaside promenade) when I don’t know if there’s electricity, water, or if the Malecon is going to collapse into the sea,'” he said.
Adding to these obstacles is the fact that, under the American embargo imposed since the 1960s, Washington must allow its residents to conduct business on the island.
Herrera hoped to be able to invest “when there is a free Cuba,” to support his compatriots who lack housing, infrastructure, sanitation, and electricity.
“Here in Miami, people and very large companies built the city while we arrived with nothing,” he said. “In the same way, we can build and rebuild Cuba.”
By AFP
March 21, 2026
Havana's communist authorities have said exiled Cubans can invest on the island to help its ramshackle economy but the idea is being met with caution in Florida A coconut water stall is seen on a street in Havana with a sign reading "Ice-cold coconut water", on March 16, 2026. Cubans living abroad and their descendants will be able to invest and have their own businesses on the island, the communist government announced on March 16, 2026, at a time when the country’s economy is almost paralyzed by the energy blockade imposed by Washington. - Copyright AFP YAMIL LAGE
Gerard MARTINEZ
Havana announced this week that it would allow Cuban emigrants to invest to address the communist island’s severe economic and energy crises. But in Miami, the epicenter of the diaspora, entrepreneurs are generally reluctant.
“I don’t think a single businessman, not a single Cuban in exile, will invest in this island where there is no legal security,” said Ivan Herrera, director of the Univista insurance company, calling the initiative “a huge scam.”
The entrepreneur, whose grandfather was a political prisoner for 12 years before fleeing to Miami, refuses to invest under what he calls the “criminal” government.
This opening by Havana, a serious breach in the island’s anti-capitalist system, comes as the Cuban economy teeters on the brink of collapse. The shortage of essential goods is worsening daily, and power outages have multiplied since President Donald Trump’s administration cut off Venezuelan oil supplies.
Carlos Saladrigas, president of the human resources company Regis HR Group and the think tank Cuba Study Group, viewed the move as a step in the right direction, but said that Cuban authorities needed to resolve many unanswered questions to attract investment.
“Reintegrating the diaspora into the country’s economic life is essential for Cuba’s future,” he said.
“But behind their words lies an entire legal framework that needs to be reformed,” Saladrigas said.
“The government has to say: ‘We are going to discard traditional socialism and a centrally planned economy and adopt market-based measures.'”
– ‘Extremely risky’ –
Hugo Cancio, owner of the digital media outlet OnCuba and Katapulk, an online supermarket that allows the purchase and delivery of products in Cuba, was more enthusiastic.
“Of course I would invest in Cuba, and I would do so with great pleasure,” he said. “Do you know why? Because it’s not just an investment; I would be helping to rebuild my country.”
But Pedro Freyre, a Cuban-American lawyer specializing in the island’s regulatory framework, considers Cuba an “extremely risky” investment destination.
He justified this view by citing a dysfunctional banking system, a highly unstable currency, the absence of the rule of law guaranteeing private property, the failure of the centrally planned economy, and “completely dilapidated” infrastructure.
“It’s very difficult to say to yourself, ‘I’m going to take the money I’ve saved my whole life to open a McDonald’s on the Malecon (Havana’s famous seaside promenade) when I don’t know if there’s electricity, water, or if the Malecon is going to collapse into the sea,'” he said.
Adding to these obstacles is the fact that, under the American embargo imposed since the 1960s, Washington must allow its residents to conduct business on the island.
Herrera hoped to be able to invest “when there is a free Cuba,” to support his compatriots who lack housing, infrastructure, sanitation, and electricity.
“Here in Miami, people and very large companies built the city while we arrived with nothing,” he said. “In the same way, we can build and rebuild Cuba.”
White House piles pressure on Cuba as island fights power cut
By AFP
March 17, 2026
About a quarter of Cuba's citizens are eldery, and many of them are poor
- Copyright AFP YAMIL LAGE
Washington piled pressure on Cuba’s communist authorities Tuesday to allow free market reforms as the impoverished island scrambled to recover from a nationwide electricity blackout.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Cuba’s decision announced this week to let exiles invest and own businesses did not go far enough.
“What they announced yesterday is not dramatic enough. It’s not going to fix it. So they’ve got some big decisions to make,” Rubio, a Cuban-American and vociferous critic of the island’s ruling party, told reporters at the White House.
President Donald Trump, who just Monday had said he would “take” Cuba, added: “We’ll be doing something with Cuba very soon.”
Cuba’s authorities are under increasingly crushing pressure, with Washington openly stating it wants to end the nearly seven-decades-old US standoff with the one-party communist state.
A total electricity breakdown on Monday underscored the parlous state of the economy. Cuba lost Venezuela as its chief regional ally and oil supplier this January after a US military operation to topple Venezuela’s socialist leader Nicolas Maduro.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US President Donald Trump renewed pressure on Cuba which is also dealing with its latest mass power cut – Copyright AFP Jim WATSON
Power was restored to two-thirds of the country early Tuesday, including to 45 percent of the capital Havana, which is home to 1.7 million people.
“What we fear all the time is that the blackout will drag on and we will lose the little bit that we have in the fridge, because everything is so expensive,” said Olga Suarez, a 64-year-old retiree.
“Otherwise we are used to it because here almost all the time you go to bed and wake up without electricity,” she told AFP.
Adding another scare, a 5.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Cuba early Tuesday. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
– Trump to ‘take’ Cuba –
Cuba’s ageing electricity generation system is in shambles, with daily power outages of up to 20 hours the norm in parts of the island, which lacks the fuel needed to generate power.
But since the US ouster of Maduro on January 3, the island’s economy has been further hammered by a de facto US oil blockade.
No oil has been imported to the island since January 9, hitting the power sector while also forcing airlines to curtail flights to the island, a blow to the all-important tourism sector.
And Trump is explicitly saying he wants the Cuban government to fall.
“You know, all my life I’ve been hearing about the United States and Cuba. When will the United States do it?” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday.
“I do believe I’ll be…having the honor of taking Cuba,” Trump said.
“Whether I free it, take it — think I could do anything I want with it, you want to know the truth. They’re a very weakened nation right now.”
burs-sms/msp
Washington piled pressure on Cuba’s communist authorities Tuesday to allow free market reforms as the impoverished island scrambled to recover from a nationwide electricity blackout.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Cuba’s decision announced this week to let exiles invest and own businesses did not go far enough.
“What they announced yesterday is not dramatic enough. It’s not going to fix it. So they’ve got some big decisions to make,” Rubio, a Cuban-American and vociferous critic of the island’s ruling party, told reporters at the White House.
President Donald Trump, who just Monday had said he would “take” Cuba, added: “We’ll be doing something with Cuba very soon.”
Cuba’s authorities are under increasingly crushing pressure, with Washington openly stating it wants to end the nearly seven-decades-old US standoff with the one-party communist state.
A total electricity breakdown on Monday underscored the parlous state of the economy. Cuba lost Venezuela as its chief regional ally and oil supplier this January after a US military operation to topple Venezuela’s socialist leader Nicolas Maduro.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US President Donald Trump renewed pressure on Cuba which is also dealing with its latest mass power cut – Copyright AFP Jim WATSON
Power was restored to two-thirds of the country early Tuesday, including to 45 percent of the capital Havana, which is home to 1.7 million people.
“What we fear all the time is that the blackout will drag on and we will lose the little bit that we have in the fridge, because everything is so expensive,” said Olga Suarez, a 64-year-old retiree.
“Otherwise we are used to it because here almost all the time you go to bed and wake up without electricity,” she told AFP.
Adding another scare, a 5.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Cuba early Tuesday. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
– Trump to ‘take’ Cuba –
Cuba’s ageing electricity generation system is in shambles, with daily power outages of up to 20 hours the norm in parts of the island, which lacks the fuel needed to generate power.
But since the US ouster of Maduro on January 3, the island’s economy has been further hammered by a de facto US oil blockade.
No oil has been imported to the island since January 9, hitting the power sector while also forcing airlines to curtail flights to the island, a blow to the all-important tourism sector.
And Trump is explicitly saying he wants the Cuban government to fall.
“You know, all my life I’ve been hearing about the United States and Cuba. When will the United States do it?” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday.
“I do believe I’ll be…having the honor of taking Cuba,” Trump said.
“Whether I free it, take it — think I could do anything I want with it, you want to know the truth. They’re a very weakened nation right now.”
burs-sms/msp
No comments:
Post a Comment