Protests Erupt in Cuba

[dann]

In post 258, I mentioned how American media claimed that the families of Cuban-American celebrities like Desi Arnaz and Marco Rubio had fled the cruel Castro regime, even though the Arnaz family migrated to the USA in 1933 and Rubio's family fled from Batista in 1956, but Castro's revolution didn't happen till 1958-59.

Other Cuban-American celebrities also seem to have problems remembering their family history correctly. It is almost as if the lying of politicians is hereditary.

Another Cuban-American Senator Caught Distorting His Family History (Belly of the Beast on YouTube, June 26, 2025 - 1:55 min.)

There seems to be some confusion about the history of the Cruz family:

Rafael Cruz, father of Ted Cruz, wants Texas to require school lessons about “evil” of communism (The Texas Tribune, Mar 11, 2025)
Cruz, 85, has been a vocal opponent of communism for decades. He fled Cuba in the 1950s after he was imprisoned and tortured for fighting Fulgencio Batista, a dictator who was once allied with Cuba’s communist party but later oversaw the brutal repression of communists, with aid from the CIA. According to a 2015 book authored by his son, Rafael Cruz initially supported Fidel Castro, but changed his mind after Castro seized power in 1959 and “declared to the world that he was a communist.” Cruz’s role in the Cuban resistance has been disputed by some Cubans who knew him at the time.
In the decades since immigrating, Cruz has been a leading advocate for Christian dominionism, which argues that the Bible commands Christians to have “dominion” over all parts of society in order to bring about the apocalypse.

Ted Cruz's father an early Fidel Castro revolutionary, memoir claims (The Guardian, June 27, 2015)
At 17, Rafael Cruz led a group of insurgents staging urban sabotage against the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Cruz was eventually jailed and tortured, and upon his release wanted the underground to help him personally reach Castro’s camp in the Sierra Maestra highlands.
“My dad asked if he could join Castro in the mountains and keep fighting,” the firebrand Republican presidential candidate writes in his book, A Time For Truth, which will be released on Tuesday. “But he was told there was no way to get to the rebels.”
Instead, the elder Cruz bribed his way to a Cuban exit visa and headed to the University of Texas.

Cuban Peers Dispute Ted Cruz' Father's Story of Fighting for Castro (NYT, Nov 9, 2015)
The elder Mr. Cruz, 76, recalls a vivid moment at a watershed 1956 battle in Santiago de Cuba, when he was with a hero of the revolution, Frank País, just hours before he was killed in combat.
In fact, Mr. País was killed seven months later and in a different place and manner.
In interviews, Rafael Cruz’s former comrades and friends disputed his description of his role in the Cuban resistance. He was a teenager who wrote on walls and marched in the streets, they said — not a rebel leader running guns or blowing up buildings.

Bob Menendez family history is also pretty confusing, but they also fled Cuba before the revolution.

Gold Bar Bob Menendez will claim he hoarded because parents fled Cuba - putting family history on trial (New York Post, May 13, 2024)
The indicted Democrat will claim he suffers from "intergenerational post-traumatic stress disorder" thanks to his parents' experience in Cuba before he was even born.

 

[dann]

From the So what form does the resistance take? thread:

There hasnt been a US blockade on Cuba since 1962. And insofar as I can tell there are no US sanctions on them. Ie the USA doesnt take any measures against any other country trading with Cuba. Do I think the embargo should be relaxed? Yes. Probably everything except weapons.

Did you ever try to find information about this that wasn't U.S. propaganda? The USA does take measures against other countries trading with Cuba. In fact, the USA takes measures against companies in other countries that trade with Cuba. There are several examples like these:

Travel firm fined for Cuba embargo violation (TravelMole, April 21, 2014)
A major Dutch travel firm will pay almost $6 million to settle legal action brought by the US government for violating the Cuba-US trade embargo.

Swiss bank pays $3.7m to settle US Cuba sanctions violations (WorldECR, Mar 21, 2024)
And since many of the U.S. sanctions aren't unambiguous, many banks won't even handle transfer of money to and from Cuba because they never know exactly what to do to avoid getting fined, so it's easier to simply not do any kind of business that has to do with Cuba.

United States embargo against Cuba Wikipedia)
Sanctions may also be applied to non-U.S. companies trading with Cuba. This restriction also applies to maritime shipping, as ships docking at Cuban ports are not allowed to dock at U.S. ports for six months.
(...)
U.S.-based companies, and companies that do business with the U.S. which trade in Cuba do so at the risk of U.S. sanctions. The U.S. has threatened to stop financial aid to other countries if they trade non-food items with Cuba. The U.S.'s attempts to do so have been vocally condemned by the United Nations General Assembly as an extraterritorial measure that contravenes "the sovereign equality of States, non-intervention in their internal affairs and freedom of trade and navigation as paramount to the conduct of international affairs".
(...)
Academic Nigel White writes, "While the U.S. measures against Cuba do not amount to a blockade in a technical or formal sense, their cumulative effect is to put an economic stranglehold on the island, which not only prevents the U.S. intercourse but also effectively blocks commerce with other states, their citizens and companies."

Obama greatly relieved sanctions on Cuba and allowed direct access to the island from the US. Cruise ships started coming loaded with US tourists and US cash. Trump reversed all that and reinstated sanctions and the blockade during his first term. Biden continued it.
https://www.bellyofthebeastcuba.com/documentaries Watch The War On Cuba.

The Belly of the Beast documentaries are great. (Also on YouTube.) Americans are astonishingly ignorant about conditions in Cuba and about all the measures that are taken by the USA to exacerbate those conditions.
In spite of his campaign promises, Biden waited until January 2025, to issue this:
Certification of Rescission of Cuba’s Designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism (The White House, Jan 14, 2025)
Biden was obviously aware (to the extent that he was still capable of being aware of anything) that Trump would change it back, which he did immediately:

INITIAL RESCISSIONS OF HARMFUL EXECUTIVE ORDERS AND ACTIONS (The White House, Jan 20, 2025)

• The Presidential Memorandum of January 14, 2025 (Certification of Rescission of Cuba’s Designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism).

Some people do not understand what a blockade is.
A blockade is when you station ships around a country and keep the ships of ANY country from coming in. That has not happened since 1962.
Keeping ships from your own country from trading with another country is NOT a blockade.
Anyway, that belly of the best website is one I mistrust because it seem to be very pro current Cuban regime..which I am not. Itis possible to dislike the current regime in Cuba but still think sanctions whould be lifted,which is my position.

And keeping ships from other countries from doing so, is that a blockade?

Sanctions may also be applied to non-U.S. companies trading with Cuba. This restriction also applies to maritime shipping, as ships docking at Cuban ports are not allowed to dock at U.S. ports for six months. (Wikipedia)

USA sanctions four cruise lines over Cuba trips (DAC27.ch, Jan 10, 2023)
A court in the US state of Florida has fined four cruise lines that had been operating to socialist Cuba more than 400 million US dollars. The penalty payment is to compensate for alleged damages to North American companies that held the rights to operate some docks in the port of Havana before the victory of the revolution in 1959 and were expropriated in 1960.
The four cruise lines affected are Carnival, MSC, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian, which are based outside the US but have their headquarters in Florida. They have to pay a total sum of 439 million to Havana Docks, a company registered in Delaware. The amount is the value of the original property claim plus interest.

May I recommend being skeptical whenever you read anything about Cuba and not just when you read something you don't like?

War on Cuba: Belly of the beast (University of Cape Town)
The War on Cuba is an award-winning documentary series made by executive producers Oliver Stone and Danny Glover. It takes an in-depth look at the economic war waged by the United States government on the [Cuba]n people.

United States fines company for sending food to Cuba (Granma.cu, July 4, 2025)
These are not numbers, the blockade is real (Granma.cu, July 17, 2025)

 

[lobosrul5]

From the So what form does the resistance take? thread:

Did you ever try to find information about this that wasn't U.S. propaganda? The USA does take measures against other countries trading with Cuba. In fact, the USA takes measures against companies in other countries that trade with Cuba. There are several examples like these:

Swiss bank pays $3.7m to settle US Cuba sanctions violations (WorldECR, Mar 21, 2024)
And since many of the U.S. sanctions aren't unambiguous, many banks won't even handle transfer of money to and from Cuba because they never know exactly what to do to avoid getting fined, so it's easier to simply not do any kind of business that has to do with Cuba.



The Belly of the Beast documentaries are great. (Also on YouTube.) Americans are astonishingly ignorant about conditions in Cuba and about all the measures that are taken by the USA to exacerbate those conditions.
In spite of his campaign promises, Biden waited until January 2025, to issue this:
Certification of Rescission of Cuba’s Designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism (The White House, Jan 14, 2025)
Biden was obviously aware (to the extent that he was still capable of being aware of anything) that Trump would change it back, which he did immediately:




And keeping ships from other countries from doing so, is that a blockade?


May I recommend being skeptical whenever you read anything about Cuba and not just when you read something you don't like?


United States fines company for sending food to Cuba (Granma.cu, July 4, 2025)
These are not numbers, the blockade is real (Granma.cu, July 17, 2025)

Lol man. The travel agency became US owned. That's how it was fined. On the banking stuff you are defending money launderers using Panama.

Granma.cu links are not working.

 

[dann]

Yes, it did become U.S. owned. And that was how it was fined. And so what? That is one of the many risks that companies aren't aware of.
Tell me how exactly I am "defending money launderers using Panama."

 

[lobosrul5]

Yes, it did become U.S. owned. And that was how it was fined. And so what? That is one of the many risks that companies aren't aware of.
Tell me how exactly I am "defending money launderers using Panama."

The usa fined a usa company for violating usa law. Oh noes the horror. Maybe read the article about the Swiss Bank.

 

[dann]

You may not have noticed, but the nationality of companies nowadays can be pretty hard to tell, which is a way to get at any company even abroad. For instance, a Danish medical company was sold to the USA, which meant that Cuba suddenly couldn't get the fluids necessary to operate some of its medical apparatus.
But let us take a look at Carnival, MSC, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian (all links to Wikipedia)
Carnival:

"Carnival Cruise Line is an international cruise line with headquarters in Doral, Florida. The company is a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc.'"

Carnival Corporation & plc

Carnival Corporation & plc is an American and British cruise operator with a combined fleet of over ninety vessels across eight cruise line brands. A dual-listed company, Carnival is composed of the Panama-incorporated, US-headquartered Carnival Corporation, and UK-based Carnival plc, which function as one entity. Carnival Corporation is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, whereas Carnival plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange with an ADR listing on the NYSE.

MSC Cruises:

MSC Cruises (Italian: MSC Crociere) is a Swiss-Italian global cruise line based in Geneva, with operations offices in Naples, Genoa and Venice. It was founded in 1988 in Naples, Italy, as part of the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC). In addition to being the world's largest privately held cruise company, employing about 23,500 people worldwide and with offices in 45 countries as of 2017, MSC Cruises is the third-largest cruise company in the world, after Carnival Corporation & plc and Royal Caribbean Group, with a 10% share of all passengers carried in 2025.

Royal Caribbean International:

Royal Caribbean International (RCI), formerly Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL), is a cruise line founded in 1968 in Norway and organized as a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Group since 1997.
Based in Miami, Florida, it is the largest cruise line by revenue and second largest by passenger counts. As of 2025, Royal Caribbean International controlled 27.0% of the worldwide cruise market by passengers and 24.8% by revenue.

Royal Caribbean Group:

Royal Caribbean Group, formerly known as Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., is a cruise holding company based in Miami, Florida, United States and incorporated in Liberia. It is the world's second-largest cruise line operator, after Carnival Corporation & plc. As of September 2025, Royal Caribbean Group fully owns three cruise lines: Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, and Silversea Cruises. It also holds a 50% stake in TUI Cruises, which operates Mein Schiff and Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, with the Group's global fleet consisting of 68 ships.

Norwegian Cruise Line:

Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) is an American cruise line founded in Norway in 1966, headquartered in Miami, Florida, and incorporated in the Bahamas. It is the fourth-largest cruise line in the world by passengers, controlling about 8.6% of the total worldwide share of the cruise market by passengers as of 2021. It is wholly owned by parent company Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings.

Norwegian Cruise Lines Holdings:

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) is a holding company that is based in the United States and domiciled in Bermuda. It operates three cruise lines as wholly owned subsidiaries: Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, and Regent Seven Seas Cruises. With its subsidiaries combined, it is the third-largest cruise operator in the world. It is a publicly traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

An awful lot of nations are involved in those cruise ship companies: USA, UK, Panama, Switzerland, Italy, Liberia, the Bahamas, Bermuda.

One of the tricks of the U.S. blockade: Even when a certain percentage of a product can be said to be American, the company exporting it risks being fined by the USA.
In the case of companies doing Caribbean cruises in particular, it makes sense to have their office in Florida, but even if they don't, they still can't visit Cuba and any part of the USA.

Besides, the Dutch company mentioned in post 262 was U.S. owned but still a Dutch company.

I don't have to read the article for you to be able to tell me "how exactly I am "defending money launderers using Panama,"" so I'll ask you again:
How am I defending money launderers using Panama?
The article doesn't tell me that, and you are the one who made the accusation.

 

[dann]

Exclusive: Inside the U.S. Deportation Flights to Cuba (Belly of the Beast on YouTube, August 29, 2025 - 4:17 min.)
Over 150 people were deported from the United States to Cuba on August 28. It was the eighth deportation flight this year. Cuba has continued to honor its bilateral migration agreement with the U.S. even as the Trump administration has ratcheted up the U.S. government’s economic war on the country. More than a million Cubans have left the island in the past five years, the biggest emigration wave in Cuban history. Most of them have gone to the United States. Cubans have long had a relatively privileged immigration status in the U.S. But Trump revoked the legal status and work permits of hundreds of thousands of Cubans, putting them at risk of deportation.
0:50-->
They flew in handcuffs, but Cuba demands that the handcuffs are removed before they get off the plane.

They left Cuba seeking the American Dream. ICE sent them home in shackles (CNN on YouTube, Sep 4, 2025 - 5:02 min.)
A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement flight returned 161 Cuban deportees to the communist-run island last week, the first time many of the men and women aboard had touched Cuban soil in years.
0:00-->
For generations, Cuban families have entered the United as political refugees fleeing a communist dictatorship.
But now, under President Trump's immigration crackdown, many have lost the status that allowed them to come to the United States and are being forced to go back to the island in shackles.
CNN was the first international TV network allowed to see how deportees are being processed in Cuba.

A look inside a U.S. deportation flight to Cuba (CBS Miami on YouTube, Aug 30, 2025 - min.)
A deportation flight carrying 150 Cuban detainees landed in Havana on Thursday, offering a rare glimpse of passengers in handcuffs, some expressing heartbreak over being separated from loved ones while others felt relief to leave detention behind.

Mother deported back to Cuba without daughter (CNN, YouTube short - 2:55 min.)

 

[lobosrul5]

Yes, it did become U.S. owned. And that was how it was fined. And so what? That is one of the many risks that companies aren't aware of.
Tell me how exactly I am "defending money launderers using Panama."

(your other reply) Yeah the deportations going on right now are super ◊◊◊◊◊◊ up... kind of a separate issue, since its hardly just Cubans.

You don't want to read your own link? OK.

Regarding the Cuba transactions, OFAC said, ‘Between January 2014 and July 2018, EFG subsidiaries located in the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, Monaco, and Switzerland processed 727 securities-related transactions and funds transfers totaling $29,939,701 through omnibus accounts at U.S. custodians or otherwise involving U.S. market participants, including EFG Miami, on behalf of clients who resided in Cuba or whose beneficial owners were Cuban nationals.’

It said that among the bank’s clients were ‘a Panamanian company beneficially owned by a person located in Cuba, two private investment firms domiciled in the British Virgin Islands and Panama whose ultimate beneficial owner was another Cuban national and resident, and individuals who EFG had reason to know resided in Cuba based on residency cards they provided to their respective EFG subsidiaries.’

Does that sound like ordinary people moving around a bit of money to support their families over seas to yo? Monaco, the Cayman's, Switzerland. Countries with super secretive banking laws. Ever heard of the Panama papers? This is either the wealthy hiding funds from the taxman or illegal operations. 99.9999% chance of that. Is it ◊◊◊◊◊◊ up that the US only took an interest because some of the transactions involved Cuba? Well, yes.

 

[dann]

No, that does not "sound like ordinary people moving around a bit of money to support their families over seas" to me.
But that was not what I objected to, and you still haven't answer my question:
How the hell am I "defending money launderers using Panama"?
If you have realized in the meantime that I never defended money launderers using Panama, all you have to do is say so.

 

[lobosrul5]

No, that does not "sound like ordinary people moving around a bit of money to support their families over seas" to me.
But that was not what I objected to, and you still haven't answer my question:
How the hell am I "defending money launderers using Panama"?
If you have realized in the meantime that I never defended money launderers using Panama, all you have to do is say so.

??? Your evidence of us trade sanctions included an article about a fine that clearly involved money laundering. Your other one was a fine against a us company.

 

[dann]

And how exactly does that mean that I am "defending money launderers using Panama"?

 

[dann]

From today on YouTube:
A fairly simple example of how the U.S. blockade works and what it has to do with Cuba's energy problems

Cuba’s Deputy FM: Sanctions Make It Hard for Cuba to Even Get a Screw (Belly of the Beast on YouTube, October 14, 2025 - 2:03 min.)
In this video:
Why Cuba can’t buy fuel or spare parts under U.S. sanctions
How the blockade extends to private companies like General Electric
The link between Venezuela’s sanctions and Cuba’s energy shortages
What Havana would do if the U.S. goes to war with Venezuela

0:15--> One problem is is lack of fuel. Another one is a a an outdated capacity to generate. It has been very difficult. To give you an example the biggest plant generator in Cuba was a French company with which we had agreements for many years on maintenance, spare parts. It's quite old, but it worked. In 2015, I think, or 2014, General Electric bought the company. So for us to get a screw, we have to go through a third market, build it some other place. We can't even get technical assistance, not even advisers to come. And that goes through a whole technology, to infrastructure in general.
And then you have the sanctions on Venezuela by the US. It's an issue. Plus the price of oil. Plus a standing policy since 2019 of theUnited States aimed at depriving Cuba of shipments of oil.
So companies, shipping companies that transport oil to Cuba, are either sanctioned or threatened to be sanctioned for transport, which implies that we have to pay extra for the import of oil. A country that is not rich, that doesn't have much money.

 

[theprestige]

From the So what form does the resistance take? thread:

Did you ever try to find information about this that wasn't U.S. propaganda? The USA does take measures against other countries trading with Cuba. In fact, the USA takes measures against companies in other countries that trade with Cuba. There are several examples like these:

"US Treasury officials said CWT B.V. which has organized travel for over 40,000 people to Cuba, continued to offer travel services to Cuba even after it became majority owned by registered US companies, and was therefore liable under the US Trading With the Enemy Act."

So in your first example, the USA takes measures against US companies.

Which makes sense. It closes the loophole where US companies can do business in Cuba through foreign-based subsidiaries.

 

[dann]

So that's a no to my question, right?!
The USA takes measures against whatever can somehow be considered to be US companies or US-related:
Is it a US-based company?
Is it owned by US companies?
Does it have offices in the USA?
Is it incorporated in the USA?
Does its ships dock in the USA?
Does it transfer money through U.S. financial institutions?
Or are US$ somehow involved?

An old Danish case:

Cigarglad dansk betjent fanget i terrornet (Jyllands-Posten.dk, Feb 26, 2012)
USA misbruger terrorlovgivningen til at stoppe lovlige køb, siger tidligere PET-chef.
Hvordan bliver en 40-årig fynbo, der ved siden af jobbet som politimand driver en cigarhandel i den lille by Vissenbjerg, viklet ind i USA's verdensomspændende finansielle terrornet?
Det spørgsmål står hovedpersonen Torben Nødskouv tilbage med, efter at han har fået konfiskeret 26.000 dollar (137.000 kr.) af de amerikanske myndigheder, fordi han ville købe cubanske cigarer fra en tysk leverandør i Hamborg.

Danish policeman and cigar afficionado caught in terror net
The USA abuses terror legislate to put a stop to legal purchases, according to former head of the Danish Intelligence Agency.
How does a 40-year-old man from the island of Fyn, who besides being a policeman also runs a cigar business in the small town of Vissenbjerg, become entangled in the world-wide financial terror net of the USA?
That is the question that still haunts the protagonist Torben Nødskouv after $26,000 (DKR 137,000) was confiscated by the U.S. authorities because he wanted to buy Cuban cigars from a German supplier in Hamburg.

So to make sure that you are not fined by the USA and that your money isn't seized by the USA, it's much easier to abstain from dealing with anything that has got to do with Cuba. Even when it's a deal between people in two EU countries.

YouTube shorts:
How Sanctions Destroyed Cuban Tourism
Why Airbnb & Expedia Stopped Paying Cuban Hosts - Tourism Crisis Explained
Airbnb, Expedia and the End of Cuban Tourism Home Rentals
Shut Cuban Entrepreneurs Out of U.S. Market
Cuban Private Sector Gets Shafted by Trump-Biden Sanctions
Why the U.S. Focuses on Overthrowing Cuba: Insights from Jeffrey Sachs

 

[lobosrul5]

So that's a no to my question, right?!
The USA takes measures against whatever can somehow be considered to be US companies or US-related:
Is it a US-based company?
Is it owned by US companies?
Does it have offices in the USA?
Is it incorporated in the USA?
Does its ships dock in the USA?
Does it transfer money through U.S. financial institutions?
Or are US$ somehow involved?

An old Danish case:

Danish policeman and cigar afficionado caught in terror net
The USA abuses terror legislate to put a stop to legal purchases, according to former head of the Danish Intelligence Agency.
How does a 40-year-old man from the island of Fyn, who besides being a policeman also runs a cigar business in the small town of Vissenbjerg, become entangled in the world-wide financial terror net of the USA?
That is the question that still haunts the protagonist Torben Nødskouv after $26,000 (DKR 137,000) was confiscated by the U.S. authorities because he wanted to buy Cuban cigars from a German supplier in Hamburg.

So to make sure that you are not fined by the USA and that your money isn't seized by the USA, it's much easier to abstain from dealing with anything that has got to do with Cuba. Even when it's a deal between people in two EU countries.

YouTube shorts:
How Sanctions Destroyed Cuban Tourism
Why Airbnb & Expedia Stopped Paying Cuban Hosts - Tourism Crisis Explained
Airbnb, Expedia and the End of Cuban Tourism Home Rentals
Shut Cuban Entrepreneurs Out of U.S. Market
Cuban Private Sector Gets Shafted by Trump-Biden Sanctions
Why the U.S. Focuses on Overthrowing Cuba: Insights from Jeffrey Sachs

Something doesn't add up with the Danish policeman story. So, American police just mosey'd on over to Denmark and took this guys cigars??

.... his $26,000 dollars worth of cigars??

 

[dann]

Something doesn't add up with the Danish policeman story. So, American police just mosey'd on over to Denmark and took this guys cigars??

Everything adds up, except your understanding of what the U.S. blockade is and how it is exacerbated by means of the U.S. terror legislation. Nobody took his cigars. Whoever handles U.S. sanctions against other countries took this guy's money. Read the story.

.... his $26,000 dollars worth of cigars??

No, the money, not the cigars: "$26,000 (DKR 137,000) was confiscated by the U.S. authorities."
You think that it's the cigars because you don't know how the blockade the and (alleged anti-)terror sanctions work.
By the way, Jyllands-Posten is not a Cuba-friendly newspaper in any way.

ETA:
Fynsk cigarsælger fanget i terrornet (TV2fyn.dk, Feb 26, 2012)
Dansk politimand fanget i amerikansk terrornet (Berlingske/RandersAmtsavis, Feb 26, 2025)
Dansk politimand fanget i amerikansk terrornet (Berlingske/DR.dk, Feb 26, 2012)
Terror-regning til dansk bank (Jyllands-Posten, Feb 27, 2012)
Vissenbjerg-mand fanget af terrornet: USA griber ind i lovlig cigarhandel (Fyens.dk, Feb 27, 2012)

Conan Visits A Cuban Cigar Factory (CONAN on TBS on YouTube, Mar 4, 2020 - 4:59 min.)

US snubs out legal cigar transaction (The Copenhagen Post, Feb 27, 2012)
Foreign minister intervenes after Danish man loses appeal to have 137,000 kroner returned to him by the Americans

US confiscates policeman’s Cuban cigar cash (IceNews.is, Mar 4, 2012)
Denmark is to investigate after the US confiscated a policeman’s DKK 137,000 (EUR 18,423) deposit for Cuban cigars bought from Germany.
(...)
Nørskou sent the money to a Hamburg company via the local Totalbanken in Funen, but the funds never reached the intended recipients as they were intercepted en route by US authorities. The Justice Department then refused to give the money back to the policeman in January.

 

[dann]

Blockage and fuel shortage: is there a connection? (Granma.cu, Oct 24, 2025)
The economic blockade has exacerbated financial constraints and limited access to credit for repairing the country's thermoelectric power plants and acquiring the technology and fuel needed for strategic sectors of the national economy

Two examples:

The first time Dayana was at the unloading of a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) ship, the gas could not be piped from the Ñico López Refinery dock to the joint venture that receives and bottles it, because those pipelines crossed the grounds of the former Esso Standard, nationalized by the Revolutionary Government and considered by the United States to be in dispute.
Although this claim is illegitimate, if the company agreed to unload the gas using those lines, it could be exposed to sanctions from the White House.
But the gas had to be unloaded, and so "we had to invest in an exclusive and expensive line for LPG that did not pass through that area, in order for the company to agree to operate the ship."
It was then that she saw for the first time that "the blockade is a very serious matter," because foreign companies are afraid of being sanctioned.

Years later, when she was working as a process technologist at the Catalytic Cracking plant, the only one of its kind in Cuba, which supplied most of the liquefied gas needed by Havana and part of the west of the country, she witnessed another ban:
"The Brazilians who sold us the catalyst suddenly terminated the contract because a U.S. company had bought 50% of the factory's shares."
She recalls that they had to "rush" to find a similar catalyst: a selective one that would allow them to obtain fuels such as gasoline and LPG from a lower-value product.
And the effort, so as not to cause a production gap at the plant, was enormous.

And a general problem:

In addition, she comments, "there is a denial of credit or access to spare parts, even if we have the money, because they contain American components. That is why it has been very difficult to keep the thermoelectric plants running."

 

[dann]

Cuba Denounces U.S. Pressure Ahead of Key UN Vote on Embargo (Belly of the Beast on YouTube, Oct 3, 2025 - 1:52 min.)
Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez has accused the Trump administration of pressuring other governments to withdraw their support for Cuba’s upcoming UN resolution demanding an end to the U.S. embargo.
The resolution is titled: “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba.” For over 30 years, the global community has overwhelmingly backed the resolution, with the U.S. and Israel the only two countries that consistently oppose the resolution.
Washington seems to have intensified its pressure tactics, which include spreading misinformation that Cuba is involved in the war in Ukraine.
“What the State Department and its Secretary of State are doing is extraordinarily cynical. It is not diplomacy, it is pressure using arguments that no one believes,” said Rodríguez.
U.S. sanctions on Cuba have been in place since the early 1960s, and have been condemned annually at the UN since 1992 — a rare example of global consensus that has repeatedly left Washington diplomatically isolated.

 

[dann]

Belly of the Beast on X, Oct 28, 2025
At the UN today, U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz said he would “correct the fake news” about Cuba – then unleashed a barrage of it himself. Cuba’s FM cut him off: “This is the UN General Assembly, not a Signal chat.”

With a short video, 2:45 min.

Helen Yaffe on X, Oct 28, 2025
Wednesday 29 Oct, the #UnitedNations General Assembly will vote for the 33rd year in favour of #Cuba’s motion to end the US blockade, despite the US having pressured governments to not support Cuba, with false claims it militarily supports Russia in the war in Ukraine. (1/5)

The US Blockade Against Cuba Is an Act of War (Jacobin, Mar 27, 2022)
For sixty years, the United States’ blockade against Cuba has worked to hinder the island’s development and prevent it from trading even with third countries. It’s time Washington stopped its cruel punishment of its smaller neighbor.

Interview with Johana Tablada, Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Cuba Analysis on YouTube, Oct 5, 2025 - 1:15:25)
In July 2023, the Cuba Analysis Podcast sat down with Johana Tablada, then Deputy Director General for the United States at Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs but subsequently appointed Ambassador and Deputy Head of Mission in Mexico.
In the interview, Tablada describes the key features of US-Cuba relations, past and present, clarifies how the US blockade functions, explains its economic and human toll, and lists the impacts of Cuba’s inclusion on the US State Sponsors of Terrorism List. We discuss Cuba policy under the Trump administration, driven by Secretary of State Marco Rubio who built his career on opposition to Cuban socialism. Tablada responds to US claims to champion human rights, while imposing unprecedented sanctions and pressuring countries to cut ties with Cuban medical missions worldwide. She addresses Cuba’s broader international role, the principles shaping its foreign policy, and the significance of Cuba joining the BRICS intergovernmental organisation. We closed with a discussion about Cuba’s historic opposition to Israel’s occupation of Palestine and outspoken denunciation of the genocide carried out with impunity since October 2023.

 

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General Assembly Overwhelmingly Adopts Resolution Calling on United States to End Cuba Embargo​

This year, the U.S. campaign to make other countries vote against the resolution to end the U.S. blockade of Cuba was more slanderous and mendacious than usual:

Exclusive: Citing Cuban fighters in Ukraine, US urges allies to shun Havana at UN (Reuters, Oct 5, 2025)
President Donald Trump's administration is mobilizing U.S. diplomats to lobby against a U.N. resolution calling on Washington to lift its decades-long embargo on Cuba, in part by sharing details of Cuba’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to an internal State Department cable seen by Reuters.
As part of the administration's campaign, U.S. diplomats will tell countries that the Cuban government is actively supporting Russia's invasion of Ukraine with up to 5,000 Cubans.

The truth will prevail over pressure, blackmail, and slander (Granma.cu, Oct 23, 2025)
And they have also sent threatening letters to a lot of countries, even linking those countries' votes on this resolution to issues that have nothing to do with it, relating to the links between those countries and the United States, between their private companies and the U.S. economy, between their foreign policy interests, between their interests in peace, security, national or regional stability in relation to the United States, with regard to United Nations operations, in a position of blackmail, regarding trade tariffs, regarding visa deprivation sanctions. In other words, these are truly insulting letters. Well, I have brought one of them with me and I am going to read some excerpts.
The big lie about Cuba's alleged involvement in the conflict in Europe, in the war in Ukraine. It says: "up to 20,000 Cuban citizens have been recruited." Everyone knows that's a lie.
It argues that those who reiterate their positions in their speeches will legitimize Cuba's propaganda and will undermine and damage the democratic allies of the United States in the Western Hemisphere and will damage the United States itself. This seems to have been written in 1962 or 1963. It says: "they will legitimize one of Moscow's closest military allies."

So did it work out as Donald Trump and Marco Rubio hoped? No, not really.
Looking at the numbers alone, it failed miserably:

United Nations calls for end to US embargo on Cuba, again (AlJazeera, Oct 29, 2025)
It [the UN] adopted a resolution with 165 votes in favour, seven against and 12 abstentions. Unlike previous years, the US convinced Argentina, Hungary, North Macedonia, Paraguay and Ukraine to join it and Israel in voting against the resolution.

US fails to make big dent in UN vote calling for end to Cuba embargo (Reuters, Oct 29, 2025)
The United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly called for an end to a U.S. economic embargo on Cuba despite lobbying by Washington that included sharing an accusation that up to 5,000 Cubans are fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine.

So nobody can claim that the USA didn't get anything in return for the "$20 billion in private financing for Argentina alongside a $20 billion currency swap" (Fox Business, Oct 31, 2025).
As for Hungary: Viktor Orban's dilemma - Russian oil or Trump's favour (BBC, Oct 28, 2025)
North Macedonia:

In Veles, meeting the producers of fake news (European Trade Union Institute)
Trump never visited Veles, 7 553 kilometres away from New York City, but a large number of Veles inhabitants "worked for him" during the election campaign. The tweet is fake, Donald Trump never wrote it. It’s a joke on account of so many fake news launched from Veles in a favour of Donald Trump during the campaign.

Paraguay: is not only "one of the last remaining countries that maintains diplomatic ties with Taiwan," (Taipei Times) it's "a bastion of conservatism in Latin America," (The Conversation) and a "Paraguayan former Miss Universe star has petitioned President Trump over World Cup visas." (NYT)
Ukraine:
Pentagon green lights Tomahawks to Ukraine, decision now with Trump (The Jerusalem Post, Nov 1, 2025)

Israel was always on the side of the USA and vice versa.

As for the "165 votes in favour" of ending the U.S. embargo, they didn't bend the knee to Trump in spite of his threats.