US blockade of Cuba

[Jack by the hedge]

A few seconds on Wikipedia finds Cuba exports "sugar, nickel, tobacco, fish, medical products, citrus fruits, and coffee". Tourism (mostly from Canada and the EU) earns a similar scale of revenue.

 

[dirtywick]

they have a currency and resources to back it

 

[thaiboxerken]

I think Moscow is trading oil for something, and it's obvious Cuba doesn't have the readies to pull Moscow out of its economic slump.

That something is called.... money.

 

[theprestige]

That something is called.... money.

I guess that's fair. Cuba's total GDP is estimated at ~2x Russia's projected budget deficit for 2026.

 

[thaiboxerken]

I guess that's fair. Cuba's total GDP is estimated at ~2x Russia's projected budget deficit for 2026.

Russia's economic status doesn't matter in the discussion. Cuba paid for the oil, with money. That's how trade and sales work. Unless you have some evidence otherwise, you'd do better to stop posting such idiotic nonsense.

Edited by jimbob: 

rule 12 removed

 

[dann]

Of course not. I'm sure Cuba has warm bodies it can contribute to the cause.

I addressed this lie last year: https://internationalskeptics.com/forums/threads/protests-erupt-in-cuba.352780/post-14696376
Or is it a new one?

 

[dann]

No, they were always in constant black-out due to lack of fuel and starving because of the lack of food. This is why blockading their trade routes isn't a big deal...

The electric grid was never top notch. In the past 27-28 years, I have visited Cuba about 20 times and spent more than 6 months total in the country. I have experienced four black-outs. They were always local and never lasted more than an hour.
Things were improving since the first time I was there for the Christmas vacations in 1998-99 when the country was slowly recovering from the período especial – that is until Trump's exacerbation of the blockade and the pandemic almost eliminated tourism, a major source of income like in most other Caribbean countries.
When I was in Cuban in late-2022, the first and so far only time since the pandemic began, it was obvious that conditions were deteriorating.

Hasan Piker's report from his recent visit to Cuba with the solidarity flotilla:

The US is coming for Cuba next. - Mini-Doc (HasanAbi on YouTube, Mar 6, 2026 - 34:46 min.)
I flew to Cuba on a humanitarian aid mission to bring 40 tons of food, medicine, and medical equipment to the island nation as the United States maintains an oil blockade strangling the country.
I spoke with doctors, scientists, and civilians on the street about how 70 years of the embargo the United States enforces on Cuba has affected their lives, and how the current oil blockade has escalated this crisis even further.

Notable:
Cuba's transition to renewables, primarily solar. Interview with Lidice Vaillant Roca. In a year, solar (on good days) has gone from 3-4% to sometimes more than 30%. More than 90% of solar panels come from China, but even Chinese companies are affected by the U.S. blockade: 22:40-->26:00.
I have mentioned Mitchell Valdes-Sosa several times in the thread about the 'syndrome', most recently in post 2,434. He was the guy in charge of the Cuban investigation. Here, he talks about Cuban biomedical research: 26:00-->31:15.

 

[dann]

Helen Yaffe on X, April 6, 2026
66 years ago today, Lester Mallory conceived #UnitedStates policy towards #Cuba. Acknowledging support for the revolutionary state, he proposed economic warfare to create “hunger, desperation and overthrow of government”. Trump/Rubio pursue this policy openly & without restraint.

One of the best videos about the blockade:

Harsh US sanctions push Cuba’s healthcare system to breaking point | People & Power Documentary. (Al Jazeera on YouTube, Oct 30, 2025 – 25:00 min.)
Cuba's healthcare system was once a paragon, held up as an example of what was possible in the developing world. But all that has changed. Harsh US sanctions, reimposed by the first Trump administration, are making it difficult, if not impossible, for healthcare workers to access the drugs and equipment they need. Although designed to apply political pressure to the communist government, in reality, the sanctions hurt civilians the most. The infant mortality rate is rising, and life expectancy is falling.

 

[dann]

Of course not. I'm sure Cuba has warm bodies it can contribute to the cause.

I addressed this lie last year: https://internationalskeptics.com/forums/threads/protests-erupt-in-cuba.352780/post-14696376
Or is it a new one?

When I watched this video, it occurred to me that theprestige may have had another lie about 'warm bodies' in mind, i.e. Cuban doctors allegedly being trafficked by the state and having to work as slaves abroad:

Cuba Journalist EXPOSES America’s  $52 Million Secret Op Against Cuba (Katie Halper on YouTube, April 7, 2026 – 14:12 min.)
Cuba-based journalist Ed Augustin and Cuban-trained physician Dr. Uriel Ramirez debunk propaganda calling Cuba’s elite medical missions “medical slavery,” and instead reveal something much more dangerous to the capitalist way of life… a not-for-profit medical system focused on preventative care, rooted in solidarity and human rights.
00:00 Intro
00:25 Why Dr. Uriel Ramirez decided to study medicine in Cuba
02:43 Cuba’s focus on preventative care saves lives
04:09 “Health is a human right there”
06:31 Debunking “medical slavery” claim
09:57 Propaganda campaign by Marco Rubio + U.S. gov against Cuba

Ed Augustin is a journalist based in Havana. He broadcasts for NBC News, Al Jazeera and France 24. He writes for the Financial Times, the New York Times and the Guardian. With twelve years experience in Cuba, Ed has reported on power blackouts, state repression, and how sanctions are spurring Cubans to migrate to the United States. He has written, shot and produced documentaries about hurricanes and Guantánamo Bay prison. He has also reported from Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras, Britain and France. He graduated from the University of Manchester with a 1st class degree in Politics and Philosophy. His recent article: "Cuban Patients Are Dying Because of U.S. Blockade, Doctors Say" https://archive.md/T6jCB

Dr. Uriel Ramirez was born and raised in Los Angeles, is a graduate of the Latin American School of Medicine (LASM) in Havana, Cuba, and is currently a researcher at the University of New Mexico. He is the founder of The Pan-American Medical Association, with a deep commitment to a future in Anesthesiology and a passion for strengthening health infrastructure, medical systems, and medical logistics. His work is driven by a dedication to advancing health as a human right and building sustainable models that leave a lasting impact on the field of medicine. He collaborates with the William Soler hospital in Havana Cuba and has sent over $3M in medical supplies to the hospital for surgical and anesthesia care.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

from a rational, scientific point of view, we have to admit that we don't have the data to tell whether a Cuban-style Socialism can work economically or not, as it has never been given to operate without sanctions, handicaps and sabotage.
It is doubtful that a Capitalist country would prosper when subject to similar levels to economic warfare.

 

[theprestige]

When I watched this video, it occurred to me that theprestige may have had another lie about 'warm bodies' in mind, i.e. Cuban doctors allegedly being trafficked by the state and having to work as slaves abroad:

The Cuban government is trafficking doctors, too, I see.

 

[thaiboxerken]

The Cuban government is trafficking doctors, too, I see.

So you see this video that debunks a claim and then make that same claim?

 

[theprestige]

So you see this video that debunks a claim and then make that same claim?

I trust Ukrainian propaganda more than Cuban propaganda. If Ukrainian intelligence says they have evidence of Cuban fighters in the Russian army, and Granma says otherwise, I'm going with the Ukrainian narrative. As for the doctor thing: If I don't believe Cuban propaganda about soldiers, why would I believe Cuban propaganda about doctors?

Also it doesn't help that nobody mentioned Cuban slave doctors until dann brought it up. He's trying to defend an accusation I never made, on a topic I had no idea about until he raised it out of thin air.

---

"Hey, you know what's totally NOT happening? Human trafficking of Cuban doctors! What do you think of that?"

"The possibility never crossed my mind. But now that you've brought it up, I'm starting to wonder..."

 

[thaiboxerken]

He's just trying to figure out the source of your lies.

 

[dann]

Theprestige has made it very clear that he only trusts MAGA propaganda.
Anything debunking MAGA propaganda is denounced as propaganda.

From the YouTube video in post 49, this part in particular: "06:31 Debunking “medical slavery” claim", and these guys are Dr. Uriel Ramirez, who "was born and raised in Los Angeles, is a graduate of the Latin American School of Medicine (LASM) in Havana, Cuba, and is currently a researcher at the University of New Mexico" and thus know about both the American and the Cuban systems of medicine, and Ed Augustin, "who is a journalist based in Havana. He broadcasts for NBC News, Al Jazeera and France 24. He writes for the Financial Times, the New York Times and the Guardian":

What they say is consistent with what Cuban doctors have told me:

6:34-->
Katie Halper: I want you to respond to this claim about doctors as slaves. Yeah. So this is from the Victims of Communism Foundation, and it says "A Step Toward Justice with Cuba's Medical Slavery Model. And
this is about how doctors, I don't know, are being paid. They started to pay them. But the point is uh what is this medical slavery model? I mean,
did the doctors you met talk about their labor as if they were being treated like slaves or?

Uriel Ramirez: No. Uh, I just want to tell everybody, you know, that what Cubans are built on solidarity. So, uh, so basically whatever they do, they do it out of their heart. When I speak to these individuals that go out and do these services in other countries, they want to do it. They go out there and they actually get paid pretty good money because they come back and they buy their cars, they buy their own houses.
They're able to expand economically by going out and then coming back. It's quite shocking to see that alot of people think it's slavery, because these doctors, they love what they do and they do it, they'll do it in a heartbeat, you know. They go to, when they go to Brazil, they go to Venezuela, they go to ... I've met physicians that go to Congo, they go to all parts of Asia, and then they come back and they ... I was able to
learn from these physicians, their experiences, and what they did, you know. And it just brought a more rich, you know, education to me and to my colleagues that I had in Cuba, you know.

Katie Halper: Yeah. Right. And what about you, Ed? Have you discovered um a a slave trade? An undercover slave trade?

Ed Augustin: Still looking. I've got um I've got a slightly different emphasis on it um to Yuriel. I do agree with him that empathy and solidarity and and the duty of care to patients, whether they're Cuban or people abroad, is a big part of the Cuban ethos. That's certainly true. It's certainly taught. Where I part company a bit is that in my experience, most of the doctors these days that work abroad do it because they want to earn more money. Yeah sure, they'd love to travel. Sure, it's a rite of passage. Sure. They're doctors, right? Presumably most of them believe in the hippocratic oath. But overwhelmingly, what's come back to me is that this is a way that we're going to be able to I don't know, buy an oven or get an air conditioner or or get a TV that's not from the 1980s. This is what I've been, what I've come across.
So yeah, um again, we've talked about not sugar coating it, and I think it's important not to do that, right? Because talking about Cuba, and we're all on the left and there's lots of kind of like romantic myths and stuff that shouldn't be allowed to stand. There is, on the one hand... The notion that they're slaves is crazy, or better put, factually false, because I happen to know that often Cuban doctors bribe others, administrators, there's a lot of bribery in Cuba, to jump the queue. So what slave would want to pay to be able to to be a slave? But thenotion that they're slaves or the notion that it's human trafficking is propaganda.

You should also listen to the last part of the video,"09:57 Propaganda campaign by Marco Rubio + U.S. gov against Cuba," i.e the propaganda that theprestige (and steenkh too, apparently) chooses to believe.

 

[Jack by the hedge]

Perhaps there is also a mirror image Victims of Capitalism Foundation which says western doctors are wage slaves.

 

[dann]

A headline for those of you who, like theprestige, choose to believe MAGA propaganda, here's MAGA's anti-Obama version:

We exposed Cuba's slave trade in doctors. (Saka Saka on YouTube, Jan 26, 2021 – 29 sec.)
We exposed Cuba's slave trade in doctors. The last Administration congratulated Castro for exploiting Cuban doctors.

Obama: In Cuba, I said, Look you've made great progress in educating uh chil uh young people. Every child in Cuba gets a basic education. That's a huge improvement from where it was. Medical care. You know, the life expectancy of Cubans is equivalent to the united states despite it being a very poor country because they have access to health care. That's a huge achievement. They should be congratulated, but ...

 

[dann]

Perhaps there is also a mirror image Victims of Capitalism Foundation which says western doctors are wage slaves.

I don't think there is. In general, doctors are privileged, in the West as well as in Cuba, but Cuban doctors obviously aren't privileged in comparison the doctors in the West.
One major difference is that Cuban doctors are grateful for the privilege of having been educated and trained free of charge. For the most part, they know that they wouldn't have become doctors if it weren't for the Cuban revolution. And ordinary people know that they wouldn't have had access to doctors if it weren't for guys like Che, Fidel, Raúl, Camilo and all the others, many of whom died in the war against Batista, U.S. imperialism and the poverty U.S. imperialims imposes on major swaths of the rest of the world.

I recommend a Swedish documentary about the Cuban Reynier Casamayor, a young black MD, who is torn between his profession as a doctor and his dream of becoming a celebrated requeton star:

The Rumpus Review of El Médico: The Cubatón Story (The Rumpus, Nov 21, 2012)
In a scattered way, Fridell’s film tells one angle of the story of post-Soviet Cuba brushing against the rest of the globalized world after more than three decades of isolation. It also illustrates the generational rift between younger and older Cubans. El Médico can only comfortably quit doctoring to focus on music if his mother approves. Michel says, “I know how to convince your mother,” and he brings El Médico a gold-tone bicycle. See what he can buy if he quits? But this is not a woman who will be swayed by a gold bike. This is a woman who is convinced by her own experience that capitalism didn’t do anything good for her and Fidel has. She grew up in the 50s, hungry in a shantytown on the outskirts of town. Now she has an apartment, a few weeks’ worth of rice rations every month, and a doctor son, even if her doctor son strains against the constraints of his role.

The Rumpus review doesn't mention it, but Reynier's mother tells him that her mother and her sister died because they didn't have access to proper health care. They couldn't afford it.

What bothers MAGA about Cuban doctors isn't that they help make health care accessible to people in Cuba and in many other parts of the world. What bothers MAGA is that, doing so, they help finance free health care and education in the country they are doing their utmost to starve, i.e. "denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation, and overthrow of government." (See post 48).

Does anybody know what happens to the people in countries like Jamaica who no longer have access to doctors because Trump has threatened those countries with sanctions if they don't cancel their contracts with the Cuban medical brigades? Or to the people of Cuba, who no longer has access to medicine due to the blockade?
Discharged: Cuban Healthcare Workers Leave Jamaica (TVJ News on YouTube, Mar 22, 2026 – 3:19 min.)
Are the Cuban doctors expelled from Jamaica about to be replaced by MAHA doctors?
Will RFK Jr. send a team of illiterate influencers to persuade Cubans that vaccines are detrimental to their health?

 

[dann]

More Cuban propaganda - from an American capitalist:

Cuban Medication Offers Hope for Millions, U.S. Policy Blinds Us - Dr Bill Blanchet (Belly of the Beast on YouTube, April 9, 2026 - 24:49 min.)
“NeuralCIM is so effective as a new drug, this should change the narrative.”
Colorado-based physician Dr Bill Blanchet has spent years researching Cuba’s biopharmaceutical industry. He says its latest product, NeuralCIM, a breakthrough treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, could change the lives of millions of people in the United States, but is blocked by the same embargo that is claiming Cuban lives.
Over the past year, 52 of Dr Blanchet’s patients have gone through La Pradera International Clinic in Havana to receive the treatment, and he’s been monitoring their progress. The drug was approved by Cuba’s Ministry of Health in 2025 for the treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer’s, free for Cuban citizens.
In this interview, Dr Blanchet explains the science behind the medication, how it was trialed, its potential in helping with Parkinson’s disease and traumatic brain injuries, and his outrage at how U.S. foreign policy is punishing ordinary Cubans and crippling Cuba’s healthcare system.Watch our report on NeuralCIM here: U.S. Citizens in Cuba for New Breakthrough Alzheimer’s Treatment (YouTube, Feb 27, 2026 – 8:12 min.)
An upcoming Belly of the Beast documentary, Teresita’s Dream, tracks the research and development of NeuralCIM. It meets the Cuban scientists behind it, focusing on Dr Teresita Rodríguez, who was driven by her mother’s battle with Alzheimer’s.
Watch the trailer here: Trailer | Teresita’s Dream: Cuba’s Battle Against Alzheimer’s (YouTube, Sep 8, 2025 – 1:05 min.)
Help shift the conversation on Alzheimer’s – for press inquiries or to host an early screening of the film visit the Teresita’s Dream section on our website:
Belly of the Beast: Teresita's Dream

17:50--> So, basically, with the embargo, it's an embargo of intelligence. It's an embargo of science, an embargo of information.
And we have been taught that Cuba is a backwards country with a failing economy. And that's just what we've been taught.
And it's anything but a backwards country. The level of education in Cuba is immense. It's just massive. If you can find a taxi driver who doesn't have a college degree, you’ve found an exceptional taxi driver. So, a highly educated, very smart population, who in the scientific world are motivated... the motivation is to help people.
And the thing that's remarkable is that there's no financial motivation. No one makes a fortune off of finding a great vaccine or finding a great drug. People get better. And that’s the motivation, to help people get better. That's different than motivation in the United States.
And with the NeuralCIM, the thing that's amazing is Cuba approved this early, and by approving it early, it just cost them money.
It cost the government money to approve it early. Nobody made a fortune. People got better. People went back to work.
People didn't have to stay home with their grandmother who was failing. Their grandmother stopped failing. That was the pay off. Kind of a different pay off.

 

[steenkh]

You should also listen to the last part of the video,"09:57 Propaganda campaign by Marco Rubio + U.S. gov against Cuba," i.e the propaganda that theprestige (and steenkh too, apparently) chooses to believe.

I agreed with @theprestige about Ukrainian propaganda being more trustworthy than Cuban propaganda about whether there are Cubans fighting on the Russian side in Ukraine.

I foolishly chose to follow your link and listen to a journalist who claimed that the U.S. has a massive propaganda campaign against Cuba - which is probably true - but no evidence, particularly not on the subject that I agreed with, ie. the subject of Cubans fighting in Ukraine.