May 5, 2026 — Belly of the Beast

Imani Bashir is a Black American activist from Washington D.C. She visited to Cuba following a radical political tradition, one that includes Malcolm X, Assata Shakur, and Kwame Ture, figures who understood the Cuban Revolution as part of a broader struggle for liberation.

For Bashir, visiting Cuba wasn’t just political, it was personal. Seeing Afro-Cuban people, she says, was seeing people who look like her, who share her history, who have maintained their culture and dignity under decades of sanctions.

Her argument on the blockade is straightforward: Cuba has never been a threat to the United States. It has never put U.S. safety, its food supply, or resources at stake. “It has only been the other way around,” she says.

And on the U.S. government’s stated concern for the Cuban people: “I absolutely don’t think that the United States government wants to help the Cuban people, because the United States government doesn’t want to help the American people.”

U.S. Voices Against the Blockade is a series featuring U.S. citizens who oppose U.S. sanctions on Cuba. Watch Episode 2 and catch up on all previous episodes in the series.

May 9, 2026 — Belly of the Beast

As Washington doubles down on its economic war on Cuba, one young activist from Minneapolis packed his bag and flew to Havana. Lavish came not despite U.S. aggression, but because of it, to show solidarity with the Cuban people.

On International Workers’ Day, Lavish was joined by Josué, a young Cuban researcher who has been attending May Day marches since he was a child. The two come from different worlds, but found common ground in Havana.

​Watch our video with Lavish and Josué.

Chicago-born rapper Vic Mensa visited Cuba for the first time recently, and saw for himself the effects of the U.S. government’s economic war on the island.

Belly of the Beast’s Liz Oliva Fernández took a walk with him around Havana, where they talked about race, resistance and the pain inflicted by U.S. sanctions.

“From an American perspective, the pain of the world is often out of sight, out of mind,” he said.

Cuba didn’t just move Vic Mensa politically. It moved him personally, as a Black man, as a father as someone who carries both America and Africa inside him.

“What I like the most about this experience is seeing that there are Black people on this planet who can’t be broken,” he said.

Washington, May 8 (Prensa Latina) Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez reaffirmed that Cuba will safeguard its independence and stated that it “will exercise its right to legitimate self-defense to the very end, with the massive and overwhelming support of the people.”

In an interview with the American media outlet ABC News, the Foreign Minister was clear: “Cuba does not represent a threat to the United States: not to its national security, not to its foreign policy, not to its economy, not to the American way of life.”

“It appears that the United States government has chosen a dangerous path; a path that could lead to unimaginable consequences, to a humanitarian catastrophe, to genocide, to the loss of Cuban lives and young Americans; it could also lead to a bloodbath in Cuba,” he said.

Rodríguez stated that there has been no progress in the talks with the United States and dismissed the recent demands from the Donald Trump administration regarding political and economic reforms. “I can tell you that I see no progress,” he emphasized.

The Cuban foreign minister reiterated his willingness to engage in dialogue “on a wide variety of bilateral issues,” but emphasized that issues related to Cuba’s political system or internal affairs “are not on the table.”

Rodríguez refuted the false pretexts used by the Trump White House to justify a possible military aggression against Cuba, something “prohibited by international law,” he noted.

In recent weeks, the hostility of Trump and his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has escalated with constant threats of future actions against the island “very soon”.

Trump has referred – with the mentality of a 21st-century conqueror – to “taking control of Cuba almost immediately” and threatens to deploy US aircraft carriers near its shores to, supposedly, force a surrender.

Since assuming his second term in the White House on January 20 of last year, President Trump has doubled down on his stance against Cuba. On his first day in office, he signed an executive order reversing belated but progressive measures taken by his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden.

Biden, who during his four years in the Oval Office remained in line with Trump’s policy towards Cuba, decided a week before the end of his presidency to remove the country from the unilateral and arbitrary United States list of alleged sponsors of terrorism.

Thus, in a cascade, the provisions arrived one after another, all destined to strangle the Caribbean nation with an unprecedented strengthening of the longest economic, financial and commercial blockade in history with the objective of overthrowing the Cuban Revolution or, that is, regime change.

He attacked remittances (they were suspended from January 31, 2025); he increased the persecution of Cuba’s international cooperation in the area of ​​health through pressure campaigns that made some countries give in, which abandoned that humanitarian program.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has also intensified its pursuit of the island’s financial operations; it ended the humanitarian parole program; it suspended visas for cultural, sports, and scientific exchanges; and in an unprecedented move after 23 years of suspension, Trump activated Title III of the Helms-Burton Act.

On January 29, a year after his return to power, he signed an executive order declaring a national emergency regarding Cuba under the false argument that it constitutes an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.

As a result, an energy blockade was imposed on the island, and punitive tariffs and secondary sanctions were threatened against any country, company, or shipping company that attempted to sell oil to Cuba, which constitutes a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of third-party states.

On May 1, Trump published a decree that expands his government’s unilateral coercive actions against Cuba, which are an extension of those announced in January, although he did not mention any specific entity or person at that time, but yesterday the Secretary of State revealed the Cuban entities and people included in this registry of penalties that demonstrates its extraterritoriality.

A recent vote (51-47) in the United States Senate rejected a Democratic initiative on war powers to limit possible military operations that Trump could order against Cuba without the authorization of Congress.

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Santiago, Chile, May 7 (Prensa Latina) Juan Andrés Lagos, a member of the Political Commission of the Communist Party of Chile (PCCh), warned that a military aggression by the United States against Cuba would mean a declaration of war against all the peoples of the continent.

By Carmen Esquivel

In an interview with Prensa Latina, Lagos referred to the recent statements by US President Donald Trump, who threatened to take over the island and announced the deployment of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln to its shores.

“I believe the Cuban people will resist on all fronts and to the bitter end,” the political leader said. Lagos considered it important for the UN to play a more prominent role in prevention and for organizations like the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) to join forces in that direction. He recalled that governments like those of Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia have already warned about the consequences of aggression, and Chile should also speak out because a military intervention would set a precedent that will affect us all in the future.

“Defending Cuba is defending the entire continent,” he stated.

Elsewhere in his interview, the CCP leader also addressed the new executive order signed by Trump, which includes more coercive measures, even of an extraterritorial nature, because they affect not only the country, but also companies that do business with Cuba.

I think this is a crime against humanity, an attempt at extermination, and it is important to characterize it as such because of the direct impacts on the survival of a people, he denounced.

He explained that there are many elements that demonstrate this, citing among them the impact on health, food, transportation, and energy.

For the writer and political analyst, the role of solidarity, including that of the American people, is very important to stop this escalation and maintain the region as a Zone of Peace.

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Rome, May 7 (Prensa Latina) Italian political, trade union and student organizations marched today in Rome against the visit of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and to condemn the blockade and threats of aggression by the United States against Cuba.

Thousands of protesters marched through the streets of Rome on Thursday morning with Cuban flags and flags of the various groups participating in this mobilization, including the Communist Network party, the Base Trade Union (USB) and the youth entities Cambiare Rotta and Alternative Student Opposition (OSA).

During the march, those attending this solidarity demonstration expressed on their banners “Rubio out of Rome!” and pointed out that “Cuba is not alone!”, slogans reaffirmed by various speakers, who rejected the criminal US policy against the island, and the visit to this country by one of its main promoters.

“The presence of the head of US diplomacy in Rome represents a serious political signal, because it legitimizes an international stance of interference, sanctions and pressure on entire populations,” declared economist Luciano Vasapollo, leader of the Network of Communists.

The call for this demonstration states that “Rubio is one of the main figures of the American ruling class, which, in a context of crisis of hegemony both internationally and internally, is exhibiting its most brutal violence, its warmongering tendencies and its reactionary sentiments.”

The document also refers to US support for Israel in its genocidal attacks against the Palestinian people, as well as the aggression against Iran and Lebanon, with a belligerent escalation in the Middle East, and the new Monroe Doctrine in Latin America, with the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

In particular, reference is made to the recent measures to strangle Cuba, and it is noted that “in recent years the United States and its ruling class have proven to be, more than ever, a danger to the peoples of the world, who have decided to raise their voices after decades of exploitation, colonialism and oppression.”

“We have always supported Cuba, its government and its revolutionary process,” the organizers stated in their call for this mobilization, a position that was reaffirmed with the march held during this day, which was accompanied by statements and various demonstrations in this city and throughout Italy.

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May 1, 2026 — Belly of the Beast

Polls show most people in the United States oppose economic war on Cuba, yet one administration after the next — Republicans and Democrats alike — has advanced a Cold War-era approach dictated by Cuban-American hardliners from South Florida.

Increasingly, as Trump has ramped up U.S. sanctions, people in the U.S. are raising their voices to denounce a policy that amounts to collective punishment.

Renée is one of them. As a surgeon from Philadelphia, Renée recently visited Cuba, where she witnessed firsthand a healthcare system under severe strain: shortages of medicine and basic supplies, limited resources and constant blackouts that disrupt patient care.

According to Renée these restrictions are making medical treatment increasingly difficult.

“If it’s true that it is the Cuban government that is causing the problems, then lift the blockade, let the oil in, and let’s see what happens,” says Renée.

Check out our interview with Renee in Episode 1 of our series U.S. Voices Against the Blockade.

May 1, 2026 — Belly of the Beast

Thousands of Cubans marched this Friday to the José Martí Anti-Imperialist Tribune in Havana, in front of the U.S. embassy, as well as to squares and parks across the country, to celebrate International Workers’ Day.

“Cuba defends itself” was the slogan of the marches, as people took to the streets to reject U.S. economic warfare and military aggression.

“Cuban people always amaze you,” said Josué Benavides, a solar energy researcher, while he marched. “The country is still functioning. The country has not collapsed. That’s an idea, a rationale, a narrative they’re pushing. They’re trying to make it collapse, but it hasn’t.”

Watch a video of the march HERE.