April 24, 2026 — Belly of the Beast
Cuba’s devastating economic crisis has dominated headlines in recent months — but much of the coverage leaves out crucial context.
Corporate media outlets often fail to look beyond the recent U.S. oil blockade while Cuba’s economic collapse is attributed to Communism or economic mismanagement. Sanctions get only passing mention or are airbrushed out completely. For example, an op-ed by U.S.-based Cuban economist Ricardo Torres published Thursday in Time, doesn’t mention the embargo, sanctions or the blockade even once.
A close look at when Cuba’s economy began to decline reveals a different story.
In an interview with Belly of the Beast journalist Liz Oliva Fernández, British economist Emily Morris explains how the precipitous economic downturn maps directly onto the ramping up of the U.S. government’s economic war on the island that began during Donald Trump’s first term.
“This current crisis definitely started in 2019,” said Morris.
As we documented in 2020 in our award-winning series The War on Cuba, Trump imposed a wave of “maximum pressure” measures targeting Cuba’s access to foreign currency.
“There wasn’t enough fuel,” said Morris. “And the economy started to go down.”
