United Nations, Dec 17 (Prensa Latina) Cuba reaffirmed its unwavering commitment to defending peace and condemned the threats from the United States government against Venezuela, including the extraordinary military deployment in the Caribbean under the false pretext of the fight against drugs.
During the recent Security Council open debate on “Maintaining international peace and security: leadership for peace,” the Chargé d’Affaires ai of the Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations, Ambassador Yuri Gala, denounced the persistent interference with Venezuelan airspace.
The Cuban diplomat also deplored the psychological warfare and discrediting campaigns against that country, as well as other actions that also constitute flagrant violations of the UN Charter and International Law, such as unilateral coercive measures and economic strangulation.
Expressing solidarity with the people and government of Venezuela on behalf of his country, Gala denounced that, on December 10, US military forces attacked an oil tanker in international waters.
Such an act “represents an act of piracy and maritime terrorism that constitutes a serious violation of international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation,” the ambassador emphasized. He warned that these actions are part of the United States’ escalating efforts to impede Venezuela’s legitimate right to freely use and trade its natural resources with other nations, including hydrocarbon supplies to Cuba.
He added that these actions have a negative impact on Cuba and intensify the United States’ policy of maximum pressure and economic strangulation, with a direct impact on the national energy system and, consequently, on the daily lives of our people.
“This blatant act of applying the Trump corollary to the Monroe Doctrine violates the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace and demands universal condemnation,” Gala emphasized.
He opined that speaking today “of leadership for peace inevitably forces one to think about Palestine and condemned Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people, with the complicity and impunity granted by the United States government.”
He also stressed that the new US National Security Strategy validates the dangerous doctrine of “peace through strength,” reflecting the enormous challenges facing humanity, and in particular, the Latin American and Caribbean region.
The ambassador noted that “there can be no talk of leadership for peace while unilateral coercive measures continue to be applied against sovereign states as weapons of political pressure, as is the case with the intensified economic, commercial and financial blockade of the United States against our country.”
Video of soldiers boarding the tanker from helicopters, posted by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
December 12, 2025 — Belly of the Beast
The Trump administration on Wednesday commandeered a Venezuelan oil tanker reportedly headed to Cuba, escalating its regime change efforts against both Caracas and Havana.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on X that the vessel was captured “off the coast of Venezuela” by the Department of War, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Coast Guard. The operation, she wrote, was aimed to disrupt “an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations.”
Asked what would happen to the oil, Trump said, “We keep it, I guess.”
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro yesterday accused Trump of ushering in a new “era of criminal naval piracy.” Cuba has likewise described the move as “an act of piracy” in breach of international law.
Sanctions at sea: the escalating oil war
The U.S. pressure campaign includes doubling the bounty on Maduro’s head to $50 million, authorizing the CIA to conduct covert operations inside the country, deploying more military assets to the Caribbean than at any time since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and expanding “maximum pressure” sanctions aimed at both Venezuela and Cuba.
The Department of Treasury yesterday hit six crude oil supertankers and the shipping companies linked to them with sanctions. The tankers recently loaded crude oil in Venezuela, according to reports. The Department of Treasury alleges they are “engaged in deceptive and unsafe shipping practices and continue to provide financial resources that fuel Maduro’s corrupt narco-terrorist regime.”
The U.S. has been sanctioning tankers delivering petroleum from Venezuela to Cuba since 2019.
Check out Episode 2 of our award-winning documentary series The War on Cuba, which reports on the impact of the U.S.-imposed “oil blockade.”
An investigation last year by Wired found that in addition to sanctions, the first Trump administration explored clandestinely sabotaging oil deliveries to “strike a blow against both regimes.” To this end, senior officials met with paramilitary experts. One option involved “a mobile system that could covertly (and nonviolently) disable ships.” After CIA pushback, the idea was reportedly shelved.
The seized oil tanker may not have been destined to directly meet Cuba’s energy needs. Politicocited an anonymous White House source who said that the oil was bound for Cuba, where a state-run company called Cubametales was planning to sell it on to energy brokers in Asia.
Still, the seizure is ominous for 10 million Cubans already suffering daily blackouts.
Cuba has relied heavily on Venezuelan oil since the 2000s, though imports have fallen in recent years as both countries have been beset by punishing U.S. sanctions. In 2013, Caracas sent Havana almost 100,000 barrels per day; this year Havana has received a daily average of just under 30,000 barrels per day.
On Friday, the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement denouncing the “economic war” on Cuba and Venezuela: The action will have “a direct impact on the national energy system and, consequently, on the daily lives of the Cuban people.”
U.S. drug crisis has little to do with Venezuela – and nothing to do with Cuba
U.S. officials justify regime change efforts against Venezuela as necessary to protect the U.S. border from drug trafficking. But Venezuela isn’t a major producer of either cocaine or fentanyl, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
As for Cuba, there is no evidence of drugs flowing from the island to the United States.
The U.S. State Department’s 2024 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report states: “Cuba is not a major consumer, producer, or transshipment point for illicit drugs. Cuba’s domestic production and consumption of illicit drugs are low due to strict policing and stiff prison sentences. Nationwide prevention and information campaigns also deter drug use and sale.”
Cuban authorities allege the trafficking problem, in fact, runs in the opposite direction.
“The country that sends the most drugs into our national territory – specifically synthetic cannabinoids – is the United States,” according to Colonel Juan Carlos Poey, head of the Interior Ministry’s anti-drug unit. Cuba does not “produce, store or allow for the transit” of illicit drugs, he told reporters last week.
He added that authorities have intercepted 14 boats carrying drugs this year and detained 39 narco traffickers with no casualties. But he lamented that despite a 2016 counternarcotics agreement between the two countries, Washington’s cooperation on counternarcotics has been “sporadic,” leaving the island vulnerable to traffickers. “Cuba,” he added, “remains open to collaboration with the U.S.”
Fighting “narco-terrorism” Trump-Style: boosting narcos and sowing terror
The Trump administration’s war on “narco-terrorism” goes well beyond hypocrisy. It’s a show of brute force built on fabrications, state violence, and rewards for drug traffickers.
The administration accuses Nicolás Maduro of leading the so-called Cartel de los Soles. But many analysts say the organization “doesn’t exist.”
Meanwhile, the administration has murdered 87 people at sea since September, without providing evidence any were involved in drug trafficking. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly issued a verbal order to “kill everybody,” including shipwrecked survivors – a command legal analysts warn could constitute a war crime.
Most brazenly, President Trump last week pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández – who was sentenced last year in federal court to 45 years in prison for trafficking hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States. Hernandez accepted a $1 million bribe from Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, one of the world’s most notorious drug lords, when he was running for president. As president, he told a major Honduran cocaine trafficker he would “stuff the drugs right up the noses of the gringos,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Havana, Dec 10 (Prensa Latina) If this cinematic December brings anything to Cuba, besides films and flashes, it is the satisfaction and gratitude of those who today dedicate their lives to a magical expression, which makes possible utopias, dreams and other realities.
All of this seasoned with the emotion that tributes always bring, like the one experienced tonight at the Hotel Habana Libre, in this capital, when the Havana International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, in its 46th edition, presented an Honorary Coral to the Mexican actor Gael García Bernal.
Upon receiving it, visibly moved, he recalled his family, the people who accompanied him and those who introduced him to cinema, including his grandmother, his father and his friends.
He also recalled that experience he had in his youth at the International Film and Television School of San Antonio de Los Baños, in Cuba, where he learned a lot and discovered multiple dimensions of the manifestation that embraces him.
He explained that at first, film seemed unattainable to him; however, his participation in Amores perros and Y tu mamá también showed him the path to a universe that captivated him and from which he captivates with great virtuosity.
He said that cinema was the space that allowed him to understand, imagine, provoke, and make family and friends. It became that multiverse, “that life where one lives, and I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to do so.”
He likes to explore and satisfy curiosities, he said, adding that he never starts anything with absolute certainty; “it’s always a discovery, a doubt, it’s putting everything at stake.”
Near the end of his speech, he thanked everyone for the award, the emotion of the moment, and for being there thanks to Latin American cinema, the home where he embarked on his “artistic journey”.
“I want to thank Cuba, which has given me so much, and many of those things I keep in a very deep secret.”
The meeting was conducive to the signing of a collaboration agreement between the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC) and Estudios Churubusco, from Mexico, which is celebrating its 80th anniversary.
The alliance was made possible thanks to the Latin American Film Market (Mecla) Isla Abierta, in its first edition, and whose objective is to restore a space born with the festival and which had been lost.
Havana, Dec 11 (Prensa Latina) Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel reaffirmed his support for the Venezuelan government’s statement denouncing the attack on one of its oil tankers.
“This constitutes an act of piracy, a violation of International Law and an escalation of aggression against that brother country,” the ruler stated on social media.
The Bolivarian nation denounced “the blatant theft and act of international piracy” that constitutes the assault and seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea.
This new and extremely serious step in the escalation of aggression takes place after the announcement of the US National Security Strategy, which seeks to vindicate, 200 years later, the abominable Monroe doctrine.
The Bolivarian statement noted that once again “the true objective of the imperial offensive has been exposed: the obsessive desire to seize its natural resources,” and affirmed that it is “a demonstration of everything the empire is willing to do to impose its agenda and interests against our people.”
HAVANA, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) — Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said Saturday that the pardon granted to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez shows that the anti-drug war declared by the U.S. government “is a farce.”
Hernandez, who had been sentenced in the United States to 45 years in prison for drug trafficking and other charges, was released Monday after receiving an official pardon from the Trump administration.
According to Rodriguez, the so-called anti-drug war is an excuse to justify Washington’s “costly extraordinary naval deployment in the Caribbean Sea and the threat of military aggression to overthrow the legitimate government of Venezuela.”
In a post on X, he said that the pardon exposes “the complicity of the U.S. government and its agencies with a vast drug market that claims the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in its own country.”
The denunciation comes as the United States increases its military presence in the Caribbean Sea. As of Thursday, the Pentagon has carried out at least 22 known strikes on alleged drug vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean since Sept. 2, killing more than 87 people aboard. ■
Washington, Dec 6 (Prensa Latina) While the Donald Trump administration intensifies its offensive against Venezuela and threatens a dangerous military incursion into that country, voices are rising today in more than 65 cities across the United States to stop a new war.
The nation’s capital; New York; Chicago, Illinois; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Anchorage, Alaska; Athens and Atlanta, Georgia; Austin, Texas; Bangor, Maine; Baltimore, Maryland; Bend, Oregon; Boise, Idaho; Boston, Massachusetts, have been the scene, among other cities, of this Day of Action in rejection of these winds of war.
In New York City, participants gathered in the central Times Square on Saturday afternoon and marched with Venezuelan flags and yellow banners that read ‘United States out of the Caribbean’, ‘Don’t bleed for oil’, and ‘The people demand, out with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)’
“No to war against Venezuela!” is the slogan of the peaceful demonstrations. Social media posts show messages such as: “We refuse to believe the lies the Trump administration is using to threaten war against Venezuela.”
This is not about democracy or drugs – stressed a text from the pacifist coalition ANSWER – just as it was not about “weapons of mass destruction” (the pretext in 2003 for the US invasion of Iraq), the same lie used to justify decades of wars in the Middle East.
“This is about oil, regime change, and US corporate interests. Public funds should be used to meet people’s needs, not to further enrich oil executives!” ANSWER emphasized on social media.
The People’s Forum also shared details of the demonstration in New York City, where “people have gathered in the streets to make it clear: We can stop this war before it even starts!”
Trump wants to attack Venezuela and push the United States into a catastrophic war, bypassing Congress, violating international law, and inventing pretexts for a military invasion of Venezuela, he said.
He added that 70 percent of Americans oppose the war in the South American nation.
When addressing members of the U.S. armed forces on Thanksgiving Day, November 27, Trump threatened “very soon” about the start of ground operations inside Venezuela to eliminate suspected drug traffickers.
An editorial this week in the Los Angeles newspaper La Opinión urged the Trump administration not to embark on a military adventure with an unpredictable outcome.
The newspaper recalled, in the current climate of tensions, the indiscriminate bombing of more than twenty boats allegedly crewed by drug traffickers and the enormous military deployment of the Pentagon in areas of the Caribbean.
The United States must “consolidate a real strategy to fight drug trafficking instead of using it as an excuse against leaders that Trump doesn’t like,” the newspaper warned.
Havana, Dec 6 (Prensa Latina) The Commission on International Relations of the Cuban National Assembly called on the peoples of Latin America, the Caribbean and the United States to defend the region today as a Zone of Peace in the face of growing US militarization in the area.
Through a statement, released yesterday, the Cuban legislators endorsed the denunciation of the president of the Latin American and Caribbean Parliament (Parlatino) on the disproportionate deployment of US naval and air forces in the Caribbean, which includes a nuclear submarine and thousands of military personnel.
The commission noted that dozens of people have already died in attacks by US forces against civilian vessels, which it described as extrajudicial executions and flagrant violations of international law.
They warned that, under pretext of combating drug trafficking, the current administration of the White House seeks to “bring about the overthrow of the constitutional government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela” and appropriate its natural resources.
They also condemned Washington’s recent decision to arbitrarily close Venezuelan airspace, which they described as a “very serious threat” and an act of “psychological war”, in line with the condemnation expressed days ago by Foreign Ministerr Bruno Rodriguez.
Cuban parliamentarians denounced that the recent militarization in the Caribbean responds to the “philosophy of imperial domination” based on the Monroe Doctrine and constitutes a “gross interference” in sovereign affairs of the region.
The Cuban representative emphasized that the unilateral coercive measures, presented by the United States as supposed tools of “diplomatic pressure,” are in reality illegal mechanisms, contrary to international law and the Charter of the United Nations. Photo: UN.
Cuba reiterated its solidarity with all the peoples who are victims of these policies and demanded their immediate, total and unconditional lifting.
December 4, 2025 — teleSUR
This Thursday, December 4, on the occasion of the first celebration of the International Day against Unilateral Coercive Measures, promoted by the United Nations (UN) to raise global awareness of their negative impacts, the representative of Cuba issued one of the most forceful interventions of the day, denouncing before the General Assembly that these sanctions imposed without the endorsement of the Security Council constitute “instruments of political punishment that harm entire peoples with the same aggressiveness as any form of direct violence . “
The Cuban representative emphasized that the unilateral coercive measures, presented by the United States as supposed tools of “diplomatic pressure,” are in reality illegal mechanisms , contrary to international law and the Charter of the United Nations. He also noted that these practices currently affect more than 76 developing countries , representing more than a third of the world’s population.
Cuba warned that between March 2024 and February 2025 , the effects of these sanctions caused damages estimated at more than $7.5 billion , resulting in limitations on acquiring food, fuel, medicine, medical supplies, and basic goods for daily life. “The humanitarian impact is real, palpable, and devastating,” the delegation emphasized.
The Cuban intervention was particularly critical of the expansive use of these measures by the United States government. Cuba denounced Washington’s attempt to establish itself as the arbiter of who lives, who produces, who trades, and who develops , imposing economic sanctions without legal justification and without being accountable to any multilateral organization.
“The world cannot accept ,” the Cuban delegation said, “ that a single state, however powerful, should place itself above international law . No country has the authority to punish the rest of the planet. We do not accept this claim to power.”
The Cuban delegation endorsed the appointment of the Special Advisor on Unilateral Coercive Measures , considering this mechanism an essential tool for documenting the humanitarian and legal impact of sanctions. Cuba also reiterated its solidarity with all peoples affected by these policies and demanded their immediate, total, and unconditional lifting .
Cuba concluded its intervention by noting that the General Assembly has a historic responsibility to prevent unilateral sanctions from becoming normalized as a weapon of geopolitical pressure . “To truly fulfill our promise to leave no one behind, we must eliminate these inhumane measures,” it concluded.
Havana, Dec 4 (Prensa Latina) The representative of the World Food Program (WFP), Étienne Labande, stated in Havana that despite the challenges in developing a national food fortification strategy, Cuba’s strength lies in its capacity.
The WFP representative in Cuba opened the sessions of the Innovation for the Sustainability of the Food Industry Symposium (SISIA 2025) with the conference “Innovation and alliances for scaling up sustainable solutions in the Cuban Food Industry: towards a national strategy for food fortification.”
Labande stated in his speech that since the end of 2023 the World Food Programme resumed facilitating and providing technical support to the Cuban Government in order to implement this initiative.
Among its priorities are the acquisition of viable options for mass-consumption foods, strengthening the technological capabilities of national industrial production, and supporting a regulatory framework that provides legal support for national food fortification, among other actions.
Key government sectors such as the Food Industry, Agriculture and Public Health are participating in the project.
Among the expected long-term results are the improvement of the food basket with the incorporation of fortified foods, the progress in the quality of diets and consumption practices of vulnerable groups through the use of fortified foods by social protection institutions.
In an interview with Prensa Latina, Labande emphasized that Cuba has a very strong scientific community, which possesses all the necessary knowledge, and also has an infrastructure that allows for food fortification and also possesses the technology, so it only needs to find a way to ensure that the process is sustainable over time.
Regarding recommendations for the Cuban State to achieve this goal, Labande pointed out the need to recover things that were done before in the Caribbean country, including some foods such as compotes for children, which were once no longer fortified, as well as wheat, which when it is ground to transform it into flour can also undergo the aforementioned process.
Similarly, there are specific nutritional supplement products for population categories such as children and the elderly that can be produced at the national level with those characteristics, added the WFP expert.
The SISIA 2025 symposium is dedicated to the centenary of the birth of the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, to be celebrated in 2026, said the general director of the Institute of Research for the Food Industry (IIIA), engineer Jesús Rodríguez Mendoza, at the opening of the event.
The event, whose motto is “Sustainable Food Innovation”, is organized by the IIIA, a leading institution in innovation and development of the food industry in Cuba.
Among its achievements, the IIIA stands out in the development of foods for older adults and pregnant women, fruit and vegetable juices for children, reduced sugar products, and the provision of technical, teaching, and scientific services.
Havana, Dec 3 (Prensa Latina) Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel advocated today for continuing to strengthen ties of brotherhood and cooperation with Vietnam.
Through the social network X, the president urged the strengthening of bilateral ties, “not only as a benchmark for relations between socialist countries, but as a paradigm that, amidst so many threats to peace, continues to remind the world that only solidarity and cooperation between peoples will allow humanity to overcome the colossal challenges of today and the future.”
“Thank you, Vietnam, for so much solidarity, generosity and for your example!” the head of state emphasized on the platform, where he posted images of the event held for the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations.
During the ceremony, held the day before, Díaz-Canel emphasized that 2025 “will stand out as a fruitful year in economic relations” between the two countries.
“We are fully convinced that Vietnam will achieve new victories. We will work side by side to strengthen our brotherhood,” he emphasized.
The links between Cuba and Vietnam are characterized by a constant and fluid political exchange at the highest level, encompassing their communist parties, national assemblies and other mass organizations and institutions.
This solid foundation has made it possible to articulate a broad cooperation agenda in strategic sectors such as food security, biotechnology, the biopharmaceutical sector, public health, education, science and technology, construction and renewable energies.
