August 28, 2025 — Belly of the Beast

Despite the Trump administration’s openly hostile policy toward the island, Cuba has continued to receive monthly deportation flights from the United States in accordance with a bilateral agreement.

“Our collaboration in these operations is not affected by the state of our relations with the U.S.,” said Lourdes Gil Robaina, an immigration official.

According to Gil Robaina, this latest flight was the eighth this year and the 59th since 2017.

Cuba kept accepting the flights even after the Trump administration unilaterally ended bilateral migration talks that were held regularly under Biden. Meanwhile, Cuban officials who have sought dialogue with the Trump administration have reportedly been snubbed.

“Cuba has the will to talk at any moment,” said Alejandro García del Toro, a representative of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “But in the case of this administration, they have decided not to, so far.”

García del Toro said comments made by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chargé d’Affaires Mike Hammer expressing sympathy for the Cuban people were “hypocritical” given the Trump administration’s Cold War-era policy toward Cuba.

“You cannot impose a harsh blockade on a whole population, and at the same time say that you want the best for the Cuban people,” he said.

Havana, Aug. 28 (Prensa Latina) Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez today emphasized Cuba’s strong rejection of the United States military deployment in the Caribbean Sea, a dangerous act that threatens the sovereignty and self-determination of Latin American countries, he asserted.

Through the social network X, the Cuban Foreign Minister stated: The Government of #Cuba strongly rejects the current deployment of #US military forces in the Caribbean Sea. This dangerous act represents a grave threat and an aggressive demonstration of force that threatens the sovereignty and self-determination of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Cuban Foreign Ministry stated in a statement that the concentration of U.S. ships and naval assets near the Venezuelan coast constitutes a direct threat to regional stability, promoted under “absurd pretexts” and in flagrant contradiction with the spirit of peace defended by Latin American and Caribbean countries.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Minrex) recalled that this action violates the collective commitment made by the 33 member states of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) to declare the region a Zone of Peace.

Cuba also categorically rejected the use of irregular migration flows as a justification for the militarization of the Caribbean. In this regard, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs questioned the presence of nuclear submarines, warships, and a disproportionate military deployment in an area with a tradition of pacifism, considering that it does not constitute an adequate or legitimate response to confront challenges such as organized crime, drug trafficking, or migration.

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August 22, 2025 — Belly of the Beast

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has allowed a Cuban-American man who claims to own shares of Havana’s José Martí International Airport to sue American Airlines.

The lawsuit stems from Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, which allows U.S. claimants whose property was nationalized during the Cuban revolution to sue companies that do business involving those properties. The law was passed in 1996, but Title III was consistently suspended by U.S. presidents until Trump activated it in 2019.

Dozens of suits have been filed since. While experts agree that Title III was mainly designed to dissuade European companies from investing in Cuba in the 1990s, former President Obama’s detente with the island and the cascade of U.S. investments that followed made U.S. companies like American Airlines liable.

At the same time, Title III’s activation has soured third-country investors on Cuba, dealing another blow to a country already battered by a raft of U.S. sanctions.

The 11th Circuit’s decision overrules a Florida federal judge who had dismissed the lawsuit.

For more about Title III and the campaign that convinced Trump to activate it, read our article Billboards and Backchannels and watch our video.

United Nations, August 26 (Prensa Latina) Nothing and no one will prevent Cuba from continuing to be “wherever we are asked for help and a human life is in need,” said Ambassador Yuri Gala, reiterating his country’s commitment to solidarity cooperation.

In the face of the United States’ lies, we will continue to provide greater solidarity and cooperation, under the maxim of the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, that being internationalists means settling our own debt to humanity, said Gala, Chargé d’Affaires ai of the Cuban Mission to the UN.

He recalled that since 1963, more than 605,000 Cuban health workers have provided services in 165 countries, and “we have contributed to the training of tens of thousands of doctors from various countries in the South.”

Speaking during the debate on agenda item 127 of the United Nations General Assembly, “Global Health and Foreign Policy,” Ambassador Gala reaffirmed Cuba’s position in defense of health as a human right and not a commodity.

For more than six decades, with great effort, the Cuban government has implemented a universal and free public health system based on prevention, equity, and solidarity, he said.

He noted that this has occurred despite the devastating impact of the economic, commercial, and financial embargo imposed by the United States, whose effects on the health sector are particularly visible and painful.

He denounced “the arbitrary inclusion of our country on the list of states supposedly sponsoring terrorism, and the smear campaigns promoted by the United States against our medical services.”

Such a designation, Gala emphasized, reinforces the criminal siege against Cuba and “affects the health and well-being of millions of people both in our country and in other latitudes.”

The Cuban representative noted that global health cannot be separated from geopolitical tensions, humanitarian emergencies, climate change, or the current unjust, exclusionary, and unequal economic order.

He stressed that international cooperation is essential to contribute to an effective response to global health emergencies and achieve true universal health coverage that benefits all people.

“Selfishness must be banished from international relations, and unilateral coercive measures that negatively impact the enjoyment of the right to health must be eliminated,” he emphasized.

Ambassador Gala stated that countries in the South should not have to choose between paying their crippling external debt or financing their national health systems.

“More mutual support is needed to achieve resilient, universal, humane, and sustainable health systems that are not governed by market logic,” he added.

Gala emphasized Cuba’s support for the World Health Organization and rejected the United States’ unjustified attacks against this important organization.

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