Harare, Oct. 2 (Prensa Latina) Zimbabwe’s Minister of Youth Empowerment, Development, and Vocational Training, Tinoda Machakaire, and Cuban Ambassador Susellys Pérez Mesa today reaffirmed their mutual desire to strengthen ties in the areas of youth care.
Upon receiving the head of mission from the Caribbean island, Machakaire praised the excellent bilateral relations and discussed the possibilities of consolidating collaboration with the Union of Young Communists of Cuba.
The Ambassador outlined the events that will take place in the Caribbean nation next October and December and provided an update on the impact of the US blockade imposed on the Caribbean nation more than 60 years ago.
In this regard, he highlighted the consequences of the hostile policy on youth and acknowledged Zimbabwe’s traditional support against the blockade, including the recent denunciation by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Amon Murwira, at the high-level segment of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
The minister, meanwhile, explained the priorities of the work for this sector, which encompasses some 5.4 million young people between the ages of 15 and 35 in this African nation.
Machakaire and Pérez Mesa recognized the importance of working with new generations as a guarantee for the future of their respective countries.
Political activist Assata Shakur passed away in Havana on September 25.
Assata was a member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army. In 1977 she was convicted by an all-white jury for the murder of a state trooper in New Jersey.
She consistently maintained her innocence and said she was the target of politically motivated persecution. She escaped prison in 1979 and was eventually granted political asylum in Cuba, where she lived until her death.
Her asylum in Cuba – and that of other U.S. political exiles – has been repeatedly used by the U.S. government as a pretext for keeping Cuba on its “State Sponsors of Terrorism” list. Assata had been labeled a “terrorist” by the F.B.I. though she was never accused of any actual act of terrorism.
Her life and writings inspired generations of anti-racist activists around the world.
“Assata was my guide, my support and my engine,” said Cuban professor Norma Guillard, an LGBTQ+ and anti-racist activist. “She was an example of a fighter who was willing to sacrifice everything – even her family – for an ideal. She was a true defender of human rights worldwide.”
Cuban writer and researcher Zuleica Romay: “Assata, thank you for helping me climb my mountain, proud and unafraid.”
“Assata Shakur was a friend, a critic of my work, and an inspiration,” said Gloria Rolando, a Cuban filmmaker who directed the 1997 documentary film Assata Shakur: Eyes of the Rainbow. “The true film about Assata Shakur still remains to be made. I had the opportunity and the privilege only to approach her, but I think there is much more to be told.”
Check out these clips from the documentary in which Assata talks about her journey, her connection to her ancestors and her vision on liberation.
Also, if you want to know more about Assata’s life and legacy, listen to the podcast Assata’s Chant and Other Histories, by Weyland Mckenzie, on which we collaborated.
Just outside Havana, Finca Marta is pioneering agroecology by blending traditional knowledge with innovation.
Watch our video about the farm, which produces organic food, restores ecosystems and builds community resilience.
This is the second video in our four-part series on Cuban agroecology. On October 8, check out the YouTube premiere of Our Agroecology, Our Future, a documentary we produced in collaboration with the Caribbean Agroecology Institute.
Cuba has released its annual report on the impact of U.S. sanctions on the island’s economy. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the damages amount to $7.5 billion, the single biggest loss in a year since Cuba began issuing these reports.
Last week, Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez presented the government’s annual report on the impact of U.S. sanctions, which estimated losses to Cuba from March 2024 to February 2025 at $7.5 billion.
The report accuses the U.S. government of “surgically and systematically” targeting the main sources of revenue for the Cuban economy.
The impact of sanctions during this period was nearly 50% more than that of the previous year.
The report lists the following examples of how U.S. policy has damaged Cuba’s economy:
Cuba’s inclusion on the U.S. government’s “State Sponsors of Terrorism” list
Helms-Burton Title III lawsuits in U.S. courts against companies investing in Cuba
Sanctions and threats against companies supplying fuel
Sanctions that block financial transactions
The U.S. government’s campaign targeting Cuba’s international medical cooperation
U.S. efforts to stop tourists from visiting the island
The report will be attached to a resolution presented to the United Nations next month calling on the world to condemn U.S. sanctions. For the last three decades, Cuba has presented the resolution at the UN with almost identical results each year: nearly every country in the world calls for the U.S. to end its embargo on Cuba…except the U.S. and Israel.
Beijing, Sep 26 (Prensa Latina) China and Cuba celebrated the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations here today, with messages of commitment to strengthening friendship and cooperation in all areas.
The Chinese government’s special representative for Latin American affairs, Qiu Xiaoqi, congratulated the anniversary and recalled that the island was the first country in the Western Hemisphere to recognize the new China in 1960.
He noted that for six and a half decades, the two countries have maintained strong relations, supported each other on issues of common interest, and consolidated a relationship of friends, comrades, and brothers.
He noted that under the leadership of Presidents Xi Jinping and Miguel Díaz-Canel, relations have reached new consensus, including the commitment to building a community of shared destiny.
The official also indicated that the recent meeting between the two leaders in Beijing provided new directions for expanding bilateral cooperation and enhancing coordination in international forums.
For his part, the Cuban ambassador to China, Alberto Blanco, expressed that the friendship between the two countries has stood the test of time, geographical distance, and several generations, consolidating itself through mutual political trust.
He emphasized that the top leaders of both nations have given personal priority to ties, which has allowed for strategic consensus to be reached to strengthen ties in all spheres.
Blanco noted that Cuba supports the global initiatives proposed by Xi Jinping, such as the Global Governance Initiative, and reiterated its defense of multilateralism and the principles of the UN Charter.
The diplomat affirmed that peace is not promoted through hegemony or tariff wars, and denounced double standards, the application of unilateral coercive measures, and genocide against the Palestinian people.
He also reaffirmed Havana’s support for Venezuela and President Nicolás Maduro in the face of the US onslaught under false pretexts.
On several occasions, Beijing reiterated its support for the island in the fight against the US blockade and demanded its removal from Washington’s unilateral list of state sponsors of terrorism.
A special edition of Lookwe magazine dedicated to the 65th anniversary of diplomatic relations was also launched during the evening. Friends of solidarity groups, artists, businesspeople, academics, and representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited to China participated in this event.
On September 2, 1960, in front of more than a million Cubans, the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, called for a break with the Taiwanese government and the establishment of diplomatic ties with Mao Zedong’s People’s Republic of China.
On September 28 of that year, Cuba became the first country in Latin America and the Caribbean to establish these ties with the new China, paving the way for relations between the Asian giant and the rest of the nations in the region.
Havana, Sep 23 (Prensa Latina) Cuba and Brazil will begin a high-level forum today in Havana focused on the exchange of public policies, programs, and strategies on social protection, food sovereignty, and nutritional security.
This meeting will continue until tomorrow with the aim of establishing a strategic space for building synergies and a concrete agenda for South-South cooperation.
According to the event program, the Brazilian Minister of Agrarian Development and Family Farming, Paulo Teixeira; the Minister of Development and Social Assistance, Family and the Fight Against Hunger, Wellington Dias; and the director of the Brazilian Cooperation Agency and representative of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ruy Carlos Pereira, among other high-ranking representatives from both countries, will participate.
As part of the meeting, roundtables will be held to analyze policies, programs, and the management of national social protection systems, sovereignty, and food and nutrition security.
Likewise, efforts will be made to strengthen agri-food systems, with an emphasis on family farming and sustainable consumption.
The High-Level Meeting on Social Protection Policies, Food Sovereignty, and Food and Nutrition Security reinforces the priority that the Cuban State and Government give to the management of financial, technological, and material resources through international projects, with the aim of strengthening national productive capacities and reducing dependence on imports.
Harare, Sep 22 (Prensa Latina) The U.S. blockade against Cuba is the most comprehensive act of economic warfare ever imposed on a people, denounced today the Coordinator of the Fidel Castro Chair at the Midlands University of Zimbabwe, Mafa Kwanisai Mafa.
This siege is “illegal, immoral, genocidal, and universally condemned,” the researcher stated in a statement that also affirms Cuba’s unwavering resistance in exposing the criminal blockade and building global solidarity.
According to Mafa, for more than six decades, the island’s people have endured one of the most brutal and persistent acts of imperialist aggression in modern history, a hostile policy that has escalated with surgical precision as a weapon to strangle the economy, undermine the Revolution, and cause social collapse.
The recent report (May 2025) on this genocidal practice – he recalled – exposes its devastating impact, while celebrating the global rejection of US coercion.
He also recalled Lester Mallory’s “infamous 1960 memo,” which openly admitted the goal of denying money and supplies to “cause hunger, desperation, and the overthrow of the government.”
This is nothing less than an imperialist siege, an act of collective punishment prohibited by international law, which has cost over $170 billion in cumulative damage by 2025.
According to the coordinator of the Fidel Castro Chair, between March 2024 and February 2025 alone, losses reached $7.5 billion, a 49% increase compared to the previous year.
The blockade, he said, is the most extensive and comprehensive system of unilateral coercive measures ever imposed on any country, prohibiting Cuba’s access to essential medicines, spare parts, financial markets, and even digital platforms.
Mafa exemplified its genocidal nature with the fact that 40 foreign banks refused to process Cuban transactions between 2024 and 2025 for fear of US sanctions, while airlines, shipping companies, and even cultural platforms like Spotify deny access to the Caribbean nation.
According to the professor, this extraterritorial reach violates the sovereignty of third countries. It is not only a crime against Cuba, but also violates the United Nations Charter, undermines the right of peoples to self-determination, and constitutes unilateral coercion on a global scale.
What makes Cuba extraordinary is not only its survival, but also its refusal to surrender its dignity. The call to lift the blockade is not an act of charity, but a call for justice, he concluded.
Caracas, Sep 21 (Prensa Latina) Executive Vice President Delcy Rodríguez today received Roberto Morales, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), and the delegation accompanying him on his official visit to Venezuela.
“We met with the delegation of the Communist Party of Cuba to strengthen our ties of friendship and cooperation in the face of current geopolitical challenges and imperialist aggression against our people,” the vice president wrote on her Telegram account.
Rodríguez stated that both countries “will continue to develop concrete work agendas” between the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and the PCC within the framework of the Cuba-Venezuela Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement “to overcome the criminal economic blockade of which both countries are victims.”
“Firmer than ever in defending the project of Bolívar and Martí, of Chávez and Fidel!” he emphasized.
Morales arrived in Caracas last Wednesday to complete a broad agenda of dialogue with Venezuelan authorities, pay tribute to the Liberator at the National Pantheon, and meet with Venezuelan collaborators who provide services to the Bolivarian Republic.
The Secretary of Organization and his delegation, comprised of leaders of the PCC, the UJC, the Cuban Workers’ Union, among others, were received on Friday by President Nicolás Maduro and other authorities at the Miraflores Palace, the seat of government.
This meeting demonstrated the close ties of friendship and cooperation between Havana and Caracas, which were further strengthened by the work plans between the PSUV and PCC, and the youth of both countries.
Maduro highlighted the Cuban Communist Party’s “brilliant history of articulation” with the progressive forces of Latin America and the Caribbean.
This visit has been “very well received” by the Socialist Party and has called for the development of action plans, with a strong capacity to integrate historical experience into all lines and fronts of work of the Cuban political organization with the PSUV, the Great Patriotic Pole, and the Bolivarian Revolution.
The president called for aligning all training plans with the island’s for Party cadres and Venezuelan youth, and for “the UJC to increasingly unite with socialist youth in all youth leadership exchange plans.”
For his part, Morales reaffirmed Cuba’s willingness to always stand by Venezuela and its people, in this and any other circumstance, and extended warm greetings on behalf of the leader of the Revolution, Raúl Castro, and the president and secretary general of the PCC, Miguel Díaz-Canel.
“As always, count on Cuba, its people, and the Revolution,” he reaffirmed, recalling that José Martí’s trip to this country in 1881, where he paid homage to the Liberator and expressed, “Let Venezuela tell you how we can serve you,” is very much with Cubans.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla presented a report quantifying the economic damage caused by the US blockade against the island.
Which caused more than $7.5 billion in damages between March 2024 and February 2025; it noted that, compared to the previous reporting period, it increased by 49 percent, due to the intensification of measures to stifle the country’s economy.
Eighty percent of the current Cuban population was born after the start of the blockade, but suffers its consequences in all areas of their lives.
“It’s impossible to express in numbers, in figures, the emotional damage, anguish, suffering, and deprivation that the blockade inflicts on Cuban families. This has been the case for several generations; more than 80 percent of Cubans were born after the blockade began,” denounced Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla.
The report precedes the discussion of a draft resolution to be debated at the United Nations (UN) on October 28 and 29, which would consider ending the 65-year-old U.S. blockade of the island.
The Cuban official reported that the accumulated damage caused by the U.S. blockade over more than six decades amounts to $170.677 billion, which “at the gold value, to avoid dollar fluctuations at the Central Bank, is equivalent to $2.103 trillion . “
“What could Cuba have done, beyond the many good things it has done in these 60 years, with that exorbitant figure, for a small economy like ours? (…) It’s an extraordinary figure for any economy in the world, not just for an island and developing one like ours. Had there been no blockade, Cuba’s Gross Domestic Product would have grown 9.2% last year, one of the highest growth rates in the hemisphere,” Rodríguez Parrilla emphasized.
Havana, Sep 19 (Prensa Latina) The first deputy minister of the Cuban Ministry of Public Health, Tania Cruz, today praised the courageous and humanistic work of the Henry Reeve internationalist contingent of doctors specializing in disasters and major epidemics, on its 20th anniversary.
In her keynote address for the anniversary, the official reviewed the work of the brigade. Since its creation, 90 groups with 13,000 professionals have provided services in 55 countries, saved the lives of 166,000 people, and treated more than eight million patients.
He considered the precursor activities of this initiative created in 2005 by then Cuban President Fidel Castro (1926-2016) to be essential for its creation.
In 1960, when an earthquake devastated Chile, 25 Cuban health professionals arrived in that nation. They didn’t carry weapons, but rather stethoscopes and hope, Cruz emphasized.
Between 1960 and 2005, 30 medical brigades were deployed in 19 countries, the director recalled, noting that they faced hurricanes, earthquakes, epidemics, and even the wrath of volcanoes.
He recounted the beginnings of the Contingent, created after a category five hurricane swept through the southern United States, especially the city of New Orleans, which was devastated.
Cuba offered its help and the United States rejected it, but the world never forgot the gesture, he stressed.
Cuban collaborators, he recalled, have since worked in the thick snow of the Himalayas, under the intense sun of the Middle East, in Africa, in America, from the Rio Grande to Patagonia, in the Caribbean, and in old Europe.
Of these brigades, three fought Ebola in West Africa, and 58 confronted the COVID-19 pandemic in 42 countries with more than 3,000 volunteers.
At another point, he highlighted the tributes this contingent has received around the world, especially from international organizations, including the Dr. Lee Jong-wook Memorial Public Health Prize awarded by the World Health Organization and the nomination for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, supported by more than 100 nations and NGOs.
The ceremony, held at the headquarters of the Central Medical Cooperation Unit, was led by Yuniasky Crespo, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and head of the Department of Social Sector Care; Deputy Prime Minister Eduardo Martínez; and Minister of Public Health José Ángel Portal, who presented awards to the various brigades. A plaque commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Henry Reeve contingent was also presented.
The contingent is named after Henry Reeve (1850-1876), an American who joined the island’s independence struggle against Spanish colonialism in the second half of the 19th century. A show of solidarity that is now reciprocated, according to experts.
