By Mafa Kwanisai Mafa

On January 29, the U.S. government moved to tighten its economic siege against Cuba by threatening punitive tariffs on any country that sends fuel to Havana.

According to Cuba’s Foreign Minister, this measure is not just an attack on one nation; it sets a dangerous precedent that every country should fear.

By arrogating to itself the right to dictate who may trade with whom, the United States claims an extraterritorial power that reaches far beyond Cuba.

If Washington can punish Mexico or Venezuela for providing fuel to the island, what is to stop it from later imposing tariffs on any nation that trades automobiles, soybeans, graphite, or any other goods that compete with U.S. exports? The logic of empire always expands.

This is not speculation: the measure is built on the pretext of a so-called “national security threat”, a tired excuse used for decades to justify economic warfare against sovereign nations.

But let’s state clearly what this really is: a blockade designed to starve a people, to break their spirit, and to bend their government to Washington’s will.

If this sounds familiar, it is because it is the continuation of a 60-plus–year policy that has made Cuba the longest-sanctioned nation in modern history. Yet despite this madness, Cuba’s spirit, its achievements, and its international solidarity refuse to be erased.

Across the island, ordinary Cubans are living this reality. Fuel imports have been almost entirely cut off under U.S. pressure. Garbage trucks sit idle in Havana as piles of trash grow on the streets, a symbol of how sanctions bite deep into everyday life.

Only 44 of 106 trucks can run due to fuel shortages, sparking mounting health concerns in once-vibrant, clean neighbourhoods.

But Cubans do not bow easily. When faced with fuel scarcity, entire communities have shifted to electric vehicles and tricycles to keep life moving and working.

Where the rumble of vintage American cars once filled the streets, now the quieter hum of electric transport keeps Havana alive.

This resilience on the ground mirrors a deeper national truth: Cuba’s achievements in health and human development stand in stark contrast to the cruelty of the blockade.

Consider one example: Cuba’s healthcare system. Despite being surrounded by one of the most punitive sanctions regimes in history, Cuba has produced home-grown vaccines, eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis long before most of the rich countries, and delivered effective treatments for chronic illnesses, all while spending a fraction of what wealthy nations spend per citizen.

Cuba’s doctors and scientists have pioneered treatments for diabetic wounds and Alzheimer’s and have vaccinated nearly every child on the island against major diseases — outcomes that many rich countries still struggle to match.

Even when the world faced the worst pandemic of a generation, Cuba answered with its own innovation, developing multiple vaccines and maintaining high vaccination rates among children and adults alike, a triumph set against the backdrop of fuel and resource scarcity caused by the blockade.

But Cuba’s greatness is not limited to its massive strides in public health at home. Long before COVID, Cuba’s internationalism was among the most powerful expressions of solidarity in the world.

TheHenry Reeve Brigade, a Cuban medical contingent created to respond to global disasters and epidemics, has been deployed to dozens of countries, fighting Ebola in West Africa, tending to earthquake victims, and bringing care to communities in crisis.

Under initiatives like Operation Miracle or Misión Milagro, Cuban medical professionals have performed millions of sight-restoring eye surgeries for the poor across Latin America and trained tens of thousands of doctors from low-income backgrounds around the world through the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM).

These are not the actions of a nation that “threatens” anyone’s security. These are the actions of a people committed to human dignity and international solidarity, standing in fierce contrast to a blockade that doubles as economic warfare.

There is a cost to this prolonged punishment, and it is being felt right now across Cuban society. A United Nations human rights expert recently warned that sanctions are starving Cuba of essential medicines, crippling nutrition programs for children, and undermining its education system, hitting the most vulnerable communities hardest.

And yet, the U.S. seeks to escalate this model of pressure by making it a crime for others to help. Herein lies the absurdity and immorality of the current U.S. policy: Washington claims the right to veto sovereign decisions by other nations about their own resources and trade relationships. This is not just interference; it is aggression.

Who watches over the watchdog? Who protects the rights of the small, the vulnerable, the oppressed? If the United States is permitted to dictate that Mexico cannot send fuel to Cuba, what stops the same logic from extending to Brazil’s exports, India’s grain, or China’s high technology? This is not the exercise of national security; it is the exercise of imperial entitlement.

The people of Cuba have endured more than half a century of embargo, isolation, and economic strangulation. They have endured hardship, but they have also produced a society that prioritises collective well-being, mutual aid, and global solidarity. That alone should give pause to any morally conscious observer.

It is time for the world to say clearly: An embargo that starves a people cannot be justified; a blockade that makes aid a crime must be condemned. Cuba does not need charity; it needs justice. Freedom for Cuba means freedom from sanctions that cause suffering and undermine human rights.

Let the nations of the world decide for themselves who they trade with and how they help their neighbours. Let no empire decide who may assist the sick, the hungry, the vulnerable, or the oppressed. And let history judge not by the strength of empires, but by the solidarity of peoples.