Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel meets with US congresspersons. Photo: X.
Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel received Pramila Jayapal and Jonathan L. Jackson, representatives of the US Democrat Party and members of US Congress who have expressed their solidarity with Cuba. In the meeting, the Cuban president condemned the tightening US blockade of Cuba.
In public statement, Cuba’s president repudiated the “criminal damage” of the economic blockade, particularly the consequences of the “energy siege” decreed by the Trump regime.
On Monday, these US congresspersons called for the immediate end of the fuel blockade imposed on Cuba: “The illegal fuel blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba—located just 90 miles south of the United States—adds to the longest-running embargo in world history and is causing incalculable suffering to the Cuban people,” they stated in a joint declaration published on Jayapal’s official page.
In the letter, they warned that the US blockade of Cuba constitutes “a cruel collective punishment” that has caused “permanent damage.”
The US threat against Cuba
On January 29, Trump signed an executive order declaring a “national emergency” over the alleged “unusual and extraordinary threat” that, according to Washington, Cuba represents to US national security and the region.
The document accused the Cuban government of aligning with “numerous hostile countries,” harboring “transnational terrorist groups,” and allowing the deployment of “sophisticated military and intelligence capabilities” from Russia and China.
On that basis, the imposition of tariffs on countries that sell oil to the Caribbean nation was announced, along with threats of reprisals against those who act against the White House executive order.
This step comes amid an escalation between Washington and Havana, which has consistently rejected the outlandish US allegations and warned that it will defend its territorial integrity. The Cuban president responded that “this new measure reveals the fascist, criminal, and genocidal nature of a clique that has hijacked the interests of the US people for purely personal ends.”
On March 7, Trump announced that “a big change will soon come to Cuba,” which—he added—is “reaching the end of the road.”
The United States has maintained an illegal economic and commercial blockade against Cuba for more than six decades despite the UN General Assembly passing 33 resolutions condemning it. The embargo, which severely affects the country’s economy, has now been reinforced with numerous coercive and unilateral measures by the White House.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
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Cameron Baillie is an award-winning journalist, editor, and researcher. He won and was shortlisted for awards across Britain and Ireland. He is Editor-in-Chief of New Sociological Perspectives graduate journal and Commissioning Editor at The Student Intifada newsletter. He spent the first half of 2025 living, working, and writing in Ecuador. He does news translation and proofreading work with The Orinoco Tribune.
