Cuba In Context
@cubaincontext.bsky.social
Providing in-depth analysis of Cuba’s social, political, and economic landscape, highlighting perspectives often absent from mainstream narratives.
"The latest US sanctions make it “impossible, de facto and de jure, to maintain even minimal operational stability”, the Meliá group explained in a statement on Tuesday to the Spanish stock market regulator." www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
Spanish hotel chain ceases operations in Cuba under pressure from Washington
Meliá group says Donald Trump’s sanctions make it ‘impossible’ to keep any of its 34 sites open
theguardian.com
The U.S. has spent months pressuring developing countries like Venezuela to end their Cuban doctor programs, despite knowing many lack enough physicians to replace them. Then an earthquake strikes, exposing an under-resourced healthcare system made even less prepared for the crisis.
The media shapes public opinion by deciding which perspectives are treated as credible. A FAIR study found that coverage of Cuba centered U.S. officials and anti-government voices while giving far less attention to Cubans who emphasized the role of U.S. sanctions. fair.org/home/whose-v...
Whose Voices Are Centered in Coverage of Cuban Crisis? A FAIR Study
The New York Times, Miami Herald and Associated Press each covered the Cuban crisis extensively, but the coverage varied dramatically across outlets.
fair.org
After failing to block a UN General Assembly debate on the U.S. embargo against Cuba, we're suddenly inundated with headlines portraying Cuba as a "National Security Threat." It's an attempt to bury the fact that the U.S. position on Cuba is overwhelmingly rejected by the international community.
The irony is remarkable. The WSJ invokes the struggle against apartheid to argue for regime change in Cuba, ignoring that the U.S. backed South Africa's apartheid govt while Cuba helped defeat it. Cuba's military intervention in Angola led to Namibia's independence & the collapse of apartheid
Italy refused U.S. pressure to end its Cuban doctor program because it has the economic and political leverage to say no. Many developing countries don't. They're forced to comply, even when it means losing doctors and leaving their own healthcare systems worse off. apnews.com/article/ital...
An Italian region defies US pressure to end a Cuban doctors program
Cuban doctors are working in hospitals in Italy's Calabria region under a long-running program despite U.S. efforts to end it.
apnews.com
The phrase "sanctions" sanitizes what is actually happening. In Cuba, a humanitarian crisis is unfolding. Essential medicines are becoming unavailable, infant health outcomes are worsening, and more families are struggling to secure adequate nutrition.
"Like Haiti having to pay back the “debt” to slaveowners from their lost property values after the revolution, Cuba is expected to pay for treating its assets as belonging to the people as a whole rather than belonging to a small moneyed elite." www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-u.s...
The U.S. Is Terrorizing Cuba to Make Rich Men Richer
There’s barely any pretense that Trump cares about Cuban democracy. This is about privatizing Cuba’s public assets and getting them into the hands of Trump’s cronies.
currentaffairs.org
For decades, the dominant development model imposed on poor countries has been: Open your economy to foreign capital. Sell off public assets. Export raw materials. Compete through cheap labor. Cuba pursued a different path by investing heavily in social development through healthcare & education.
"The human rights office, OHCHR, cited alarming figures: infant mortality has doubled to 9.9 per 1,000 births; childhood cancer survival rates have fallen from 85 to 65 per cent; and essential medicines are available at only around 30 per cent of normal supply levels." news.un.org/en/story/202...
Children are dying as US sanctions push Cuba to the brink, warns UN human rights chief
Children are dying because doctors cannot access essential medicines, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said in a stark warning on Monday, calling for the immediate lifting of United States sanctions ...
news.un.org
"Donald Trump could save Cuba." The headline reflects a familiar media framework: U.S. sanctions on Cuba are presented as a form of liberation, while the human costs of these sanctions are treated as secondary or ignored altogether.
One of the most depraved aspects of U.S. policy towards Cuba is the effort to coerce developing countries into expelling Cuban doctors. Ending these programs not only punishes Cuba, but it also harms some of the world's poorest and most medically underserved people.
"However, its best form of resistance has been not just the assertion of national sovereignty, but the creation of an alternative model of development that places human welfare and environmental concerns at its core." www.redpepper.org.uk/global-polit...
Cuba stands firm - Red Pepper
Cuba continues to show the world an alternative mode of development even in the face of US regime change, argues Helen Yaffe
redpepper.org.uk
The Supreme Court revived a lawsuit claiming cruise lines “trafficked” confiscated Cuban property by docking in Havana. A lower court had thrown the case out because Havana Docks Corp.’s lease expired before the cruises ever operated there. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/21/u...
Supreme Court Permits Lawsuit Over U.S. Assets Seized by Cuba in 1960
nytimes.com
Ray Washburne, a Trump ally with ties to U.S. military and intelligence circles, just bought control of Sherritt, a Canadian company operating in Cuba’s nickel industry. Does this signal that well connected political insiders expect Trump will definitely launch an invasion of Cuba?
"Miami is ground zero for the double standard driving US policy toward Cuba. The Cuban American hard-liners who dominate the city’s politics have long espoused violence, terrorism, and collective punishment against Cuba in the name of “freedom” and “human rights.” jacobin.com/2026/05/cast...
Raúl Castro’s Indictment Is a Pretext for War
Washington has spent decades protecting Cuban exile terrorists while criminalizing Cuba’s response to them. The indictment of Raúl Castro is the latest chapter in that story — and a pretext for someth...
jacobin.com
A story in three parts: 1) Trump's new sanctions push Sherritt to dissolve its Cuba venture. 2) Sherritt suddenly halts plans to leave Cuba. 3) A firm linked to a former Trump adviser buys a controlling stake in Sherritt
This is how the blockade on Cuba works in practice. Not just punishing Cuba directly — but intimidating shipping companies, banks, and foreign businesses into cutting ties with the island out of fear of US sanctions or lawsuits.
Media bias is often less about outright falsehoods and more about framing. Calling Cuba a “regime” instead of a government subtly delegitimizes it, while saying Cuba “rejected humanitarian aid” erases the possibility that the dispute was over the political conditions attached to the aid itself.
64% of Americans oppose a U.S. war with Cuba. Only 15% support it. There’s a massive gap between what the public wants and what the Trump Administration is pursuing in Cuba.
U.S. sanctions on Cuba have material consequences: A report from Center for Economic and Policy Research finds Cuba’s infant mortality rate jumped from 4.0 (2019) to 9.9 (2025)—a 148% increase. If rates held at 2018 levels, ~1,800 fewer babies would have died.
This is The Washington Post using its opinion section to manufacture consent for U.S. intervention in Cuba. When every “opinion” piece points in the same direction, it stops being analysis and starts functioning as propaganda.
Most Global South economies are structurally pushed toward low-wage labor and resource extraction. Cuba took a different path—investing in science, healthcare, and education. The result: a biotech sector competitive with developed countries, built under sanctions.
Cuba gets hit by an external shock → the U.S. escalates pressure: 1990s: Soviet Union collapses → embargo tightened by Clinton 2020s: COVID + Venezuela crisis → sanctions on tourism expand, oil blockade implemented by Trump Different decades, same strategy.
Not talked about enough: many Cuban exiles celebrated as “freedom fighters” came from families that owned enormous wealth in pre-revolution Cuba. Their politics aren’t neutral—they’re about restoring an economic system that served them extremely well, prioritizing capital over social programs.
Cuba built a model of medical internationalism rooted in solidarity, not profit. Now Washington is waging a pressure campaign to shut it down—undermining healthcare systems across the Global South just to tighten the blockade. The human cost is staggering. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
Cuba’s doctors were a lifeline for the world. Now the Caribbean is shamefully complicit in the US drive to expel them | Kenneth Mohammed
For decades, Cuban doctors have served the Caribbean’s most marginalised. Now, as Cuba faces its own crisis, the region looks away, waiting on Trump’s approval
theguardian.com
Reminder: for over 30 years, the United Nations has overwhelmingly voted to end the embargo on Cuba. This isn’t a contested global issue—it’s a uniquely United States policy, maintained despite near-universal international opposition.
For over 60 years, US policy toward Cuba hasn’t been about “freedom”—it’s been about punishment for defiance. Sanctions, isolation, pressure—all to force regime change. The real story is an effort to dictate how developing countries pursue development—so it serves US economic interests.
First bit of good news for Cuba in months: a Russian oil tanker finally reaching the island, offering a temporary lifeline amid blackouts and a deepening fuel crisis. But one shipment doesn’t fix a structural shortage—unless more tankers follow, the situation remains precarious.
