Cuba has shown concrete solidarity with the Palestinian people for decades by offering scholarships to young Palestinians to study medicine on the island. Two years since October 7, one of them, Jenen, a student from Gaza, shares her story.
Also:
- Finca del Medio: How one Cuban farm rebuilt its future
- SCOTUS to hear Title III lawsuits
- U.S. pressure bars Cuba from continental summit
- Rubio’s State Department accuses Cuba of human trafficking
- Cuban health authorities kept out of PAHO meetings
- Spain and Cuba renegotiate debt
A Palestinian Student in Cuba Shares Her Story
Jenen Hani Alean Alzwaraa is a Palestinian medical student from Gaza, currently studying in Cuba on a full-ride scholarship covered by the Cuban government.
She has been unable to return home for two years – trapped in exile as Israel carries out genocide in Gaza.
Jenen has lived through three wars in Gaza. She has lost family, friends and her home. She now suffers from depression and insomnia, while trying to focus on her medical studies.
Watch Jenen’s story.
Also, if you haven’t seen it yet, check out our documentary From Gaza To Cuba.
Finca del Medio: A Cuban Farm Rebuilds Its Future
The soil was degraded. The house was crumbling. There was no electricity. But one Cuban family chose to start over anyway – transforming its farm into a model of agroecology, renewable energy and resilience.
From the 1990s “Special Period” to today’s sanctions-induced shortages, Finca del Medio shows how families can create a sustainable way of life in Cuba’s countryside.
This is the final video of our short series on Cuban agroecology.
The full documentary, Our Agroecology, Our Future, which we produced in collaboration with the Caribbean Agroecology Institute, premiered today. Watch it HERE.
SCOTUS to Hear Title III Lawsuits
The U.S. Supreme Court will soon rule on two lawsuits related to nationalizations that took place in Cuba 65 years ago.
The lawsuits were filed under Title III of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, which allows U.S. claimants to sue companies that benefit from doing business on properties that were expropriated during the Cuban revolution. Title III was suspended by every U.S. president until 2019, when Trump activated the provision, opening the floodgates to dozens of suits.
Last week, the Court took up an Exxon-Mobile lawsuit against three Cuban state-run companies. The justices will consider whether the companies are liable under U.S. law or are exempt due to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), under which the case was dismissed in lower courts.
A second case to be heard by the Court features the descendants of Sosthenes Behn, a telecoms tycoon who once held a lease over three docks in Havana. Behn was also the first "representative of American finance" to meet with Adolf Hitler according to the New York Times and through investments in communications and armaments in Germany helped "build up the Nazi war machine."
Read more about the sordid history behind this case in our investigative article Billboards and Backchannels.
Behn's descendants are suing four U.S. cruise ship companies for using the Havana docks between 2015 and 2019, during Barack Obama’s historic detente — before Donald Trump prohibited cruise ships from visiting the island. In 2023, a federal judge in Miami found the cruise liners liable for over $440 million. But the 11th Circuit of Appeals overturned the decision last year based on the fact that the Behn family’s lease would have expired 11 years before the cruise ships began arriving in Havana.
A third set of Title III plaintiffs are waiting for the Court to determine whether it will hear their case.
Many of the Title III lawsuits have been dismissed in federal district courts, but some of these decisions have been appealed and the plaintiffs still could see a payday.
The plaintiffs in both cases before the Supreme Court have received the backing of the Trump administration, which has told the Court that the Title III lawsuits advance "foreign-policy objectives involving Cuba."
The cruise ship case has also received the support of prominent Florida politicians. Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL), Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL), Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-FL), Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) urged the Court to reverse the 11th circuit ruling on the grounds that it “undermines our nation’s foreign policy on Cuba.”
Three of the four cruise ship companies being sued are headquartered in Miami.
Trump has had close ties with the cruise ship industry – in 2018 and 2019, Carnival Corporation paid over a million dollars to lobbyists with close ties to Trump, including top Trump fundraiser Brian Ballard, former Attorney General Pam Bondi, who defended Trump during his impeachment trial, and Bondi’s sister-in-law, Tandy Bondi.
But these interests have been eclipsed by Florida’s pro-sanctions bloc.
A Supreme Court decision in favor of the plaintiffs could potentially set legal precedents that strengthen other Title III cases and lead to more lawsuits.
It could also strike another blow to Cuba’s economy, which is already reeling from an unprecedented raft of sanctions imposed since the first Trump administration. The implementation of Title III in 2019 was a major blow as investors fled from the island for fear of being sued in a U.S. court.
Cuba could become even less appealing to investors if companies face the prospect not only of being dragged into court but of losing hundreds of millions of dollars.
Cuba Banned from Summit Due to U.S. Pressure
The Dominican Republic announced (in Spanish) last week that Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua would not be invited to the Summit of the Americas in December, which it is hosting, due to the “current context of political polarization.”
Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs blamed the decision (in Spanish) on the “brutal and unilateral pressure” from Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Since becoming the U.S.’s top diplomat, Rubio has ramped up pressure on Cuba, targeting its medical cooperation programs and other sources of foreign currency. In February, he labeled Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua “enemies of humanity.”
The Summit of the Americas has been held every three years since 1994 by the Organization of American States. Cuba was expelled from the OAS in 1962, while Venezuela and Nicaragua withdrew from the organization in 2019 and 2021, respectively. All three have participated in the summit in the past.
The Biden administration also refused to invite Cuba to the 2022 Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, triggering a boycott from several Latin American leaders, including the presidents of Mexico, Bolivia and Peru.
“It’s difficult to imagine that this year’s exclusion of Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Cuba from the Summit will provoke the kind of protest seen in 2022," Francesca Emanuele, an expert on the OAS at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, told Lee Schlenker in an article in Responsible Statecraft. “The Trump administration’s economic threats and coercive measures have spread fear throughout the region.”
U.S. Diplomats to Lobby at UN for Sanctions on Cuba
Cuba has introduced a resolution every year for the last three decades at the United Nations General Assembly calling on the world to condemn the U.S. embargo against Cuba.
The result has been almost exactly the same every time: nearly every country in the world has condemned the embargo. The two countries that have consistently voted against the resolution have been the United States and Israel.
But the Trump administration wants a different outcome this time round.
An internal State Department cable seen by Reuters is directing U.S. diplomats worldwide to lobby against the resolution by pointing to Cuba’s supposed support of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Diplomats will tell countries that there are 5,000 Cuban troops in Ukraine. The number stems from Ukrainian intelligence reports, and has not been verified.
There are many reports of Cubans fighting in the war, with several losing their lives. According to some of these Cubans (in Spanish), they have been manipulated into entering the war, following the promise of jobs and passports in Russia.
But there is no credible evidence that the recruitment is taking place with the collaboration or support of the Cuban government. Cuba has denied (in Spanish) any involvement and prosecuted individuals on the island involved in such cases.
Join us in Cuba This November or December
Join our journalists and filmmakers this November or December for an immersive trip through Havana and beyond. Meet the people behind our stories, visit community projects and see Cuba from the inside.
Your trip will support our work and give you a once-in-a-lifetime perspective on Cuba.
Reservation deadlines are approaching: October 20 (November trip) and November 15 (December trip).
LEARN MORE
In Other News
Rubio’s State Department accuses Cuba of human trafficking. The U.S. Department of State published its 2025 Trafficking in Persons Report last week, categorizing Cuba as a tier 3 country, meaning it does not “comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so.” The Cuba report mainly focuses on Cuba’s medical cooperation missions worldwide, which the U.S. deems “forced labor.” Cuban doctors and other health professionals volunteer to serve abroad, and many are eager to go since they are paid many times more than the small salary they receive on the island. Tens of thousands of Cuban medical personnel continue to provide care to underserved communities in dozens of countries.
Cuban Health authorities barred from PAHO meetings. Cuba’s Vice Minister of Health Tania Cruz was unable to attend the Directing Council of the Pan American Health Organization in Washington last week. Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced (in Spanish) that the U.S. refused Cruz a transit permit to the U.S. capital from New York, where she was attending the UN General Assembly as a part of the Cuban delegation. According to the statement, she was not the only Cuban diplomat shut out of the PAHO meeting — another was denied a U.S. visa.
Spain and Cuba negotiate debt. The Spanish Council of Ministers approved a schedule for the bilateral restructuring of Cuba’s debt with Spain last week. The original agreement was signed in 2016 and was updated earlier this year, focusing on sectors like energy, water and food, according to OnCuba (in Spanish). Cuba’s debt to Spain is estimated at over $2 billion.
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