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For more than half a century, Cuba managed to build one of the world’s most admired public health systems despite sustained U.S. economic warfare. Cuban doctors were renowned for delivering universal care with limited resources, and the country’s health indicators — particularly infant mortality — rivaled those of far wealthier nations.
But Cuba’s once vaunted public healthcare is now under strain. A new viewpoint article in the peer-reviewed British Medical Journal Paediatrics Open highlights the deadly consequences of the U.S. government’s economic blockade.
Also this week:
- Cuba Confirms Talks with Trump
- Cuba and U.S. Already Had a Deal — Trump Killed It
- The Roots of Trump’s War on Cuba
- “Nuestra América” Convoy Prepares for Solidarity Trip
- Lula: Cuba Is Going Hungry Because of U.S.
- Jamaica the Latest to Cave in U.S. War on Cuban Doctors
- Ecuador Expels Cuba's Diplomats
- Former CBS Miami Anchor Challenges Hardliner Congresswoman
- Cuba Knocked out of World Baseball Classic
- DOJ Looking to “Pull a Maduro” on Cuban Leaders?
- Rubio’s Photo Op with Convicted Leader of the Proud Boys
- A Cuban American’s Call to Fight Trump’s Cuba Policy
Children Pay the Price of U.S. Sanctions
By Julia Thomas
Milena Rodríguez gave birth to her daughter, Emily, in late February of last year.
Emily was born with a rectal malformation that required urgent surgery. In the past, an operation like this at Havana's William Soler Pediatric Hospital would have been scheduled within days.
But more than two weeks after Emily was admitted to the hospital, she and her mother were still waiting. The hospital’s chief anesthesiologist, Dr. Alioth Fernández, told Belly of the Beast the delay was due to the lack of an anesthetic machine.
An operation date was set after a working machine was sent from another hospital. But it was postponed once again when William Soler's water pump stopped working due to a power outage.
“There are no words for this,” said Rodríguez. “I was desperate for my daughter to have the surgery.”
Not long ago, such a problem was unthinkable at the hospital.
“Before, a child was diagnosed with cancer and within three days they’d be in surgery,” said Fernández. “The health system was designed to respond rapidly.”
In 2019, the William Soler hospital performed 10,000 operations a year, according to Fernández. By 2025, that number was down to just 2,000.
The massive decline in the hospital’s ability to treat children coincides with the U.S. government ramping up of “maximum pressure” sanctions. The connection is hard to miss.
“You can’t say this isn’t caused by the blockade,” said Rodríguez.
In the end, with the water pump working and the replacement anesthetic machine in place, Emily’s surgery went smoothly. Other children in Cuba have not been so lucky.
Sanctions Impact the Most Vulnerable
For decades, Cuba’s infant mortality rates (deaths of children under the age of one) were among the lowest in the world. Since the 1970s, Cuba has achieved lower rates than those in the United States.
But over the past eight years, infant mortality in Cuba has more than doubled: from 4.0 to 9.9 per 1,000 live births.
A viewpoint article in last month's British Medical Journal Paediatrics Open concluded that intensified U.S. sanctions are to blame.
“During warfare, it is unacceptable to target innocent civilians,” write the article's authors. “There are, however, no controls on the impact of sanctions, which directly impact on the most vulnerable.”
According to an October 2025 study in The Lancet Global Health, U.S. sanctions result in the deaths of more than 500,000 children and adults each year globally.
(Check out the investigative documentary we produced for Al Jazeera's People and Power that connects the dots between U.S. sanctions and the deterioration in Cuba's ability to provide healthcare).
Conditions in Cuba’s hospitals have gone downhill at an accelerated pace since the Trump administration imposed an oil blockade on the island in January. Cuba's President Miguel Díaz-Canel said today that Cuba had not received any fuel in three months.
Dr. Niurka Morán Obregón, the head of neonatology at the Ramón González Coro Maternity Hospital, told Belly of the Beast that extraterritorial U.S. sanctions make it difficult, if not impossible, to get new equipment, like incubators and ventilators.
More than 11,000 Cuban children are awaiting surgery, according to Cuba’s Ministry of Health.
“The blockade overwhelms us,” said Dr. Morán Obregón. “Maternal illnesses, pregnancy-related pathologies, and low birth weights have all risen, as have premature births.”
Meanwhile, exacerbated food shortages have also contributed to higher infant mortality rates, in part because many pregnant women aren’t able to access enough food, according to Dr. Imti Choonara, one of the authors of the report and Emeritus Professor in Child Health at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom.
Now, on top of severe shortages of medicine and medical equipment, Cuba’s hospitals are facing a scarcity of fuel. The government has sought to keep the lights on at hospitals, even when entire cities lack electricity. But that safeguard is also faltering.
"It’s not a sick child’s fault if they happen to have been born in a communist country,” said Fernández. “They say these sanctions are against the regime. But the children are the ones who feel them.”
Cuba Confirms Talks with Trump
Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel confirmed today in a televised address that talks are taking place between Cuban and U.S. officials a day after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement saying the Cuban government would soon release 51 prisoners.
The statement said that the prisoner release was "in the spirit of goodwill, close and fluid relations between the Cuban state and the Vatican."
The Vatican has a history of mediating negotiations between the two governments.
The Catholic Church helped facilitate the secret negotiations that led to the historic opening with Cuba under the Obama administration.
Trump later reversed that deal, returning the United States to a Cold War–era policy of hostility.
In the final days of the Biden administration, the Catholic Church again helped broker the release of prisoners in Cuba ahead of Washington’s decision to ease its economic war on the island.
Biden's olive branch was short-lived. Trump reversed the move on his first day back in office.
According to Díaz-Canel, the recent discussions have been led by Raúl Castro and involve international actors as well.
Numerous reports in recent weeks indicated that the two governments were in talks. Trump has said repeatedly that a deal was in the works.
"They want to make a deal, and so I am going to put Marco [Rubio] over there and we’ll see how that works out," Trump told CNN last week.
However, Trump also said his administration’s focus right now is Iran.
If “you do them all too fast, bad things happen,” said Trump. "We’ve got plenty of time."
The Cuban government had previously denied substantive negotiations between the two countries were taking place, though it had recently been silent on the issue.
Díaz-Canel said today an agreement is still distant and that talks were "in the initial stages.”
No Fuel for Three Months
Díaz-Canel also spoke about the electricity crisis directly caused by the Trump administration's oil blockade. He said no fuel has entered the country for the last three months, and that the country is now producing all of its thermoelectric power with domestically produced crude oil.
He said deeper blackouts are coming.
“Would a failed state be able to confront such a situation?” he asked rhetorically.
He thanked the “titans” who keep the country's aging power grid running, emphasizing that the government and its people would continue to “act with creative resistance.”
Most of Cuba was in the dark for several hours last week, after the island’s main power plant broke down. The plant was back online the following day and power gradually returned.
Since 2024, Cuba has gone through three total blackouts, the longest of which lasted for days.
In recent months, rolling blackouts — the norm since 2020— have intensified since Trump announced the U.S. de facto oil blockade on the island.
With China’s help, the island has turned to solar energy to reduce its dependence on fuel and power plants. Last month, Díaz-Canel said 38% of the island’s daylight consumption now comes from solar power.
Cuba and U.S. Already Had a Deal — Trump Killed It
This March marks 10 years since Barack Obama visited Havana, ushering in a new era in U.S.-Cuba relations. Then came Donald Trump. He didn't just walk away from the negotiating table — he flipped it over.
In our latest video, Peter Kornbluh, Director of the Cuba Documentation Project at the National Security Archive, breaks down how the most significant diplomatic breakthrough in decades was deliberately dismantled by the Trump administration — and how millions of Cubans have felt the consequences through blackouts, shortages and mass migration.
Check out Kornbluh’s interview with Belly of the Beast journalist Liz Oliva Fernández.
Now, in his second term, Trump has unleashed a new wave of sanctions and economic pressure against the island, leaving Cuba in its worst crisis in decades and pushing U.S.-Cuba relations back to Cold War lows.
Kornbluh examines what was lost, who is paying the price and whether any path forward still exists.
The Roots of Trump’s War on Cuba
Check out the latest episode of Michael Fox’s Under the Shadow podcast series, which takes a deep dive into the roots of the crisis Cubans are currently living through.
The podcast was produced in collaboration with Belly of the Beast.
You can listen to it HERE on The Real News Network.
“Nuestra América” Convoy Prepares for Solidarity Trip
An international coalition of movements, trade unionists, parliamentarians, humanitarian organizations and public figures will converge on Havana March 21 to deliver “critical humanitarian aid to the Cuban people.”
“The Trump administration is strangling Cuba, cutting off fuel, flights and critical supplies for survival," the website for the Nuestra América Convoy states. "This is an emergency. There is no time to waste."
More info on how to support or join the convoy can be found HERE.
Lula: Cuba Is Going Hungry Because of U.S.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said last week that the root cause of increasing food insecurity in Cuba is not domestic problems, but U.S. economic warfare.
“Cuba is not going hungry because it doesn’t know how to produce,” he said at the opening of the FAO Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean. “Cuba is going hungry because the U.S. does not want it to have access to things that everyone should have a right to.”
Watch Lula's remarks HERE.
Jamaica the Latest to Cave in U.S. War on Doctors
Last year, Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Jamaica and pressured its government to end the longstanding Cuban medical cooperation mission on the island. At the time, Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness defended the Cuban mission and denied U.S. allegations that the doctors were “forced labor.”
But last week, Jamaica canceled its agreement with Cuba, becoming the latest of more than half a dozen Central American and Caribbean countries to cave to U.S. pressure.
“The government of Jamaica is giving in to the pressure of the U.S. government, which does not care about the health needs of our Caribbean brothers,” said Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement.
It added that over the past 30 years, Cuba’s mission in Jamaica provided more than eight million medical consultations, performed more than 7,400 surgeries and aided in approximately 7,000 births.
Cuba has sent health professionals to more than 150 countries since the 1960s. The island’s doctors usually serve impoverished and underserved populations in the Global South. In recent years, the missions have emerged as the island’s main source of foreign currency.
The U.S. government alleges that the medical missions are “forced labor." It has presented no credible evidence to support this claim. Cuban doctors and nurses volunteer to join the missions and are paid multiples of what they earn in Cuba.
Ecuador Expels Cuba's Diplomats
Just days before the "Shield of the Americas” Summit in Miami last week, Ecuador expelled Cuba's entire diplomatic delegation.
The summit, organized to “eradicate the criminal cartels plaguing our region," brought together a group of right-leaning Latin American leaders aligned with the Trump administration.
Ecuador initially offered no explanation, but President Daniel Noboa later said in an interview that Cuba’s diplomats were “interfering” in the country’s politics. He cited “sufficient evidence,” but presented none.
The two countries have had diplomatic relations since 1960 and grew closer during Rafael Correa’s presidency (2007-2017).
Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the decision arbitrary and unjustified.
“It does not seem coincidental that this action has been taken in a context characterized by the intensification of U.S. aggression against Cuba and strong pressure from the U.S. government on third countries to join in this policy,” Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Former CBS Miami Anchor Runs Against Salazar
Former news anchor Eliott Rodríguez announced his candidacy for Florida’s 27th congressional district, currently held by Cuban-American Republican hardliner María Elvira Salazar.
Rodríguez, who retired last year from CBS Miami, where he worked for 25 years, will need to win the Democratic primary to face Salazar, also a former reporter, who has been in office since 2021.
Salazar and her fellow Republican congressmen from South Florida — Carlos Giménez and Mario Díaz-Balart — have been leading proponents of harsher sanctions on the island.
Referring to Trump’s oil blockade of Cuba, Salazar recently recognized that the sanctions are causing “pain” to mothers and children, but said it was a price worth paying.
“It’s devastating to think about a mother’s hunger, a child who needs immediate help. No one is indifferent to that pain. But that is precisely the brutal dilemma we face as exiles: to alleviate short-term suffering or to free Cuba forever.”
Cuba Knocked Out of World Baseball Classic
Cuba was knocked out in the first round of the World Baseball Classic for the first time in the tournament's history.
Cuba began the tournament defeating both Panama (3-1) and Colombia (7-4). The Cuban team then lost to powerhouse Puerto Rico (4-1) before falling to Canada (7-2).
It was unclear a few months ago whether Cuba would even play in the WBC, not because of baseball, but because of U.S. policy.
“We were aware that there could be denials due to the United States’ aggressive policy toward Cuba,” said Juan Reinaldo Pérez, the president of the Cuban Baseball and Softball Federation.
In the end, the players were granted the visas, but eight Cuban staff, including a scout and a pitching coach, were denied them.
The Trump administration last year blocked visas for some 100 Cuban athletes and sports officials, according to Cuban authorities.
Check out our article “Playing Dirty: Rubio’s War on Cuban Athletes” to learn more.
Cuban baseball ballplayers have also faced pressure from right-wing activists and politicians in Miami. In the last WBC in Miami, Cuban players and their family members were harassed and had objects thrown at them.
DOJ Looking to “Pull a Maduro” on Cuban Leaders?
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jason Reding Quiñones has opened an investigation aimed at bringing charges against Cuba’s leaders, multiple media outlets reported last week.
Quiñones is leading a team of federal prosecutors and officials from the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Departments of State and Treasury.
It is unclear what leaders the task force may be targeting. However, an unrelated investigation into former Cuban President Raúl Castro’s alleged involvement in the 1996 shoot-down of two Brothers to the Rescue airplanes was announced just days earlier by Florida’s Attorney General James Uthmeier.
Rubio’s Photo Op with Convicted Leader of Proud Boys
During Sunday’s Miami summit, Rubio posed for a photo with Enrique Tarrio, former leader of the Proud Boys far-right organization, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol before being pardoned by Trump last year. Both Tarrio and Rubio are Cuban Americans who hail from Miami.
A Cuban American’s Call to Fight Trump’s Cuba Policy
Check out Danny Valdes’ op-ed in The Guardian, where he explains how he – and many within Miami’s Cuban-American community – feel about Trump’s war on Cuba.
“Our families are running out of food. Our friends are unable to access medicine,” Valdes writes. “While Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, speaks in the name of our ‘freedom’, he actively starves our communities of their most basic needs.”
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