Waiting in Darkness
The U.S. fuel blockade against Cuba Commonweal Magazine. May 2026
By Joy Gordon [Professor of Social Ethics, Loyola University - Chicago]
Havana - a city of two million reduced to 1.5 million - is silent. A few hours of electricity a day is all that survives the U.S. blockade. Mexico and Venezuela - its principal sources of oil for power production - are blockaded by the order of Donald Trump.
Siege warfare is an ancient device. Cuba is walled by the sea. Without access to its trading partners the country - famous for its commitment to education and health care - is reduced to poverty by a siege that is executed without mercy and without escape. Donald Trump's oil blockade is a quiet act of war that is drowned out by the blockade of Iran.
Joy Gordon reports from Havana on the devastating impact of the blockade, obviously designed to bring about the collapse or overthrow of Cuba's government. A government which has made food security, housing, health care and education its priorities. Neither Venezuela nor Mexico is permitted by the Trump government to ship oil to Cuba. Starvation is the historic consequence of siege. Cuba is not yet at that point ..but the government - which has long alloted to each family provided rice, beans, cooking oil, coffee, bread, and chicken - is stymied by the blockade. Hospitals and the elderly are particularly denied necessities.
Relentless anti-communism and the U.S. embargo on trade with Cuba has reduced its population. The Soviet Union - long a lifeline - is no longer a market for Cuba's exports - largely of sugar.
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