The president Miguel Díaz-Canel received the UN Special Rapporteur on Unilateral Coercive Measures, Alena Douhan, this Friday and took the opportunity to hold the blockade and the terrorist list responsible for all the country's problems, while the visitor validated the humanitarian impact of the sanctions.
The government turned the visit into a calculated propaganda act to reinforce the narrative that nearly all the island's problems can be explained by the U.S. embargo.
While the Palace of the Revolution rolled out the red carpet and cameras to showcase a Washington critic, millions of Cubans continued to grapple with blackouts, shortages, a health crisis, and repression—realities barely mentioned in the official discourse and not central to the speaker’s public message.
A meeting tailored to the official discourse
In the meeting broadcast this Friday by state television, the leader described Douhan's visit as “very important and significant” and presented it as an international validation of Havana's narrative regarding the impact of the embargo and Cuba's inclusion on the list of alleged state sponsors of terrorism.
The leader insisted that "the lives of all Cubans" would be marked by the blockade and described it as a "genocidal" policy that worsened during the first term of President Donald Trump (2017-2021) and was reinforced with the Republican's return to the White House, who returned the island to the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Díaz-Canel assured the rapporteur that the country is "fully willing" to cooperate with the Council's human rights mechanisms, overlooking the fact that Cuba has maintained strong restrictions on international scrutiny for decades regarding issues such as civil liberties, political pluralism, and the criminalization of protest.
The message aimed to project an image of transparency and goodwill to the UN, while within the island, laws and practices remain in place that punish those who question the power, as repeatedly reported by human rights organizations and critical media in exile.
The rapporteur endorses the complaint regarding the "blockade."
In a statement before national and international media, Douhan reiterated much of Havana's economic script.
In this regard, he stated that U.S. sanctions have “exacerbated” the humanitarian crisis in Cuba, impacting food supplies, family income, and the government's ability to maintain basic infrastructure, from thermoelectric plants and water systems to housing and public buildings.
He also warned about the scarcity of medications and spare parts, and pointed out that life expectancy, which used to be among the highest in the region, has decreased in recent years—an argument the government uses to attribute the degradation of its healthcare system almost exclusively to the embargo.
The rapporteur emphasized the extraterritorial nature of Washington's measures and described the designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism as contrary to international law, urging the abandonment of the "rhetoric of sanctions" as a political tool to isolate the island.
The final report by Douhan will be presented in September 2026 to the Human Rights Council, but its message in Havana has already been maximized by official propaganda as if it were a definitive verdict in favor of the regime.
Civil society, silenced once again
While the government organized tours for the rapporteur through selected institutions and provided her with extensive reports on the damages of the embargo, activists and independent organizations protested that, once again, the critical civil society was overlooked, unable to voice their concerns about the political prisoners, repression, poverty, and lack of freedoms that cannot be solely attributed to the conflict with the United States.
Hundreds of Cubans question the government's blame on the "blockade," while it maintains privileges for the elite, invests in luxury hotels that are nearly empty and allows the country's essential infrastructure to deteriorate.
Others denounce the comfortable lives of leaders and their families, and directly hold the political system responsible for decades of economic mistakes.
The comments from Cubans both inside and outside the country on digital platforms reflect accumulated discontent. Many point out that while the "blockade" is blamed for any pothole in the street, daily reality is marked by censorship, the persecution of protesters, and an "internal blockade" comprised of bureaucratic obstacles, political controls, and a lack of basic rights.
That contrast between the victimhood narrative of the regime and the direct experience of the citizens highlights a double standard that Douhan's visit did not reveal clearly enough, despite her mandate being officially framed within the comprehensive defense of human rights.
A political capital that Havana does not intend to waste
The rapporteur's visit comes at a time when the Cuban government is attempting to manage an unprecedented economic crisis, worsened by the tightening of sanctions under the Trump administrations and the new presidential memorandum of 2025 that reinforces the policy of "maximum pressure."
Cuba's renewed inclusion on the list of state sponsors of terrorism further complicates financial operations, raises the cost of supplies, and has a deterring effect on banks and companies from third countries, all of which Havana capitalizes on to reinforce its narrative of ongoing siege.
With the political backing provided by a preliminary UN report focused almost exclusively on the consequences of sanctions, Díaz-Canel seeks to gain international support without taking internal responsibility for the inefficiency, authoritarianism, and structural corruption of the system.
The result is a scene in which the regime portrays itself as an exemplary victim in terms of human rights, while it continues to deny its own citizens the most fundamental right: to tell, without fear, the other half of the story that is not included in the official reports about the "blockade."
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