Ben Rhodes, former Deputy National Security Advisor to former U.S. President Barack Obama and one of the architects of the normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba, described the situation on the island last Friday as the worst humanitarian crisis in its history, in an interview published by the media outlet The Bulwark.
Rhodes explained that the logic behind Obama's policy was that opening Cuba to U.S. tourism and investment would generate an organic change in Cuban society. "Our bet was: you open this up, allow Americans to travel there, to invest there, and this place just 90 miles from Florida is going to change. The lives of Cubans will improve," he stated.
The former official noted that Trump systematically reversed that openness regarding travel and investments, although he kept the embassies open and maintained formal diplomatic relations.
He then directed a sharp criticism at Joe Biden, whom he called a "coward" for not reversing Trump’s policy toward Cuba, attributing that inaction to fear of criticism from then-Senator Bob Menéndez. "In some ways, we ended up with Trump’s policy during Joe Biden’s administration," Rhodes said, sarcastically referring to Menéndez as "that great moral arbiter," in reference to his subsequent corruption conviction.
Menéndez was found guilty in July 2024 on 16 counts of corruption, including acting as a foreign agent for Egypt, and sentenced to 11 years in prison in January 2025.
Rhodes was emphatic in describing the current consequences: "Cubans are suffering more than ever in their history." He attributed this situation to both the accumulated sanctions and the fuel blockade imposed by the Trump administration during its second term.
"There are people dying because of those sanctions," she stated. "When the electricity goes out, babies in neonatal care and patients on ventilators die in hospitals. There is extreme malnutrition in Cuba. It is a truly grave humanitarian situation at this moment."
The energy crisis described by Rhodes has specific figures. The Executive Order 14380, signed by Trump on January 29, 2026, imposed tariffs on countries that sell oil to Cuba, reducing the supply by approximately 90%. Díaz-Canel himself confirmed in early March that Cuba had received zero oil shipments for three consecutive months.
Power outages have stretched to as long as 30 consecutive hours, with electric deficits of up to 1,885 megawatts recorded in 2026. The collapse has directly impacted the hospital system. On April 11, the UN reported that there are 96,000 pending surgeries on the island, including 11,000 for children.
The same organization expressed "great concern" in February 2026 over the risk of a total humanitarian collapse in Cuba.
However, this scenario is compounded by a sustained tightening of internal repression and the regime's lack of willingness to promote structural changes in the political and economic system. Various human rights organizations have documented an increase in arbitrary detentions, the criminalization of protest, and the systematic use of imprisonment as a tool for social control.
In 2026, the number of political prisoners exceeds 1,200, with reports documenting over 3,000 repressive actions in a single year, including arrests, threats, and surveillance against citizens, activists, and journalists. Recent reports also indicate that detentions are often carried out without a judicial order, accompanied by isolation and a lack of procedural guarantees.
Rather than creating opportunities for reform, the government has responded to the rising social discontent with a reinforcement of the repressive apparatus, which even targets minors and individuals with no political affiliation. Analysts and NGOs agree that this strategy reveals the stalemate of the system and the refusal to implement deep changes amid an ongoing crisis that continues to worsen.
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