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Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of La France Insoumise (LFI) and presidential candidate for the French elections in 2027, denounced this Thursday on X the lack of support from France to Cuba and accused the French government of not acting out of "fear of Trump."
In his message, Mélenchon described Cuba as "under siege, martyred, and now directly threatened by a military intervention from the U.S.," and pointed to a specific case when he mentioned that spare parts for a French technology power plant installed on the island are being held in containers by the shipping company CMA CGM, controlled by the Saadé family, which has refused to deliver them despite France's promise to do so.
"No French help. The fear of Trump. The spare parts for the French power plant installed there are in the containers that CMA CGM from Saadé no longer wants to deliver. However, France had promised," wrote the French politician.
According to a search, it seems that Mélenchon is referring to the Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Power Plant, located in Matanzas and considered the largest electricity generation unit in Cuba. Built in the 1980s with technology from the French firm Alsthom (now Alstom), and due to its French-designed infrastructure, the plant relies on specialized components and systems whose repair has become increasingly complex over the years.
CMA CGM, the third largest container shipping company in the world, suspended its cargo reservations to and from Cuba "until further notice" between May 14 and May 18, alongside Hapag-Lloyd. According to Reuters, this measure could impact up to 60% of the island's maritime traffic.
The decision by both shipping companies came after Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14404 on May 1, which expanded sanctions against Cuba and heightened the risk of secondary sanctions for foreign companies operating with GAESA, the Cuban military conglomerate. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) set June 5 as the deadline for those companies to sever ties with GAESA.
The energy background underlying Mélenchon's claim is serious. Cuba is facing a structural electricity crisis that in December 2025 recorded generation deficits exceeding 2,000 MW, with blackouts lasting more than twenty hours daily in some areas. The Cuban Minister of Energy, Vicente de la O Levy, acknowledged at that time that the outages would continue in 2026.
Since 2015, when General Electric acquired the French company Alstom, Cuba lost access to French credits for the maintenance of its thermal power plants, according to the Cuban official Roberto Morales Ojeda. The situation with the parts held in CMA CGM containers illustrates how U.S. pressure now extends even to previous commitments made by third countries.
Mélénchon's statement comes at a time of high tension. Trump stated on Wednesday that he did not believe an escalation was necessary because Cuba "is crumbling", while the Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez had previously described the U.S. leader's comments about "taking control" of the island as a "clear and direct threat of military aggression."
Mélenchon's stance on Cuba is not new. LFI has a long history of supporting the Cuban government and opposing the U.S. embargo. In March, the party's MEP Emma Fourreau announced her trip to Cuba with the "Nuestra América" flotilla to, as she stated, "break the U.S. blockade."
Mélenchon announced his fourth presidential candidacy on May 3, which makes his message about Cuba a high-profile stance during the campaign, just over a year before the French elections in 2027.
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