Miguel Díaz-Canel took advantage of the central event on the 73rd anniversary of the assault on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks, held in Pinar del Río, to directly blame the United States government for the economic and social crisis facing Cuba, including the deterioration of the healthcare system, power outages, and the rise in infant mortality.
During his speech, the ruler stated that Washington has "consciously designed and implemented a policy of maximum economic suffocation against the Cuban people" and described the embargo as "a weapon of war" that, he claimed, "causes deaths."
To support that accusation, Díaz-Canel listed a series of indicators regarding the deterioration of healthcare on the island. He claimed that there have been deaths due to the lack of medications that were previously produced or distributed for free or at a subsidized cost, and stated that more than 100,000 surgeries remain pending because hospitals experience unexpected blackouts and lack the necessary fuel to operate backup generators.
He also noted that more than 118,000 cancer patients, including 2,200 children, cannot access first-line treatments and must settle for second or third-line therapies.
One of the most sensitive passages of his intervention was dedicated to infant mortality. The leader stated that the rate reached 9.3 deaths for every thousand live births, whereas in previous years it ranged between four and five.
"In those numbers are the faces of children who did not see life due to the direct consequence of the blockade and their genuine condition," she expressed.
Official figures indicate a consistent deterioration of this indicator. According to data from the regime itself, the infant mortality rate closed 2025 at 9.9 per every thousand live births, compared to 4.0 in 2018, while in Havana it reached 14 per thousand during the first months of 2026. Additionally, there is the chronic shortage of medications: in April of this year, 461 out of the 651 essential drugs on the national basic list were unavailable in state pharmacies, representing a supply shortage of over 70%.
Díaz-Canel also rejected the idea that U.S. sanctions could be considered a legitimate tool of foreign policy.
"It is illegal and criminal to martyr a people just to provoke them into rebelling against their government. It cannot even be called a tool of foreign policy," he stated.
His statements come at a time of increasing pressure from Washington on Havana. Since Donald Trump's return to the White House, the United States has tightened sanctions against the Cuban regime. On May 1, it blocked assets linked to the Cuban state apparatus; on June 4, it personally sanctioned Díaz-Canel; and on July 23, it expanded measures against nine entities and two high-ranking officials related to the energy sector, the military conglomerate GAESA, and the medical mission program.
The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has defended this policy by stating that "Cuba's economy cannot change unless its system of government changes," and has described the Cuban authorities as "economically incompetent."
In response to that strategy, Díaz-Canel defended the regime's sovereignty to determine the course of the country.
“Economic, political, and social decisions are and will be ours”, he stated in front of the attendees at the event.
In his speech, the leader attributed the worsening of the crisis solely to U.S. sanctions and did not mention other factors pointed out by economists and analysts, such as the structural difficulties of the Cuban economy, the centralized planning model, or the pending reforms.
In June 2026, the regime itself announced a package of 176 economic and social measures to address the crisis, although independent specialists have questioned their effectiveness, considering that they do not alter the model of state control over the economy.
Díaz-Canel also recalled that the United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution in October 2025 condemning the U.S. embargo with the support of 165 countries, an argument he used to strengthen his denunciation of Washington's policy.
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