The Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, denounced this Saturday at the United Nations General Assembly Washington's maximum pressure policy against Cuba, describing it as a “collective punishment” and a “crime” under International Humanitarian Law.
The speech came four days after President Donald Trump stated from that very podium that Cuba is an "absolutely failed state" and that it "will fall," remarks that the Cuban delegation rejected by walking out of the room in protest.
Rodríguez directly responded to Trump with a rhetorical question: "If that were the case, why then did they have to establish a fuel blockade? Why did they impose secondary sanctions? Why do they have to threaten, pursue, and pressure all the countries on the planet?"
The chancellor also recalled that Trump himself acknowledged before the UN that his administration is applying to Cuba "the greatest pressure ever exerted," and cited a statement from the president on January 8, 2026: "All that's left is to go in and destroy the place."
To illustrate Washington's strategy, Rodríguez attributed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio the characterization of the official policy as closing to Cuba "every valve, exit, or means of survival."
In his post on X, the chancellor emphasized that the impact of this blockade "has a human face": "The economic war is directed against the people. It falls upon the Cuban population as a whole. It claims lives, causes individual and collective pain, and generates distress."
Rodríguez rejected the idea that the consequences of the embargo are merely "collateral damage" and presented them as the result of a deliberate policy: "It is a policy intentionally designed to hurt the most sensitive aspects of Cuban families, to hinder their well-being, and to wound the dignity of the people."
The chancellor went further, stating that the goal of the blockade is to "induce a humanitarian crisis in Cuba, which also constitutes a crime," and accused Washington of cynicism: "The U.S. government and the State Department have had to acknowledge the suffering inflicted, yet they have the audacity and the cynicism to insist on blaming the Cuban government. The executioner blames his victim."
The speech comes at a time of heightened bilateral tension. The Trump administration implemented in 2026 an energy blockade that exacerbates the desperation of Cubans, preventing fuel shipments from reaching the island and worsening the blackouts and shortages experienced by the population.
The U.S. maintains that the Cuban energy crisis is a result of the regime's mismanagement and the end of subsidized Venezuelan oil, whose flow was interrupted following the capture of Nicolás Maduro in January 2026, and not due to a naval blockade.
The Cuban government presented an official report to the UN —without independent verification— estimating the damages from the embargo at 8.103 billion dollars between March 2025 and February 2026, and the total historical damage at 178.7 billion dollars.
Despite the confrontational tone, Rodríguez reiterated Cuba's willingness to engage in dialogue with Washington "without preconditions" and based on mutual respect and sovereignty, while Rubio conditioned any rapprochement on a change of government in the island.
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