The Capital of 21st Century Communism,” places Black progressive movements, activists and organizations squarely in its crosshairs, falsely portraying them as unwitting or willing instruments of a foreign adversary’s campaign to “erase the United States from the Earth.”

The report asserts that since 1959, the Cuban government has waged “a sustained campaign of subversion against the United States” that “has infiltrated the highest reaches of the U.S. government, recruited and cultivated generations of American activists, (and) backed an unprecedented wave of left-wing terrorism on American soil.”

It describes Cuba as the “beating heart of a new and distinct kind of Marxism, forged around an overriding resentment and fundamental hatred of the United States.”

State Department officials previewed the document at a meeting with representatives of more than 60 countries, where Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Who is of Cuban descent, said the small island nation’s intelligence and ideological networks have “helped build the far-left in our country and in our hemisphere,” adding that the government in Havana “remains inextricably linked to far-left groups and movements across and beyond the West.”

Not surprisingly, what is omitted from the State Department’s narrative is the decades-long war the U.S. government has waged against Cuba, which has included: unjust, crippling sanctions, numerous attempted assassinations of the late revolutionary and president, Comandante Fidel Castro, active attempts to destabilize the country through subversive activities and much more.

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, a friend of Comandante Castro, often pointed out the good that the Cuban government has done.

“When Fidel Castro rose to leadership as president in Cuba, he transferred land from the rich to the poor. He inherited an illiterate country, but today Cuba has 100 percent literacy. He inherited homeless people, but today every person in Cuba has a home.

In Cuba, citizens have free education, free health care—but America does not like Fidel Castro because he was good for the people,” Minister Farrakhan said, in a message he delivered November 7, 2005, titled: “Jesus: The Guide for the Public Servant.”

In a 2016 letter Minister Farrakhan wrote upon the passing of Comandante Castro, he stated in part: “Long live the memory of Fidel Castro.  Long live the Cuban people who have endured this savage blockade for over 50 years and have produced magnificent things in medicine, in science, in culture for the world to receive. Long live the Cuban revolution.

And may we be on the side of those who admit that we were once blind but it’s our time to see as the confusion of Western heads of state and government is so clear that they are going blind. 

The confusion that exists in the Heads of State and government of the Western world will continue.  They will continue to break apart as the poor, the weak, the Black, the Brown and the Red will continue to rise by the grace of Allah (God).”

Dr. Wilmer Leon, political scientist, author and commentator, offered a searing critique of the State Department report’s underlying logic, comparing it to historical patterns of dehumanization used to justify violence against non-White communities and countries.

“One of the tactics that America loves to use, as it deals with its adversaries, is the creation and promotion of the boogeyman,” Dr. Leon said. “What this report is doing, and is baselessly doing, is trying to rationalize criminal behavior by the United States by claiming that Cuba is engaged in terrorism, domestically in the United States, and internationally.”

He continued: “Donald Trump loves to do the same thing with Iran by claiming that the government in Iran is insane, that they’re evil, that they’re stupid people. It’s a dehumanization tactic that is primarily used against countries of color.

It plays right into the dominant American ethos, in terms of White supremacy. It’s also very similar to the tactic that the United States used to dehumanize Native Americans and to rationalize the Trail of Tears.

This is a tactic that the United States has used against Venezuela. It’s a tactic that the United States has used against Libya, and as Gil Scott-Heron would say, ‘an endless list that won’t be missed when at last America is purged.’”

A report weaponized against Black solidarity

Central to the report’s thesis is the false claim that Cuba has strategically cultivated and exploited Black activism in the U.S. as a vehicle for revolutionary change. The document devotes an entire chapter, “Racial Revolution,” to Havana’s historical relationship with Black activists, portraying figures like Kwame Ture (formerly Stokely Carmichael).

Angela Davis and Assata Shakur as products of Cuban influence rather than of America’s own centuries of racial oppression. It also references the time in 1961 when Comandante Castro came to Harlem in New York for the UN General Assembly and met with Nation of Islam Minister Malcolm X and was received by a cheering crowd.

The report alleges that Cuba has long sought to organize American “minority” groups as “internal revolutionary agents,” quoting a former senior Cuban intelligence officer who testified that one of the government’s directives was to exacerbate “the racial problem in the United States.”

It claims Cuban president Fidel Castro “boasted that his agents in the United States were so industrious and well-placed that they had the capacity to create race riots at a moment of his choosing.”

The document asserts that Cuban state-backed broadcasts and writings played a “foundational role in the formation of Black Power ideology,” citing Robert F. Williams’ “Radio Free Dixie” broadcasts from Havana, which it says urged Black Americans to “take up armed struggle against their country.”

Nowhere, the report claims, has Cuba’s “Shakur strategy” been more pronounced than in the modern Black Lives Matter movement, alleging that the movement’s public language and ideology are infused with the influence of Assata Shakur.

The Black liberation activist wrongly convicted in the 1973 death of a New Jersey state trooper in a trial she and her supporters long denounced as unjust. She escaped prison, received political asylum in Cuba and lived there until her death in 2025.

The report also characterizes the Black Alliance for Peace, a frequent collaborator with the National Network on Cuba, as having created a “database” mapping U.S. military and law enforcement locations, which the document describes as a tool to help activists “strategize how and where to organize and agitate” against U.S. targets.

So-called front groups and ‘fellow travelers’

The report identifies U.S.-based organizations it describes as part of Cuba’s so-called influence network. Among them is the National Network on Cuba (NNOC), a coalition of more than 60 American groups committed to lobbying for an end to the U.S. embargo.

The report highlights a “National Rapid Response Plan” distributed by NNOC that it says outlines a strategy for “coordinated nationwide actions” at federal institutions, military bases and ICE detention centers within 24 hours of any U.S. military action against Cuba.

The report describes the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) as the central hub of Cuba’s international influence operation, noting it is led by Fernando González Llort, who served 15 years in U.S. prison as one of the “Cuban Five.” The State Department sanctioned ICAP and its travel agency, Amistur, in June, accusing them of supporting Cuban intelligence activities.

The People’s Forum, Code Pink, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the National Lawyers Guild are also named. The report details their delegations to Cuba, meetings with Cuban officials and advocacy against unjust U.S. policy, noting that the DSA has sought formal communication with Cuban ministries and that Code Pink has come under federal scrutiny over its funding sources.

The report concludes that Cuba has fused espionage, propaganda and political advocacy into “a single revolutionary project,” and warns that Havana’s fundamental objective remains what it was when Comandante Fidel Castro marched into the capital in 1959: a hemispheric Marxist revolution that erases the United States.

Community responds: Defamation and dehumanization

Activists and supporters of Cuba solidarity have forcefully rejected the State Department’s characterization, calling the report a calculated attempt to criminalize dissent and delegitimize Black internationalism.

Obi Egbuna Jr., external relations officer of the Zimbabwe-Cuba Friendship Association and a former U.S. correspondent for Zimbabwe’s The Herald, told The Final Call the report is part of a long pattern of imperial aggression.

“It’s up to those of us who understand how the world benefits from Cuba and their dedication to their principles to defend them,” he said. “We’ve seen this happen before. We’ve seen this unfold too many times. Trump and Rubio are trying to finish what Kennedy started,” he said, referring to former U.S. President John Kennedy.

In 1961 under President Kennedy, a failed CIA-backed military operation known as the Bay of Pigs was launched. Nearly 1,500 Cuban exiles attempted to overthrow Comandante Castro’s government, but were swiftly defeated. 

“The first seven presidents of this country tried to annex Cuba. The imperialists are sore losers. They do not want a flourishing socialist revolution in this hemisphere and will do anything to pursue regime change,” said Mr. Egbuna.

Luci Murphy, a longtime D.C.-based activist, warned that the report is designed to intimidate and isolate friends of Cuba. “They are making a list of all of the friends of Cuba and potential friends of Cuba, so that we will be scared, so that we will think that they’re coming after us,” Ms. Murphy said. “We need to hang together. We need to really be in touch with each other and connected,” she said.

Aid with one hand, pressure with the other

Just one day after the report’s release, the State Department announced that the first U.S. humanitarian flight had departed Miami for Cuba on July 21, carrying food and hygiene kits for up to 700 families.

The delivery, made through Catholic Relief Services, is the first installment of a $100 million assistance commitment Secretary Rubio announced in May and follows $9 million in earlier U.S. support distributed through the Catholic Church on the island.

The State Department said direct delivery by local parish representatives “will ensure critical U.S. assistance reaches everyday Cubans in need, without any opportunity for regime diversion or theft.”

But the aid arrives even as Washington tightens its stranglehold on the island, blocking most oil shipments and piling on financial sanctions that Cuban officials blame for the very blackouts and shortages the aid purports to relieve.

Havana was initially wary of the offer, which the administration says is designed to help Cuba’s people but not its government, and rejected accompanying U.S. calls for political reforms before agreeing to accept the assistance amid talks with Trump administration officials.

For solidarity activists, the juxtaposition, a $100 million pledge delivered alongside a report branding Cuba’s friends as agents of subversion, captures the contradiction at the heart of U.S. policy.

The Fight Continues

As the Trump administration escalates its pressure campaign against Cuba, including executive orders expanding sanctions, tariffs on countries that supply oil to the island, and public discussion of potential military intervention, the State Department report serves as a blueprint for further action against domestic organizations and individuals who advocate solidarity with the island nation.

The administration has already sanctioned ICAP and Amistur, and federal authorities have detained and deported a Cuban national associated with the organization.

A federal grand jury in Manhattan is examining potential foreign-agent and tax violations involving the financial network of Neville Roy Singham, the husband of Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans and a major benefactor of the group.

For Cuba solidarity activists, the message of the report is clear: the U.S. government views their advocacy not as legitimate political expression but as part of a foreign intelligence operation. Yet, the sentiments from people in this article and expressed by others is plain; they are not backing down.

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The meeting, dubbed “1st All African Town Hall Meeting on Cuba in North America,” was held July 20 and was organized by the Zimbabwe-Cuba Friendship Association and facilitated by Black Workers for Justice, the Communiversity and a coalition of veteran organizers, bringing together elected officials, medical professionals, educators, journalists and grassroots activists. Participants were all united by what they described as a shared history of struggle against racism and imperialism.

Tanieris Diéguez La O, deputy chief of mission at the Cuban Embassy in Washington, delivered an emotional keynote address detailing the devastating human cost of the blockade, which has been tightened since January.

“We are talking about more than 100,000 people waiting for surgeries,” Ms. Diéguez said. “We are talking about the working and the function of the dialysis machine, or the incubator for the newborn babies, or the refrigerator for the vaccines.”

She reported that Cuba’s infant mortality rate has more than doubled, to 9.9 deaths per 1,000 live births, up from about four in normal times, and that nearly 3,000 patients depend on dialysis treatment now compromised by energy shortages caused by U.S.-driven fuel disruptions.

“Behind these numbers are not only statistics,” she said. “They are names, they are family, they are parents who have lost their children, and no political disagreement should ever justify the preventable suffering of a child.”

Despite the hardships, Ms. Diéguez emphasized that Cuba has not closed a single hospital or privatized its healthcare system. “Our doctors continue showing up every day,” she said. “They are like heroes.”

Dr. Rosemari Mealy, author of “Fidel and Malcolm X: Memories of a Meeting,” underscored that the relationship between Black America and Cuba “has never depended on the political circumstances or the mood of the moment.”

“This has been very historical, and what connects us goes much deeper,” she said. “We share a long history rooted in the enduring legacy of Africa, in the wounds left by colonialism, and our common struggle for dignity and self-determination as people of the Global South.”

The town hall opened with a moment of silence led by Shafeah M’balia, executive director of the Communiversity, for “all those who have struggled, who have died, who have given resistance to colonialism around the world.”

Ashaki Binta, national strategic organizer for Black Workers for Justice, set the context for the gathering, noting that participants represented “decades and decades of work in solidarity with Cuba.”

“We’re certainly all united here in our opposition to the treatment of Cuba, the blockade, and the whole history of aggression against Cuba,” Ms. Binta said.

The program featured brief testimonies from participants chronicling their organizations’ histories of Cuba solidarity work.

Obi Egbuna Jr., external relations officer of the Zimbabwe-Cuba Friendship Association, detailed efforts ranging from appeals in support of Cuba’s Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade during the COVID-19 pandemic to the establishment of the Shirley Graham Du Bois-William Worthy Media Friendship Collective. He also highlighted cultural work, including children’s plays and art shows dedicated to Assata Shakur and Cuba’s medical brigades.

Dr. Mealy, joining from New York, announced she was heading to Cuba with a solidarity delegation for the July 26 commemorations of the Cuban Revolution. She and Omowale Clay of the December 12th Movement have launched a “Blacks for Cuba Coalition” to take the issue to the streets of Harlem and beyond.

Ms. M’balia described the Communiversity’s pillars of work and announced the launch of a humanitarian aid campaign targeting women’s and children’s hospitals in Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo.

Former Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders, who served 35 years in the legislature, recalled first traveling to Cuba in 1986 and later leading efforts to open agricultural trade exceptions. “Alabama is certainly one of the most conservative and reactionary states in the United States,” he noted, “but we felt the more we could open it up, the more we could build those relationships.”

Dr. Lucille Perez, a former president of the National Medical Association (NMA), recalled leading a 50-person delegation to Havana, where the group was hosted by President Fidel Castro at the Palace of the Revolution. She directed participants to a recent webinar and news statement on Cuba by the NMA’s current president, Dr. Roger A. Mitchell Jr.

The gathering produced concrete proposals for moving forward. Zaki Baruti, president general of the Universal African Peoples Organization, proposed a National Day of Solidarity with the Cuban people, including rallies at federal buildings and coordinated shipments of material aid.

“We most recently shipped some 8,000-plus books to Gambia to help build a library,” Mr. Baruti said. “Let’s do a national day where we are supplying some type of needed supplies for the Cuban people.”

Colette Pean of the December 12th Movement seconded the call, emphasizing the need to bring Cuba solidarity directly into Black communities. “We must keep it in our community,” she said. “We go to be represented as Black people everywhere to support Cuba, but it is crucial to bring the education to our wider community.”

Tony Menelik Van Der Meer of the Communiversity outlined plans for a delegation to Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo, including a “suitcase delegation” of young people carrying needed supplies. He also proposed a broader campaign to get city councils to pass solidarity ordinances and to engage churches, sororities, fraternities and unions.

“We want to align the Black community so that we could raise the consciousness,” Mr. Van Der Meer said. “This is a unique opportunity for us to develop a united front and engage in the serious work.”

Dr. James Pope of Winston-Salem State University described taking approximately 40 students and six faculty members to Cuba over the years, developing relationships with Cuban scholars and institutions. “Most people will say that when the students would go with me on those trips, they would be Cuban by the time they leave,” he said.

Gabriela Castillo, liaison for African Diasporic Affairs at the Cuban Embassy, closed the formal proceedings with thanks to the participants.

“Real friendship shows up when times are tough, like this one for the Cuban people,” she said. “Listening to all of you gives us hope, a lot of hope, and in this moment, hope is something very important to move forward.”

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Mr. Glover said he was diagnosed several years ago. Speaking publicly for the first time about his diagnosis on July 1 with Lester Holt on the Today show, Mr. Glover said Alzheimer’s will change his life, but it will not define it. The 79-year-old actor shared that his diagnosis came shortly after receiving an honorary Academy Award in 2022. His decision to speak openly arrives as millions of Americans are asking what they can do today to protect their brain health before memory problems begin.

A new report from the Alzheimer’s Association, “2026 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures Special Report: American Perspectives on Brain Health,” found that Americans are increasingly interested in protecting their brains long before memory problems appear.

Among the report’s findings: nearly all Americans believe brain health is important, yet many do not know the specific steps to reduce their risk of cognitive decline. Additionally, most adults are willing to make lifestyle changes if they understand the connection between everyday habits and long-term brain health. Many, however, still do not know which everyday habits may lower the risk of cognitive decline.

Researchers continue to point to familiar practices: regular exercise, controlling blood pressure and diabetes, eating a healthy diet, getting enough sleep, staying socially connected and continuing to learn throughout life. None offers a guarantee, but together they appear to strengthen long-term brain health.

Much of that advice sounds familiar.

Long before Alzheimer’s became part of the public conversation, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad emphasized discipline in eating, moderation, what foods to eat and stay from and caring for the body before disease appears. His Teachings in book one and two of “How to Eat to Live” were not written as a guide to preventing dementia, yet they reflect the same preventive philosophy many physicians encourage today.

Mr. Glover’s announcement matters for another reason.

Black Americans are disproportionately affected by Alzheimer’s disease, yet few well-known Black public figures have spoken openly about living with it. Among those whose diagnoses became public are boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, gospel music pioneer Thomas A. Dorsey and civil rights icon Rosa Parks.

Many families never tell their stories.

Stigma remains. So do misconceptions about aging. Delayed diagnoses are common. Behind nearly every person living with Alzheimer’s is someone else whose life has also changed: a spouse, daughter, son or sibling who becomes a caregiver, often without training, sleep or much support.

Sister Dr. Khalillah Ali, who is based in Dallas, knows that reality well.

After her mother’s death, she realized her stepfather, Dwayne Walker, could no longer live safely on his own. She brought him from another state to live with her in Texas after discovering he had burned his hand and was struggling to care for himself. Soon she found herself awake through the night as he wandered through the house and worried constantly about leaving him alone while she worked. Her story is familiar.

Across the country, millions of relatives quietly reorganize their lives around someone else’s diagnosis. Careers change. Savings disappear. Sleep becomes interrupted. The emotional toll is harder to measure than the financial one, yet both are real.

Older Black Americans are about twice as likely as older White Americans to develop Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia. Researchers largely attribute that disparity to higher rates of heart disease, diabetes and unequal access to healthcare over a lifetime rather than to biology itself.

That makes prevention especially important.

Physicians encourage families to talk with healthcare providers early when memory changes appear instead of dismissing them as ordinary aging. Healthy habits adopted years before symptoms develop may reduce risk and help preserve brain function.

Danny Glover’s announcement reminds us that Alzheimer’s does not distinguish between celebrities and ordinary people. Every diagnosis touches a family. Every caregiver has a story.

Bringing those stories into the open may become one of the strongest tools for replacing fear with understanding.

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For most countries, the answer is still no.

Cuba requested the special debate held July 7, instead of waiting for the General Assembly’s annual vote later this year. Cuban officials argued that tighter U.S. sanctions have pushed the island deeper into economic crisis and created a humanitarian emergency.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla painted a grim picture before delegates. Fuel is scarce. Medicines are harder to obtain. Families endure long power outages, food shortages and rising prices. He said the embargo has become “a silent form of suffocation” for ordinary Cubans.

“In the last few months, the humanitarian damage to our population has intensified,” he said.  Families are suffering through blackouts, a lack of water, shortage of medication, food scarcity and the soaring price of essential goods. 

People with cancer lack access to life-saving medication.  And Cuba’s infant mortality rate of 4 per 1,000 live births in 2025 increased to 9.9, deaths that would not have occurred had there been equipment and therapies.”

The United States offered a different view and presented its unsubstantiated yet familiar talking points that Cuba’s economic troubles stem from decisions made by its own government. Critics argue nothing could be further from the truth. 

The unjust embargo began in the early years of the Cold War after the Cuban Revolution brought Fidel Castro to power in 1959. Cuba nationalized U.S.-owned property and aligned itself with the Soviet Union. The United States responded with economic restrictions in 1960.

Two years later, President John F. Kennedy expanded them into a near-total embargo. More than 60 years later, much of that policy remains in place because Congress reinforced it through the Helms-Burton Act, making it difficult for any president to dismantle the sanctions without congressional action.

Many countries see the issue differently than Washington.

Since 1992, the General Assembly has voted almost every year to call for an end to the embargo. Those resolutions are not binding, yet they reveal how isolated the United States has become on the issue.

Governments across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean argue that broad economic sanctions punish civilians far more than governments. Access to medicine, food, fuel and international banking is often the first casualty.

Ambassador Pierre Ericq Pierre of Haiti, speaking for the Caribbean community, known as CARICOM, urged both countries to normalize relations for the good of the region.

“CARICOM is a long-standing friend of Cuba and the United States and continues to call for the normalization of these two countries in the interest of the entire region,” he declared.

Ambassador Burhan Gafoor of Singapore, speaking for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, voiced concern about the “deep impact of the present situation on the Cuban people,” including on their access to food, medicine and other essential supplies. 

“It is fundamentally the well-being of ordinary Cubans that lies at the heart of our shared concern,” he affirmed.

Echoing that point, Mali’s representative, Issa Konfourou, speaking on behalf of the African Group, declared: “No difference between two States can justify the collective punishment of an entire people—still less any measure that places the lives and well-being of its population in jeopardy.”

Africa remembers

Cuba’s history with Africa helps explain why many African nations continue to stand with Cuba in UN debates. During the liberation struggles of the 1960s through the 1980s, Cuba sent soldiers, doctors, engineers and teachers to several African countries.

Its military role in Angola remains especially significant. Historians have long argued that the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale weakened apartheid South Africa’s military position, helped clear the way for Namibian independence and accelerated the collapse of apartheid itself.

When Nelson Mandela visited Havana after his release from prison, he publicly thanked Cuba for standing with African liberation movements when many Western governments would not. Cuba has continued that commitment through medical missions and educational exchanges across the continent.

The world stands with Cuba

Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Minister for Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, described the United States blockade of Cuba as “a striking example of illegitimate unilateral measures of intimidation and punishment against Governments deemed undesirable.”

international community had consistently answered that policy with a firm “no,” he said, recalling the Assembly resolutions adopted since 1992 and supported by overwhelming majorities of Member States.

He expressed regret that efforts to convene the meeting had faced strong opposition and alleged that pressure had been exerted on foreign partners to discourage support for Havana’s initiative.  The blockade was one of the methods used to establish control over the territory and revive the Monroe Doctrine.

China’s representative placed the issue in the context of sovereign equality and opposition to interference in internal affairs. “Any military adventurism will only push the region towards a precipice of uncertainty,” he warned.  “No single country can act as the international police, nor can any country make itself out to be the international judge,” he added.

The General Assembly cannot force the United States to lift the embargo. It can make its position known.

Year after year, an overwhelming majority of the world’s nations have done exactly that. The debate has grown beyond relations between Washington and Havana. It now raises larger questions about sovereignty, economic sanctions and whether ordinary people should bear the cost of political disputes between governments.

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The group was on the ground in Cuba as part of an Emergency Mutual Solidarity and Engagement Fact-Finding Delegation.

Organized by the Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW) and convened by Dr. Ron Daniels, the broad-based delegation, including journalists, business leaders, and activists, traveled to the island to bear witness to what Cuban officials call “intolerable acts” perpetuated by six decades of U.S. policy.

“The masses of Cuban people have suffered far too long from 67 years of selective, punitive blockades and sanctions imposed by the government of the United States,” Dr. Daniels told The Final Call.

“To add insult to injury, the current administration in Washington is inflicting collective punishment on the Cuban people by imposing a blockade on fuel urgently needed to provide electricity for the nation and sanctions on any nation seeking to assist Cuba to meet its essential needs. Collective punishment of a people is a violation of international law.”

The human cost of the blockade is not abstract. It is measured in closed schools, in dark nights, in empty medicine cabinets, and in impossible choices.

Yanela Gonzalez Gonzalez, a professor at Isri International University, spoke passionately about daily life under the siege. “There is genocide in Cuba, in a silent way among the people,” she said. “It’s very, very bad for the people, and especially for the Black women and our kids.”

She recalled a devastating loss: “Yesterday, my neighbor passed away because she didn’t have transportation to go to the hospital. When she previously tried to go to the hospital, she was told there wasn’t enough medicine to attend to her.”

Her plea was direct: “We need you to share our voices with the people in the United States. We need your solidarity. We need solar panels; we need medicine; we need people to respect the way that we decide to live.”

The delegation met with Carlos Fernández de Cossío, deputy minister at MINREX (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), who detailed the revolutionary gains now under threat.

He reminded the group that Cuba once guaranteed a liter of milk to every child and every pregnant woman, “regardless of who they are, who their parents are, if they’re professionals, if they’re farmers, if they’re delinquents, if they’re in jail, if they’re counterrevolutionary.”

That, he said, is social justice, along with free healthcare and free education for all. For decades, Cuba’s child mortality, maternal mortality, and life expectancy outpaced every country in the hemisphere except Canada.

But today, those gains are crumbling under U.S. economic warfare. Deputy Minister Fernández de Cossío asked plainly: “Is that a crime? Is that a criminal punishment imposed on a population that includes infants?”

The official described a nation that often endures 16 to 42 hours without electricity in the 21st century, with food spoiling, children doing homework at 2:00 a.m. when power returns, and those with respiratory illnesses unable to run medical equipment. Meanwhile, he charged, the U.S. spends $30–50 million annually on propaganda blaming Cuba’s own government for suffering caused by the blockade.

Walking through Cuban neighborhoods, delegation members heard directly from residents.

Alejandro, a man with asthma, explained that because medical supplies are restricted, he can only obtain his inhaler on the black market. “Tell the Americans that we are suffering in Cuba because we can’t get basic care,” he said. “I need my inhaler but can’t find it. If I do, should I pay for it or get food for my family? These are choices people shouldn’t have to make.”

Dr. E. Faye Williams, peace activist, senior advisor to the World Council of Mayors, and former president of the National Congress of Black Women, said the Cubans she met were willing to share their struggles openly. But she stressed solidarity is not one-way.

“I certainly hope that the women we talked with here don’t feel that we have it so good in America,” Dr. Williams told The Final Call. “We, women, have our challenges in America, too. I hope they feel that they’re not alone, and that what we promised to do as we heard what their challenges are, [we will] do what we can to resolve, and also know that we have challenges.”

Dr. Haki Ammi, IBW board member, author, and educator, said the trip clarified the need for stronger organizing. “I’m dissecting the power dynamics, in terms of what Black people actually represent, and how we have to up our ante,” he said.

“The U.S. has oppressed this nation for decades. We have to expose the contradictions in the system, and expose that if the U.S. comes for Cuba, who else are they coming for?”

The delegation met with a range of Cuban officials, including at MINREX, the National Assembly, and municipal levels. They also visited the Afro-Cuban civil society and anti-racist organizations. Their conclusion: The solidarity movement must deepen and broaden.

Dr. Daniels announced that the group will return to the U.S. committed to systematic engagement through channels established by Pastors for Peace, which regularly sends aid to Cuba. They will also urge the Congressional Black Caucus, legacy civil and human rights organizations, and progressive faith groups to demand normalization of relations with Cuba.

“The Black world owes a debt to the people of Cuba,” Dr. Daniels said. “Hopefully, the African Union will have the audacity to follow CARICOM’s lead and defy the rogue regime in the U.S. by assembling an aid package and challenging the blockade.”

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At a June 9 news conference in Washington, D.C., the Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW) and the Pan African Unity Dialogue (PAUD) unveiled a sweeping action agenda contained in a communique following their May 2026 emergency delegation to Cuba. The trip was for the delegation to witness firsthand the impact of what they called “economic asphyxiation” by the U.S. government.

“Right off of our shores, we are strangling and denying a sovereign nation the ability to have access to oil, and we know that equals death,” said Congressman Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.), who traveled to Cuba in April and addressed the news conference. “Beyond these numbers, there are real people.”

Rep. Jackson, whose father, the late Rev. Jesse Jackson, was a longtime friend of Cuba, recalled visiting a maternity ward in Havana where ventilators had failed due to power surges caused by the fuel embargo. He drew sharp contrasts between U.S. policy toward Cuba and its relationships with other nations that are considered “communist.”

“The president is best friends with the Communist Party in Russia. The United States’ biggest trading partner is communist China. And yet we have this ongoing fight with the sovereign people of Cuba,” Rep. Jackson said. “It’s time the United States recognizes the island of Cuba. People have their own right to self-determination.”

What the delegation witnessed

The 24-member delegation visited Cuba from May 26-30 and included economists, psychologists, social workers, publishers, clergy, and community organizers.

They met with Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel, Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossio Domínguez, and Esteban Lazo Hernandez, president of the National Assembly of People’s Power, Cuba’s equivalent of the Speaker of the House.

Dr. Ron Daniels, president of IBW and convener of the delegation, described an hour-long meeting with President Diaz-Canel that far exceeded expectations.

“He said, ‘We’re being accused of being incompetent. I dispute that. But what if we were incompetent? Being incompetent is not a rationale for invasion or for collective punishment of people,’” Dr. Daniels recounted.

“There are no thousands of people being slaughtered on the streets of Havana anywhere. And yet America can have relationships with everybody, but not Cuba,” said Dr. Daniels.

Delegates visited the Hermanos Ameijeiras Clinical Surgical Hospital, where doctors described gut-wrenching decisions about which patients would receive dialysis or life-saving surgery due to shortages of medicine, equipment, and electricity caused by the blockade.

“One of the doctors spoke up. He was being strong, but his voice cracked and he began to cry,” Dr. Daniels said. “He was not crying for himself. He was crying because he could not do what he loved to do most, serve his patients.”

Dr. Julianne Malveaux, economist and president emerita of Bennett College, said the suffering was visible in small but devastating details. She met a woman who had money to buy a chicken but was afraid to purchase it because she didn’t know how long her electricity would last to cook or preserve it.

“Her survival method is that if she buys a chicken, she shares it with her neighbors, hoping they will share with her,” Dr. Malveaux said. “The people are lifting each other. But I don’t know how many times I almost cried.”

She also described meeting a young boy who attended school only on Tuesdays. “The teachers are not in the classrooms every day. They can’t get there. If children don’t go to school every day, you are basically setting them up for generational failure.”

A legacy of solidarity

The communique issued by the delegation begins with a salute to actor-activist Danny Glover and cultural strategist James Early, whom Harry Belafonte called “the Paul Robeson of our era.”

Dr. Daniels noted that Early, who has visited Cuba for nearly half a century, observed homeless people and beggars on the streets for the first time, including children and pregnant mothers pleading with tourists for a dollar to buy food.

One striking encounter was with an Afro-Cuban “Trump supporter” who recalled that life was better after President Obama normalized relations with Cuba. “Tourists came in large numbers. The injection of dollars created opportunities,” the man told delegates. With the repeal of the Obama accords and the reimposition of the fuel embargo, he said life had become “virtually unbearable.”

“He was not so much a Trump supporter as a desperate human being who wanted Trump to invade, oust the government and end the embargo,” Dr. Daniels said. “He was hungry. He was hurting.”

Next steps: Humanitarian aid and political action

The delegation announced a two-track action agenda.

For humanitarian assistance, IBW will channel aid through Pastors for Peace, in partnership with the Martin Luther King Center in Cuba, honoring the legacy of Rev. Lucius Walker.

The organization will also:

• Encourage adoption of neighborhood community centers like the Karibuni Community Center
• Promote cultural-historical tourism focused on Afro-Cuban contributions
• Organize an African American women’s delegation for dialogue with Afro-Cuban women, led by Dr. Malveaux
• Facilitate board meetings of civil rights and professional organizations in Cuba

On political education and engagement, the agenda includes:

• A major forum on Cuba at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Legislative Conference, the first of its kind, according to Dr. Daniels
• Delegations of Black mayors, state legislators, and legal experts to exchange with Cuban counterparts
• Bringing Cuban officials, including the head of Cuba’s Commission on Racism, to the U.S. for dialogue
• A sustained civic engagement strategy to “break the hold of the Cuban community in Florida and its allies that have held U.S. policy hostage for 77 years.”

Dr. Daniels was blunt about the political calculus and said that ending the blockade is part of the Black agenda.

Dr. E. Faye Williams of the World Congress of Mayors, who has traveled to conflict zones including Iraq, Libya, and Haiti, said she had never been treated with such openness as in Cuba.

“The people of Cuba did not lie to us. They did not keep us from seeing anything we wanted to see,” she said. “We met two young women from California and New York studying at the Latin American School of Medicine. Some of our people are alive today because of the work they have done and are doing there.”

Rep. Jackson closed his comments with a call to action rooted in ancestral legacy. “On behalf of my family, I say thank you for having worked with my father over all these many years. He is now with the ancestors, sitting high, looking low, proud to know that you are continuing the work. The mantle was passed, and you’re carrying it forward.”

Dr. Daniels echoed Rev. Jesse Jackson’s famous refrain: “Hopeless people never wage revolution or reform struggle. Even if people are suffering, if they can see a promise for tomorrow, we have an obligation to keep hope alive. Every time we go, when people see us and things are happening, somebody is fighting for us. Somebody is trying to change our conditions.”

The full communique and action agenda are available at IBW21.ORG.

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Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the indictment at Miami’s Freedom Tower, a historic site associated with Cuban migration to the United States.

Federal prosecutors allege that Raúl Castro, who served as head of Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces at the time, ordered the destruction of the aircraft.

The indictment includes charges of conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, destruction of aircraft, and four counts of murder. The legal action comes more than 30 years after the Feb. 24, 1996, incident.

Raúl Castro is the younger brother of freedom fighter and revolutionary, Comandante Fidel Castro, whom the U.S. targeted for decades.

The charges against the younger Castro may be largely symbolic unless Cuba agrees to extradite him, which remains highly unlikely. Cuba has historically refused U.S. extradition requests involving political matters.

However, in 2020, former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro was charged with drug offenses, an accusation Mr. Maduro denied. However, in January of this year, U.S. forces kidnapped and captured Mr. Maduro and his wife and transported them to New York for trial.

Delcy Rodríguez is now serving as the Acting President of Venezuela. During the military operation, a reported 32 Cubans, primarily members of Cuba’s armed forces and intelligence agencies, were killed. Venezuela and Cuba have been longtime allies.

The indictment of Raúl Castro quickly drew sharp criticism from Havana, which denounced the move as “an infamous act of political provocation” and rejected U.S. jurisdiction over Cuban officials.

In a statement posted on X by the Cuban Embassy in Washington, the Cuban government defended the 1996 action as “an act of legitimate self-defense.”  Cuban officials argued that the Brothers to the Rescue aircraft repeatedly violated Cuban airspace despite repeated diplomatic protests lodged with the U.S. between 1994 and 1996.

“The inaction of the U.S. government in the face of the warnings issued by Cuba at the time revealed its complicity,” the statement said.

The indictment has also sparked criticism inside the United States. Rep. Gregory Meeks, ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, while expressing criticism of Mr. Castro, warned that the indictment appeared “less like a pursuit of justice and more like a pretext for escalation.”

Rep. Meeks criticized the Trump administration’s tightening of sanctions and pressure campaign against Cuba, arguing that additional punitive measures would worsen humanitarian suffering on the island rather than produce democratic reforms.

The indictment has also reopened debate about Washington’s historical relationship with anti-Castro militant groups. A commentary published by Belly of the Beast Cuba argued that the U.S. has long applied a “double standard” regarding terrorism connected to Cuba.

The article referenced anti-Castro exile figures linked to violent attacks against Cuba, including the 1976 bombing of Cubana Flight 455 that killed 73 people.

International reaction to the recent indictment expanded on May 21 when China publicly condemned Washington’s actions. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun accused the U.S. of “abusing judicial means”

And using sanctions and legal pressure as tools against Cuba. Beijing called on Washington to end what it described as coercive policies and threats toward the island nation.  

China’s criticism comes amid growing global opposition to the Trump administration’s intensified sanctions regime against Cuba. Earlier this month, Beijing described expanded U.S. sanctions as “illegal” and said the measures violated international norms and Cuba’s right to development.  

Russia also expressed support for Havana following the indictment. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Washington of “gross interference” in Cuba’s internal affairs and pledged continued support for the Cuban people amid mounting U.S. pressure.  

The case referenced in the indictment revives one of the most contentious episodes in modern U.S.-Cuba relations. Brothers to the Rescue, founded by Cuban exiles in Miami, initially conducted search-and-rescue missions for migrants at sea but later carried out provocative flights over Havana, including leaflet drops critical of the Cuban government.

On Feb. 24, 1996, Cuban fighter jets shot down two Cessna aircraft operated by the group. Cuba maintained the planes had violated its airspace, while the U.S. said the aircraft were in international airspace when they were destroyed.

Asked whether the United States expected Castro to face trial in a U.S. courtroom, A.G. Blanche declined to discuss possible extradition strategies but insisted the case was not merely symbolic.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla condemned the charges as “illegitimate and illegal,” while repeating Cuba’s longstanding characterization of Brothers to the Rescue as a hostile organization engaged in actions against Cuban sovereignty.

The same day the indictment was announced, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is of Cuban descent, posted a message in Spanish on X criticizing Cuba’s leadership and blaming the country’s economic hardships on government corruption and mismanagement rather than U.S. sanctions, which have been widely condemned as unjust.

Carlos Fernández de Cossío, Cuba’s deputy foreign minister, responded on social media, accusing U.S. officials of deliberately misleading the public about the impact of decades-long U.S. economic pressure on Cuba.

The U.S. has targeted and worked to dismantle the Cuban government and the spirit of the revolution started by Fidel Castro for decades. The U.S. government—through the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)—made numerous attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro over the years.

Cuba closed its official response by reaffirming support for Mr. Castro, stating: “The Cuban people reaffirm their unrestricted and unwavering support for Army General Raúl Castro Ruz.”

Final Call staff contributed to this report.

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Cuba’s government condemned the new sanctions as an act of genocide, and its foreign minister warned that it could put the U.S. on a path toward a violent conflict.

Secretary Rubio’s announcement followed the State Department’s decision to send staff to U.S. Southern Command in Miami, preparing for possible conflict with Cuba. This move added military backing to the foreign minister’s warning about a dangerous path.

He said the new sanctions target two Cuban business groups and a top executive, as part of the Trump administration’s push for regime change. The targets include GAESA, a military-run company that controls much of Cuba’s economy; its leader, Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera; and Moa Nickel S.A., which runs the metals and mining sector. 

The sanctions were imposed under Executive Order 14404, signed by President Trump on May 1. They target people and groups that support Cuba’s government and security forces. Secretary warned that more sanctions were likely.

These unjust and crippling sanctions have a wide impact. U.S. citizens, businesses, and banks are now banned from doing business with GAESA. Foreign companies or individuals who work with GAESA could also face penalties, such as losing access to the U.S. financial system.

In a recent interview with ABC News in Havana, Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla delivered Havana’s sharpest warning yet.

Mr. Rodríguez warned that the U.S. is on a “dangerous path” that could lead to a “bloodbath in Cuba,” and said he takes President Trump’s threats “very seriously,” adding that Cuba will “exercise its right for its legitimate defense” if attacked militarily.

Mr. Rodríguez was direct about negotiations. He said there has been “no progress” in talks with the U.S., and that Cuba’s political system or internal matters are “not on the table.” He also said using accusations against Cuba to justify military action is “forbidden by international law.”

Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned the May 1, 2026, Executive Order, calling it a measure that “intensifies, to extreme and unprecedented levels, the economic, financial and commercial blockade against Cuba.”

The Ministry described the Treasury Department’s actions as “a ruthless act of economic aggression” that could lead to penalties for foreign companies and banks worldwide, even if they have no ties to U.S.-Cuba trade.

Mr. Rodríguez called the U.S. action “a collective punishment of a genocidal nature that condemns the entire nation and uses it as a hostage for purposes of domination.”

Washington’s press releases on its sanctions fail to show the harsh daily life of Cuba’s nearly 11 million people, who are already struggling under the weight of U.S. sanctions. In March 2026, the island’s power grid failed, leaving almost everyone without electricity for more than a day.

The country faces a growing humanitarian crisis, with limited access to food, water, and medicine. The average state salary is less than $13 a month. A carton of 30 eggs costs over 3,000 pesos, which is about a week’s pay. Medicines are in short supply at state pharmacies, forcing people to buy them on the black market.

Meanwhile, the suffering people face is very real.

Maria Elena Rodríguez, a retired teacher from Pinar del Río in western Cuba, told The New Humanitarian by phone that she has never faced such hardship. “Nothing compares to what we are living today,” she said.

She is now used to skipping at least one meal per day: “Sometimes I just don’t want to cook with coal. I am an asthmatic, and the smoke is very bad for me. Sometimes, I don’t have anything to eat, and the scarce food I find gets rotten after several hours without refrigeration.”

For many Cubans, leaving the country seems like the only option. Between 2021 and 2025, more than one million people left the island, and some say the real number is even higher. Many families now rely on money sent by relatives and friends abroad to buy food and medicine and to support small informal businesses.

Since January 2026, the U.S. has put in place more than 240 sanctions and stopped at least seven tankers, cutting Cuba’s energy imports by 80 to 90%. The effects were felt right away.

The Canadian mining company Sherritt International suspended all operations in Cuba following the new sanctions, leaving the island without its largest mining partner and 10 to 15% of its electricity supply.

A United Nations Special Rapporteur who recently visited Cuba urged the U.S. to lift its sanctions. The rapporteur noted that this is “the longest-running unilateral sanctions policy in U.S. foreign relations” and said it has hurt Cuban society, even though most countries oppose it.

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Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canelwalked through the crowd early in the morning. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, posted a video of Cubans dancing on social networks and wrote, “The Cuban people respond to today’s new U.S. Executive Order, #May1st, which contains new unilateral coercive measures. We will not be intimidated,” he wrote, adding the hashtag #DefendTheHomeland alongside his message.

Osnay Miguel Colina Rodríguez, president of the Organizing Committee of the 22nd Congress of the Cuban Workers’ Federation (CTC), addressed the crowd, bringing out the Cuban people’s steadfastness in the face of external aggression. “Our enemies have tried and tested everything. They expected to see us discouraged, defeated, and here we are, committed and firm, with our feet in the stirrup and fighting,” he said.

The trade union leader described the massive gathering of more than half a million people as “Fidel’s May Day in the year of his centennial.”

The festivities were a powerful show of resistance, but for many on the island, the daily reality is one of deepening crises.

A Havana resident who has followed Cuban politics for decades, was unable to attend this year’s march due to ongoing health challenges. Speaking to The Final Call from her home, she described a population under immense strain.

“There were many people protesting against Trump’s new laws against Cuba,” she said. “But we are really struggling with blackouts, no running water, and high prices of food and medicines even in the black market.”

Her words paint a picture far removed from the celebratory scenes. The new U.S. measures, which include an oil blockade and sanctions that have intercepted at least seven tankers since January, have worsened an already severe energy crisis. Power outages now last up to 24 hours a day in more than half the country, according to Cuba Headlines.

The Cuban government relocated the main May Day rally from Revolution Square to the site facing the U.S. Embassy, citing “austerity” and the “energy blockade” as reasons. Nearly 95-year-old former president Raúl Castro presided over the event, during which organizers presented petitions bearing over 6.2 million signatures in support of the homeland.

The gathering also united more than 827 supporters of Cuba from 38 nations, 152 global trade unions and solidarity groups, labor heroes, founders of the Cuban Workers’ Federation, and members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the nation. Simultaneously, thousands of Cubans participated in marches throughout the country, adding to the nationwide mobilization.

The remarks by the Havana resident interviewed by The Final Call, reinforced the complexity of the moment. While she noted the widespread anger at U.S. policy, she did not shy away from describing the collapse of basic services. The Trump administration has imposed more than 240 sanctions on Cuba since January, presenting them as part of a campaign to force political and economic change.

For the Cuban government, May Day was a chance to project unity and resistance. But for residents like the woman interviewed by The Fial Call, the blockade and the government’s own economic struggles have produced a humanitarian squeeze.

“We support the revolution,” she said, “but the people are tired. We need light. We need water. We need medicine.”

As the drums faded along the Malecón and the crowds dispersed, the contrast between the rally’s defiant energy and the calm despair in Havana’s homes could not have been starker. The Trump administration shows no sign of relenting, and Cuba’s leaders show no sign of bending. In between are millions of people, navigating blackouts and empty shelves, waiting for relief that has not come.

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For many in the United States and around the world, already reeling from the financial toll of war, those numbers mean something specific. Here is what $25 billion could have achieved instead.

1. Feed the hungry for one year, with room left over to save them from future famine:

It takes about $16.9 billion dollars to feed the 123 million most vulnerable people, according to the UN World Food Program and $25 billion would feed the world’s hungry for a whole year, leaving around $8 billion dollars to build up their reserves against future famine.

2. Pay off student debt for over 630,000 graduates:

Today’s average U.S. federal student loan debt sits at around $39,633. This means $25 billion dollars would cover student debt for more than 630,000 debtors, many of them Black, Latino and other non-Whites whose earning potential is held back by their loans.

3. Fill out endowments of every HBCU almost 10 times over:

According to the College Transparency Act, the total amount of money in the endowment funds of every Historically Black College and University in America amounts to around $2.6 billion and $25 billion would fund HBCUs’ endowments almost 10 times over.

4. Provide access to safe water to almost 500 million people:

The annual cost of ensuring universal access to clean drinking water is estimated at $114 billion. Two months’ worth of that funding would enable almost 500 million people to gain access to safe drinking water and protection from water-related diseases.

5. Hire almost 400,000 teachers for a year:

The median salary of teachers in U.S. public schools stands at approximately $65,000 per year and $25 billion would hire almost 400,000 of those teachers, reducing class sizes and expanding educational resources for millions of students.

6. Build over 60,000 American homes:

Twenty-five billion dollars ($25 billion) is currently enough to build or renovate 60,000 homes, based on the median housing price in the U.S. This could mean that the affordable housing crises in Baltimore, Detroit, and New Orleans could become a thing of the past.

While the Pentagon calls $25 billion dollars the cost of war, the poor and marginalized in the U.S. could call it something else: the price and expense of their hunger, homelessness, and their children’s future.

—Nisa Islam Muhammad, Staff Writer

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