On the geopolitical map, Cuba is a small island. On the map of human dignity, it is far more. For over six decades, the Cuban people have waged an existential battle against the most prolonged and cruel economic, commercial, and financial blockade in modern history. This is not a simple "embargo”, a term that suggests a bilateral measure. It is, as Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz defined it, an "economic, commercial, and financial war that does not cease in its attempt to bring us to our knees through hunger and disease."

The true nature of this policy was revealed at the dawn of the Revolution. In an internal memorandum from the US Department of State dated April 6, 1960, Deputy Assistant Secretary Lester D. Mallory recommended: "The majority of Cubans support Castro [...] There is no effective political opposition [...] The only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship [...] every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba [...] denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government."

This document, a confession of a crime against humanity, is the birth certificate of the blockade. It was not a dispute between governments, but a premeditated strategy to punish an entire people, to "bring about hunger and desperation" among the civilian population and thus break their will. "The island of resistance" is not a slogan; it is the daily chronicle of a nation that, against this logic of extermination, has turned the capacity to resist into a pillar of its identity.

The figures of suffocation

To understand the capacity for resistance, one must first grasp the scale of the wall Cubans are trying to climb. The official statistics, presented before the United Nations General Assembly, are telling. In the last reported year, the direct damage inflicted on the Cuban economy amounted to the astronomical figure of $7,556.1 million. To put this in perspective, this amount represents losses that, in the absence of the blockade, would have translated into economic growth of 9.2% for the island.

The following data breaks down the multi-sector impact, showing how the blockade has no single target but is a generalized attack on the foundations of socialist society:

• Overall Impact: $7,556.1 million in one year; economic growth would have been 9.2% without the blockade.
• Energy: 2 months of the blockade equals the fuel needed to meet the nation's normal electricity demand (USD $1,600 million).
• Public Health: 16 days of the blockade equals the funding for the entire year's supply of basic medicines (USD $339 million).
• Food: 2 months of the blockade equals the funding for the entire year's supply of the subsidized basic food basket (USD $1,600 million).
• Education: 5 hours of the blockade equals the cost of purchasing teaching materials for all the nation's childcare centers.

The accumulated damage over more than six decades exceeds $170 billion. If current prices and the effect of the dollar in the international market were considered, the figure would rise to over one trillion dollars. These are not just macroeconomic data; they represent hospitals that are not built, food that does not reach the table, and development dreams cut short.

The Human Cost

The true tragedy of the blockade is felt far from financial reports. It is lived in the daily anguish, in the daily struggle for the most essential things.

• Public Health Under Siege. The Cuban health system, a pride of the Revolution and an example to the world, operates under a permanent state of siege. The blockade prevents the purchase of frontline medicines, state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment, spare parts, and active components to manufacture a high percentage of the medicines needed in Cuba. The Trading with the Enemy Act and US regulations prohibit the sale to Cuba of products with more than 10% US components, which covers almost all advanced medical technology.

Besides this, the United States actively persecutes and boycotts Cuba's international medical cooperation, a cornerstone of our global solidarity. This strategy includes smear campaigns against its medical missions and, crucially, the enforcement of extraterritorial sanctions that punish third countries for hiring Cuban medical brigades. Furthermore, the financial blockade directly obstructs payments for these services, denying Cuba vital revenue and depriving vulnerable populations worldwide of crucial healthcare, in a deliberate effort to strangle a key diplomatic and humanitarian resource.

Concrete and shocking examples of the blockade in the supply of health services to Cuban population:

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• Just 16 hours of the damage caused by the blockade equals the cost of all the insulin needed for diabetic people in Cuba for one year.
• During the COVID-19 pandemic, Cuba had agreed to purchase vital lung ventilators from a Swiss company. A US company bought the Swiss factory and immediately canceled the contract with the island, leaving critically ill patients without that life-saving equipment. Thanks to its scientific and technical capabilities, Cuba was able to begin producing this equipment domestically at an extremely accelerated pace.
• This induced scarcity has generated a surgical waiting list of more than 94,000 people, including thousands of children and oncology patients, whose suffering is unnecessarily prolonged.

Food strangulation

Food security is another direct target. Cuba is forced to import about 70% of the food it consumes, but the blockade imposes an additional cost of 30% to 40%, forcing it to buy in distant markets and find ways to evade sanctions. Internally, agriculture suffers a critical situation: a significant portion of arable land cannot be properly exploited due to a lack of machinery, spare parts, fuel, and fertilizers. In 2019, the fuel shortage prevented the planting of more than 12,000 hectares of rice, which translated into 195,000 tonnes of food that never reached the plates of Cubans.

This siege affects all of the nation's economic actors equally. The blockade does not distinguish between the state-run socialist enterprise and the private sector; it suffocates both spheres equally. For self-employed workers (TCP) and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), the siege is just as rigid. They are prevented from importing supplies, raw materials, equipment, or spare parts from the United States or that contain more than 10% US components, which brutally limits their capacity to produce and offer services.

Access to online payment platforms, software, and technologies essential for managing and growing their businesses is also blocked. This deliberate policy seeks to strangle all economic initiative on the island, demonstrating that the ultimate goal is to paralyze all of Cuba's productive life, regardless of its management model.

Financial and energy choking

Cuba is practically disconnected from the international financial system. Dozens of foreign banks reject transactions with the island for fear of multi-million dollar US sanctions. This blocks payments for food, medicine, and fuel. Remittances, a lifeline for many families, were deliberately strangled. This policy was extremely reinforced by US President Donald Trump, who has been strongly supporting the tightening of the blockade.

The energy crisis is a particularly damaging manifestation for the common citizen. The persecution of oil tankers and supplying companies has caused a chronic fuel shortage, generating widespread blackouts that paralyze the economy, spoil food in refrigerators, and plunge homes into darkness and heat. The damage from just 5 days of the blockade equals the funding needed to repair one of the country's main thermoelectric power plants.

The US blockade severely cripples Cuba's international tourism industry, its vital economic engine, by actively deterring visitors and investors. US regulations prohibit most US citizens from traveling freely to the island and threaten foreign companies with hefty fines for doing business with any Cuban entities, scaring away investment and limiting hotel development, airline routes, and cruise ship arrivals. Furthermore, complex financial restrictions make simple transactions, from card payments to international bank transfers for tour operators, exceedingly difficult, creating a climate of uncertainty that stifles growth and prevents Cuba from competing on a level playing field in the global tourism market.

The anguish of Cubans

Beyond the material, the blockade inflicts a deep wound on the national spirit. Life becomes a perpetual quest: from dawn, one plans how to get food, how to get around without fuel, how to obtain medicine. It is a permanent stress that crosses generations, as over 80% of Cubans were born and have only known life under the blockade. This erosion is a calculated side effect, designed to undermine hope and fracture unity.

The mechanisms of resistance: Ingenuity, dignity, and solidarity

Faced with this panorama, the Cuban response has been monumental. The resistance is not passive; it is creative, organized, and deeply solidary.

A world in solidarity with Cuba

The Cuban people do not resist alone. Across the globe, a powerful and diverse solidarity movement has taken root, reflecting the international community's overwhelming rejection of the US blockade. In over 100 countries, associations of friendship and solidarity with Cuba actively work to denounce the US policy, break the media siege, and provide material support. These groups, composed of politicians, intellectuals, artists, trade unionists, and ordinary citizens, organize caravans to send humanitarian aid, lead campaigns for the return of the illegally occupied territory of Guantánamo, and advocate for their governments to maintain a firm stance against the blockade in international forums. This global network of solidarity is a testament to Cuba's moral standing and a crucial front in the battle of ideas, proving that the island's resistance resonates deeply with justice-loving people everywhere.

Popular mobilization and the diplomatic battle

The Cuban people do not sit idly by. Resistance is expressed in massive mobilizations, with historic marches on Havana's seawall (malecón) and across the island, and demonstrations such as those on May Day, where millions of voices rise to support the Revolution, denounce the blockade, and protest the unjust inclusion of Cuba on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, a designation that Senator Marco Rubio defends vehemently, having stated: "We must use every tool to isolate them and pressure for “democratic” change. The State Sponsors of Terrorism list is one of them." This position is based on a gross falsehood and ignores Cuba's role as a guarantor of peace in processes such as the Colombian dialogues between the government and guerrilla organizations. The real objective of Cuba's presence on this illegal list is political asphyxiation, not the fight against terrorism.

Internationally, Cuba wages an exemplary legal and moral battle. For 32 consecutive years, the UN General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly in favor of the resolution demanding an end to the blockade. In the last vote, 187 countries sided with Cuba, leaving only the United States and "Israel" in an insignificant minority. This is not a minor diplomatic triumph; it is the confirmation that the entire world recognizes the injustice being committed against the island.

Innovation as a weapon of sovereignty

The act of "creating is resisting" has become ingrained in Cuba. Faced with the impossibility of importing technology, the island has developed remarkable scientific and technological sovereignty. The biotechnology sector is the ultimate banner: despite the so-called sanctions, Cuba created its own vaccines against COVID-19 (Abdala and Soberana) and exports medicines and knowledge to more than 50 countries. While the blockade seeks to isolate, Cuban scientists convert scarcity into innovation.

Medical internationalism is another trench in this resistance. The "Army of White Coats" brigades have traveled the entire world, bringing health and solidarity to the neediest corners, even while Cuba itself faces severe shortages. This act of sharing the little one has is a powerful ethical message to the world.

President Miguel Díaz-Canel embodies the spirit of resistance when he states: "Yes, the blockade exists... But we have—and this is what matters most—a heroic and dignified people. And we will always overcome." This is not mere rhetoric; it is the logical conclusion of six decades of trial and error, of falls and recoveries, and the materialization of Fidel Castro's deepest convictions: "Men may die, but examples will never die! Men may die, but ideas will never die! Such a people can never be defeated!"

Resistance as moral victory              

"The island of resistance" is, ultimately, the story of a people who have refused to be defined by the punishment of an empire. The Mallory Memorandum, with its cynical confession of wanting to provoke "hunger and desperation," has found its response not in surrender, but in an ironclad dignity that has defied all political calculations.

The blockade has failed in its fundamental objective of destroying the Cuban Revolution, but it has had a cruel success in generating hardship and suffering. However, in its strategic failure, it has forged the opposite of what it sought: a nation more united, more ingenious, more respected, more admired and more conscious of its right to self-determination.

The human cost of the blockade is a stain on the conscience of those who apply and defend it. But the Cuban response, with its science, its art, its education, and its unbreakable solidarity, constitutes a moral victory of historical dimensions. Cuba's resistance is not just for its own survival; it is a lesson for all humanity about the capacity of dignity to overcome brute power. As long as the blockade persists, the island will continue to resist, proving that sometimes the greatest strength lies not with those who impose the siege, but with those who, from within, refuse to lower the flag.

(Note: The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not represent the views of any Cuban institution.)

Bibliography

1. Government of the Republic of Cuba. (2024). Report by Cuba on resolution 77/7 of the United Nations General Assembly entitled “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba”. Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
2. Memorandum by Lester D. Mallory (April 6, 1960). United States Department of State. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958-1960, Volume VI, Cuba.
3. United Nations. (2023). Resolution A/78/L.5: Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba. General Assembly Voting Results.
4. Castro Ruz, F. (2003). Speeches and remarks at events to denounce and condemn the blockade. Office of Publications of the Council of State.
5. Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, M. (2022). Speech at the March of the Combatant People. Official transcript, Presidency of Cuba.
6. Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP). (2023). Dossier: The solidarity movement with Cuba in the world. Havana, Cuba.