ActionAid Association stands in solidarity with the people of Cuba, as they face a severe fuel crisis caused by the United States Government threatening sanctions on any country supplying oil to the small island nation.

Severe energy shortages are disrupting essential services and basic human needs. Schools, hospitals, and community services are struggling to function amidst prolonged power cuts. Blackouts and transportation breakdowns are accelerating, and garbage collection has stalled, leading to mountains of waste piling up in Havana’s streets due to fuel scarcity. These conditions are not abstract statistics, they are lived realities for Cuban families, workers, students, and elders.

For more than six decades, Cuba has endured an economic embargo that aimed to isolate and destabilize the nation due to its assertion of sovereign self-determination. Despite this sustained pressure, Cuba has prioritized access to education and healthcare, advancing literacy, universal schooling, and public health systems that serve its people.

Despite the challenges, Cuba has led the way in demonstrating South-South Solidarity. Since the early 1960s, Cuba has dispatched more than 400,000 health professionals to over 160 countries, often responding to crises in regions where healthcare systems were overstretched or absent. Cuban medical staff have responded to earthquakes, Ebola, and COVID-19—strengthening public health systems and exemplifying global medical solidarity grounded in preventive care and South-South cooperation. It was in recognition of these efforts that in 2021 a global campaign, led by unions, academics, and politicians, nominated Cuba’s Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade for the Nobel Peace Prize. The brigade was sought to be recognized for sending thousands of doctors and nurses to over 39 countries during the COVID-19 pandemic and for previous disaster relief efforts.

The guiding principle that informs such efforts is best captured in in Fidel Castro words when he addressed delegates of the South Summit in 2000: “We are fighting for the most sacred rights of the poor countries; but we are also fighting for the salvation of a First World incapable of preserving the existence of the human species, of governing itself in the midst of contradictions and self-serving interests and much less of governing the world whose leadership must be democratically shared.”

ActionAid Association honours the achievements of the Cuban people and stands in solidarity with them. We urge all justice loving people and governments to unequivocally condemn the recent escalation of unilateral coercive measures implemented by the United States Government, effectively intensifying the decades-long economic blockade against the Republic of Cuba. The renewed ban on oil exports to Cuba, including threats of punitive tariffs against nations that supply fuel has taken the form of a humanitarian assault that is choking the lifeblood of the Cuban people. The international community should ensure the United States Government reverses the oil export ban, ends the economic blockade, and engages in constructive dialogue rooted in respect for sovereignty, human welfare, and international law.

We should reject any attempt to weaponize economic policy to inflict humanitarian harm or to coerce political change. The history of U.S-Cuba relations is tainted by a legacy of economic warfare, where leverage over people has been established via leverage over essential resources.

The international community has repeatedly affirmed that collective punishment of civilian populations is a violation of international law, and we echo the calls from global voices, including United Nations human rights experts, to lift these harmful measures and pursue genuine diplomatic engagement. The current crisis driven by coercive sanctions and fuel blockades risks spiralling into a broader humanitarian disaster if not addressed urgently.

In 1895, during Cuba’s independence war against Spain, Jose Marti, had written: “Whoever rises up today for Cuba, rises up for all time.” This as relevant today when we see escalating pressure on countries across the Global South, especially those that pursue independent political and economic paths. Our actions today will help resolve urgent questions about sovereignty, South–South solidarity, and the future of a genuinely multipolar world order.