HAVANA, Cuba — Cuba has seen a deepening humanitarian crisis since the Trump administration began blocking oil shipments to the island nation, creating chaos in an attempt to topple its government. In response, grassroots groups have been bringing thousands to Cuba throughout 2026 to witness the deepening emergency and deliver support.
Solidarity delegations travel to Cuba
On May 26, the Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW) and its Pan African Unity Dialogue (PAUD) brought a 25-member delegation of Black journalists, policy experts, faith leaders, and community organizers to Cuba for from May 26 through 30 to witness the crisis and see how it is affecting Afro Cubans.
The IBW/PAUD Emergency Educational and Humanitarian Fact-Finding Delegation was one of several efforts this year to support Cubans facing fuel shortages, blackouts, and medical scarcity.
In March, the Nuestra América Convoy brought some 650 delegates from 33 countries and 120 organizations to the island. They delivered about 20 tons of aid to the island, including solar panels and medical supplies. Later that month, a high-level ecumenical delegation initiated by the World Communion of Reformed Churches also traveled to Havana, citing what church leaders and the United Nations described as a worsening humanitarian crisis affecting healthcare, water access, and other essential services. The visits, like the IBW/PAUD one, were based on the belief that ordinary Cubans are suffering and deserve aid, regardless of the political disputes between governments.
Members of the IBW/PAUD delegation said they wanted to view conditions on the ground from the standpoint of all Cubans, while paying close attention to how Afro Cubans, Black women, elders, and people in vulnerable neighborhoods are dealing with the economic hardship. For the IBW/PAUD delegation, the humanitarian angle was predominant: Regardless of the protracted political disagreements between the Washington and Havana governments, ordinary Afro Cubans are paying the ultimate price.
In Cuba, Black communities are fighting to survive this latest round of hardship caused by the U.S. blockade.
Before the group even arrived, Dr. Ron Daniels, president of the IBW, framed the visit in moral and political terms.
In a press statement, Daniels wrote that “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.” He called the tightening pressure on Cuba “collective punishment” and said the delegation’s purpose was to “bear witness” to what he described as “intolerable acts.” He also made clear that the group’s itinerary was built to show participants “the devastating impact of the policies of the U.S. government on the masses of the Cuban people.” He vowed that his organization would return to the United States with a renewed focus on humanitarian solidarity and restoring relations.
One of the delegation’s first meetings was with Carlos Fernández de Cossío, Cuba’s deputy minister of foreign affairs, who told the group that the current emergency was unlike anything many living Cubans had ever experienced.
“We’ve never experienced this … [this has] never [been] experienced by the current generations of Cubans,” he said. He urged the delegation to look at the society Cuba had attempted to build over decades in spite of sustained external pressure.
The delegation also met with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, who described the current crisis as cumulative, saying the Cuban people have had to survive U.S. blockades decade after decade. He said continuing attacks on the island’s infrastructure have turned basic goods into logistical nightmares, explaining that even when a shipment of rice recently arrived at port, severe fuel shortages prevented it from being unloaded and distributed.
“In the United States they say we are a failed state, but that is a lie,” Díaz-Canel told the delegation. “A failed state has disorder and crime. What we are is a boycotted state.”
It was at the Asociación Cubana de las Naciones Unidas (Cuban Association of the United Nations/ACNU), where local community leaders met with the delegates, that the true human impact of these shortages was revealed. One speaker described the death of a neighbor who had no transportation, no timely care, and not enough medicine: “Yesterday, my neighbor passed away because she did not have the time to have transportation to go to the hospital, and when she did try to go to the hospital, they said there was not enough medicine to attend to her. That’s one of the points — that please, we need to have our voices shared with the people from the United States. We need your solidarity … and, of course, we need solar power, we need medicine.”
In other Havana neighborhoods, delegation members visited the Martin Luther King Center, where an altar and a photograph of the late Rev. Lucius Walker recalled the long history of Pastors for Peace and its “Friendshipment” caravans delivering essential medicines to Cuba. They went to the Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital, one of the country’s premier medical institutions; the Centro Fidel Castro Ruz cultural museum, which details Castro’s life and the rationales for the 1959 revolution; and Havana’s Casa de África museum, where Afro Cuban artists, scholars, and educators spoke about cultural memory, Black identity, and the preservation of traditions.
They also visited the Karibuni Local Development Project, which focuses on improving quality of life in vulnerable neighborhoods, particularly for Black women and older adults, and the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM), where students from around the world are trained with an emphasis on serving underserved communities.
Cuba’s present conditions are drastically hurting Afro Cuban communities. The data from an April report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research said Cuba’s infant mortality rate rose from 4.0 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2018 to 9.9 by 2025, a 148% increase. The report said approximately 1,800 fewer babies would have died over that period had the rate remained unchanged, and linked the surge to the tightening of U.S. sanctions and the resulting damage to Cuba’s healthcare sector and broader economy.
Even a ceremonial gesture during the trip became a brief lesson in how a country under strain operates. IBW/PAUD delegate Kim Poole, founder and executive director of the Teaching Artist Institute, brought a gift for Díaz-Canel: a strand of oversized recycled-glass beads handcrafted by people in Kroboland, Ghana.
Weighing nearly 7 pounds, the strand of beads was intended as a cultural offering, but it was not allowed to be presented to the president immediately. Before the gift could be handed over, Cuban security officials intervened and said the beads would have to be inspected. It took several days before the item was cleared for delivery to the president.
By the trip’s end, the delegation had heard officials describe a nation under immense pressure. They heard community leaders request that their stories be carried back to the United States. The delegation also saw that U.S. policy is affecting whether elders can travel for care, hospitals can secure supplies, and food can be distributed.
