For more than 30 years, the U.S. blockade against Cuba has been devastating the health of the island’s population. The Trump Administration’s “maximum pressure” strategy, intended to force submission to domination by the elites and U.S. corporations who fled Cuba after the defeat of the Batista dictatorship, has created a humanitarian emergency by cutting the Cuban government off from fuel imports.
The blockade has always been genocidal, by preventing Cuba from purchasing essential supplies, but the Trump/Rubio maximum pressure campaign is a new level. It has placed the medically vulnerable in danger by nearly destroying the Cuban health system that was once the envy of the world. Infant mortality in Cuba, lower than in the U.S. since the Revolution, has skyrocketed 148% because of the maximum pressure campaign, from 4.0 to 9.9 deaths per 1,000 live births, between 2018 and 2025.
The blockade prevents the Cuban government from trading with most of the world and from accessing international credit markets or having payments processed by international financial institutions. In effect, the Cuban government is starved of resources. This is most harmful for Cubans without private resources; generally Afro Cubans. Those with European ancestry are more likely to have extended family in the U.S. or Europe sending remittances or investing in Cuba. By strangling the government, the blockade increases racial disparities in Cuba.
The blockade also prevents U.S. citizens from accessing life-saving Cuban medical innovations that would especially benefit Black Americans. While the U.S. faces a nurse shortage and health disparities plague Black communities, solutions lie nearby, in a model of preventive healthcare, scientific innovation, and medical cooperation that Washington has systematically sabotaged.
The blockade creates a health crisis in Cuba and also prevents U.S. patients from accessing cheap, effective Cuban treatments, such as NeuroEPO, an inexpensive nasal spray that causes significant cognitive improvement in Alzheimer’s trial participants; CIMAvax-EGF, a therapeutic medicine for lung cancer; and Heberprot-P, a treatment that has been shown to reduce diabetic amputation risk by more than 70%.
These treatments are unavailable because of U.S. hostility toward Cuba. U.S. companies cannot secure exclusive rights to Cuban-patented therapies, so the cost of F.D.A. approval is too high. Beyond that, U.S. regulations designed to starve Cuba’s economy make it illegal for U.S. citizens to visit Cuba for medical tourism.
For New Yorkers, this crisis has direct resonance. The Amsterdam News has documented solidarity delegations traveling to Cuba, reflecting concern in New York’s Black communities. The Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) in Cuba has trained students from around the world, including underserved U.S. communities, with a mission to serve those most in need but U.S. policy blocks these pathways.
Cuba characterizes the blockade as illegal collective punishment. The international community agrees and condemns the blockade. In 2025, for the 33rd consecutive year, the UN General Assembly voted 165 to 7 to demand an end to the embargo.
Maximum pressure has failed. After months of a fuel blockade and years of pressure, Cuba stands firm. Cuba will not buckle under U.S. pressure, nor will the impending uprising the blockade intends to provoke prevail. Invasion is a similarly doomed approach.
It is time to end hostility, embrace cooperation, and allow Cuban innovations to solve health crises. Solidarity, science, and international law are the way forward.
If your community is affected by health problems Cuban medicine has solved, you are harmed by the blockade. Contact us at 347-461-3566 or commonsenseoncuba@gmail.com.
Nicholas Greven has a master’s degree in US and Latin American history, and is the Alzheimer’s Campaign Coordinator for Americans for Common Sense on Cuba.
