While International Citizen Solidarity Is Strong for Cuba, Nations Turn Their Backs
As 700 international solidarity citizens visited Cuba last weekend, Cuban-American Secretary of State Marco Rubio smirked at the humanitarian disaster his and Trump’s policies were wreaking on Cuba, a small island nation of around 11 million people only 90 miles off the tip of Florida. Rubio had predicted the Cuban government would fall from the disastrous policies, particularly the blockade of fuel to the island.
But Rubio’s plan was partially upended on Sunday night, March 29, when President Donald J. Trump decided to allow a Russian oil tanker carrying 100 tons of oil to deliver it to Cuba.
International Citizen Solidarity with Cuba, While Nations Turn Their Backs on Cuba
Last weekend I was in Cuba for the second time in two months, joining 700 international solidarity citizens from 30 countries. Organized in less than six weeks by Progressive International, CODEPINK, Women for Peace and many other groups, hundreds of persons outraged by the latest U.S. punishment of the Cuban people saw very quickly and deeply the inhumane effects of the recent oil embargo, as well as the cumulative effects of a 65-year-old U.S. economic blockade of Cuba.
On my first trip this year, in late January 2026, the capital city of Havana, where we spent most of our time, was showing definite signs of the negative effects of the U.S. blockade, particularly of the fuel shortage.
Six weeks later in mid-March, the lack of fuel was starkly evident. Very few cars were on the streets. Lines for the few buses with fuel were very long.
Cubans were cooking with wood in the parks as electricity was sporadic.
Electrical blackouts of the entire country were frequent.
Hospital generators were almost out of fuel.
Cuba Operating on Fumes Due to the January 2026 Trump/Rubio Executive Order for an Oil Embargo on Cuba
Aiming directly at Mexico, Trump’s January 29, 2026, executive order threatened heavy tariffs on “any other country that directly or indirectly sells or otherwise provides any oil to Cuba.”
PEMEX, the Mexico state oil company, has been the primary supplier of oil to Cuba after the January 3, 2026, U.S. kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and the threats to the interim government of Venezuela.
Sadly, bending to Washington’s threat, with only two to three weeks of oil left in Cuba at the time of the executive order, the Mexican government suspended its shipments of oil to keep the country running.
While rumors abounded of Russia sending an oil tanker to Cuba, until Sunday night, March 29, no ship was in sight.
In the meantime, Cuba is operating on fumes.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio Willing to Torpedo the Entire Cuban Nation
It is ironic that Cuban-American Rubio has U.S. citizenship through the “birthright citizenship” provision of the Fourteenth Amendment that he and the Trump administration are trying to eliminate. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments for torpedoing the birthright law on April 1.
Rubio was born in the U.S. of non-U.S. citizen parents who fled the Batista regime before the Cuban Revolution against Batista. Finally, journalists delved into his background years after Rubio entered politics and he was forced to acknowledge his “birthright” citizenship, something he had kept hidden.[1]
It is doubly ironic that Rubio, who believes he knows so much about Cuba, has been to Cuba only once, for only one day, visiting the U.S. prison at the illegally occupied U.S. naval base at Guantanamo, Cuba.
Rubio grew up in Miami surrounded by fervent anti-revolution rhetoric and actions. He quickly saw that his political future rested with being as anti-revolution as possible, despite the strides in health and education that were being made in Cuba.
U.S. Government—not Cuba—Is Holding up Compensation of U.S. Individuals and Corporations from 1959 Nationalizations
In his many years in Florida state politics and then as a U.S. senator, Rubio refused to acknowledge that it was the U.S. government that stopped compensation of U.S. individuals and corporations when the revolutionary government nationalized services for the people to take them out of the hands of the private sector that was getting richer and richer off the backs of the poverty stricken and enslaved Cubans.
After the 1959 revolution, Cuba negotiated “lump sum” compensation packages with Canada, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Spain and France for individuals and corporations whose property had been nationalized.
The United States, however, refused to participate in the compensation plan for U.S. individuals and businesses. Instead, the U.S. decided to overthrow the revolutionary Cuban government.
Today, 65 years later, in order to attract U.S. private investment to Cuba, Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossio told Drop Site News that the Cuban government will attempt to convince the U.S. government to agree to a “lump sum” to handle the claims of approximately 6,000 U.S. individuals and businesses who have filed claims for nationalized property, as part of a larger agreement that would eliminate U.S. sanctions and the economic blockade.
The claims that have been certified by the U.S. Foreign Claims Settlement Commission initially totaled $1.9 billion but now, with interest accumulated over the decades, amount to around $9 billion.
Trump’s “Change of Heart” to Let Oil Come into Cuba
On a recent flight of Air Force One on March 29, President Trump told reporters:
“I told them if a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem with that, whether it’s Russia or not. Whether or not they get a boat of oil, it’s not going to matter. I’d prefer letting it in, whether it’s Russia or anybody else, because the people need heat and cooling and everything else.”
The Russian-owned oil tanker Anatoly Kolodkin left Primorsk, Russia, on March 8 carrying 730,000 barrels of crude oil (100,000 tons) and is expected to dock at the Matanzas, Cuba, oil storage facility on the morning of April 1. The tanker was accompanied by a Russian naval escort through the English Channel. The oil will be processed at one of Cuba’s three refineries, located in Havana, Cienfuegos and Santiago.
When questioned about the oil delivery, Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “The brutal blockade is jeopardizing life-support systems and electricity generation” and inhibiting the ability of Cubans to provide medical services. “Russia considers it its duty not to stand idly by and to provide the necessary assistance to our Cuban friends.”
International Group Visits Cuba in Solidarity with the Cuban People
The March 20-23, 2026, delegations comprising more than 700 persons were part of an international effort called the Nuestra América Convoy organized by Progressive International. Hundreds of people came to Cuba from Latin America, the United States, Canada and Europe to denounce the U.S. blockade on Cuba and deliver life-saving aid to the Cuban people.
CODEPINK’s Nuestra América Convoy delegation of 170 people brought together a politically diverse but deeply aligned group of people—health-care workers, lawyers, professors, students, veterans, labor organizers, journalists, independent media workers, photographers, filmmakers, writers, artists, researchers, faith-based activists, immigrant justice organizers, reproductive justice advocates, Palestine solidarity activists, Black liberation organizers, cultural workers and more.
CODEPINK’s delegation delivered 6,300 pounds of urgently needed medicines and medical supplies, including neo-natal equipment, analgesics, catheters and other critical hospital materials. The supplies, valued at $433,000, were collected by Global Health Partners.
In addition to the 6,300 pounds of medical supplies, delegates brought suitcases containing supplies tailored to the needs of specific groups affected by the blockade, such as LGBTQ+ people, artists, students, animals and others.
In total, the Nuestra América convoy delivered:
- More than $400,000 of humanitarian supplies on a charter flight, including medical equipment, medicines, staple foods, infant nutrition products, and hygiene supplies, coordinated by CODEPINK.
- More than $500,000 worth of solar panels and generators to support hospitals and essential infrastructure facing electricity shortages.
- More than 2,000 pounds of medical supplies from Europe, carried by a medical delegation traveling from Milan, Italy.
- Cancer medicines valued at $23,000 organized by Global Exchange.
- Around 1,100 pounds of medical supplies from Brazil, coordinated by the Brazilian Front of Solidarity with Cuba.
- Solar-powered equipment from Colombia, including solar chargers and lighting systems.
- Menstrual health kits for approximately 1,300 women, organized by a solidarity coalition in Mexico.
- $100,000 in aid for maternity centers.
For a critical overview of Rubio’s background and reactionary political views, see a past CovertAction Magazine article here. ↑
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About the Author
Ann Wright is a retired United States Army colonel and retired U.S. State Department official.
She was one of three State Department officials to publicly resign in direct protest of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq.
Since that time Colonel Wright has been a dedicated peace activist.
Ann can be reached at annw1946@gmail.com.
