Amid a severe economic crisis, a group of residents on the outskirts of Havana has come together to provide a space for children to learn, play and feel supported in a neighborhood where opportunities are scarce.
Meteorologist Natalia Quintana, who founded the project, says conditions in Arroyo Naranjo were never good. But the situation now is worse than ever. “Right now, we are on the verge of desperation,” she said.
Yet Natalia and her neighbors continue to organize, to teach and to create spaces that sustain their community — especially for its youngest members — striving for a future not defined solely by crisis.
Watch our video about Natalia and her community project — “Vida” — HERE.
Marco Rubio’s State Department prohibited Chargé d’Affaires Mike Hammer, the top U.S. diplomat in Havana, from meeting with Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-IL) during their recent visit to Havana, the legislators said in a letter to Rubio on Wednesday.
The letter explains that although an official appointment with Hammer was scheduled, he later told them that “Department leadership directed him not to meet Members or brief them over the phone.”
The representatives are asking Rubio for an explanation for this action, which represents “a troubling departure from long-standing norms of cooperation (…) in the conduct of American foreign policy.”
Jayapal and Jackson visited Havana in their capacity as members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Upon returning to the U.S., they released a statement criticizing Trump’s oil blockade, which they called “cruel collective punishment.”
They are demanding “copies of any formal or informal communication or directives,” as well as “who issued the directive, when it was issued, and whether it was written or verbal.”
“Given the ongoing negotiations between the Trump Administration and the Cuban government and threats from President Trump to ‘take’ Cuba, denying members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee access to embassy officials sends a troubling message that the Administration is attempting to block voices that disagree with it,” the statement reads.
The letter is also signed by four other Democratic members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, including its ranking member Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY).
Watch our interview with Jayapal and Jackson in Havana during their visit HERE.
Cuba’s devastating economic crisis has dominated headlines in recent months — but much of the coverage leaves out crucial context.
Corporate media outlets often fail to look beyond the recent U.S. oil blockade while Cuba’s economic collapse is attributed to Communism or economic mismanagement. Sanctions get only passing mention or are airbrushed out completely. For example, an op-ed by U.S.-based Cuban economist Ricardo Torres published Thursday in Time, doesn’t mention the embargo, sanctions or the blockade even once.
A close look at when Cuba’s economy began to decline reveals a different story.
In an interview with Belly of the Beast journalist Liz Oliva Fernández, British economist Emily Morris explains how the precipitous economic downturn maps directly onto the ramping up of the U.S. government’s economic war on the island that began during Donald Trump’s first term.
“This current crisis definitely started in 2019,” said Morris.
As we documented in 2020 in our award-winning series The War on Cuba, Trump imposed a wave of “maximum pressure” measures targeting Cuba’s access to foreign currency.
“There wasn’t enough fuel,” said Morris. “And the economy started to go down.”
Progressive leaders gathered Saturday in Barcelona.Nacho Doce (REUTERS)
April 25, 2026 — Belly of the Beast
The presidents of Spain, Mexico and Brazil issued a joint statement expressing their concern for Cuba’s humanitarian crisis and committing to ramp up a “coordinated response.”
The statement comes after the IV Summit in Defense of Democracy, which gathered progressive leaders from several countries in Barcelona on Saturday.
Mexico has already been sending aid to Cuba in recent months and its president Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday she’s looking to expand investment as well.
“We reiterate the need to respect International Law at all times, as well as the principles of territorial integrity, sovereign equality, and the peaceful settlement of disputes, as enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations,” the statement reads.
During the Summit, Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said he was worried about Cuba, but that the island’s issues were “for the Cubans to resolve. It’s not up to Lula, Claudia or Trump.” He also called on the U.S. to “stop that damn blockade of Cuba and let Cubans live their lives.”
Cuba looks the worst Paul Johnson has seen it in the 20 years he’s spent traveling to the country. The Chair of the United States Agriculture Coalition for Cuba landed back in Miami, after a week in Havana. He experienced blackouts in the city, sometimes 24 hours at a time.
Humanitarian aid arrived on shore in Havanna on March 24. The country has begun restoring power after its third nationwide power outage in the last month. Johnson says Cuban’s are without refrigerators and few cars are running.
“That has a tremendous impact on people’s psyche,but also the daily life and how things get done not only in the cities, but in rural Cuba as well where the conditions are even worse,” Johnson says. “A lack of fuel impacts everything– the entire system is dependent on electricity, the entire grid.”
$40-a-Gallon Gas and a Grid in Collapse
Johnson says gas costs about $40 a gallon on the black market in Cuba. “In the fields where production is happening, or not happening, tractors aren’t running,” he says. “We’re seeing a real challenge of getting food from the fields to markets.”
USDA reports, the U.S. exported $476.74 million in agricultural goods to Cuba in 2025. Poultry was the top commodity, accounting for about 62% of the sales. Johnson expects overall exports to drop this year, because the energy crisis is making it difficult to transport food. However, he believes there are many opportunities to expand U.S. exports in the future because food production is low.
““Because we are so close, because we’re building this relationship with the private sector, and because production in Cuba is so low that creates a need for U.S. exports,” he says.
In 2021, Cuba opened over 2,000 industries up to the private sector. The shift has opened the doors for U.S. agricultural exports. Johnson says today about 70% of agricultural sales are going to the private sector. “Why? Because they have money and the Cuban government does not,” Johnson says. “We’re also finding that this private sector reacts quicker as you can imagine. They’re much more dynamic and they’re filling in the gaps as they go along.”
Rice: A Massive Deficit for U.S. Growers to Fill
In 2024, a report by U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service says between marketing years 2016/17 and 2023/24 rice production in Cuba fell from 335,000 metric tons to 140,000 metric tons. USDA reported in 2025, Cuba imported about $16 million dollars of rice from the U.S.
“Cubans depend on rice in every meal. But production in Cuba is down to about 10%,” Johson says. “They consume around 700,000 tons of rice a year and they’re only producing about 75,000 times today. That is one example of the opportunities for our U.S. Rice producers to export more rice to Cubans.”
Looking Toward a Two-Way Future
Johnson says he believes two-way trade between the U.S. and the Caribbean country is incredibly important. “In my experience with American farmers, when they go down to Cuba, they’re really most interested in helping out their neighbors. They see Cuban farmers as their neighbors, and they want to help them,” he says.
He also believes collaboration between U.S Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Inspection Service and Cuba needs to improve in order to keep disease contained and increase Cuba’s food production.
“I think everyone I spoke to from the street to the government, the top of the government. Everyone says the same thing, ‘something’s got to change,” he says. “Everyone recognizes the need for change. What that change looks like? Is what we’re all trying to guess at.”
Hanoi, April 23 (Prensa Latina) The president of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Tran Hong Thai, stated here today that cooperation with Cuba in these areas will be developed in all possible fields and without limits.
We are going to define the missions and tasks to be deployed in a short time, not only in research, but also in the manufacture of products that benefit the health of our people, said the member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (PCV) in a meeting with the vice president of the BioCubaFarma business group, Santiago Dueñas.
Hong Thai emphasized that scientific cooperation, particularly in biotechnology and the biopharmaceutical industry, is a key topic in top-level discussions between the two countries and announced the creation of a working group within the Academy tasked with implementing collaboration in these areas.
He also highlighted the great potential that exists to create goods and generate income by leveraging joint intelligence, and made the facilities of that institution available to Cuban scientists to carry out research projects.
The head of the Academy of Science and Technology shared his views at a meeting prior to the signing of a cooperation agreement between the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries Group of Cuba (BioCubaFarma) and the Institutes of Chemistry, Biology and Materials Science of Vietnam.
On that occasion, the Cuban ambassador here, Rogelio Polanco, pointed out that the signing of this agreement will make an important contribution to the fulfillment of the extraordinary objectives that Vietnam has set for itself in its socio-economic development program and also to the plans set by Cuba in the same regard.
Our people, the diplomat said, need concrete and rapid results, not only for the benefit of Vietnam and Cuba, but for all of humanity.
For his part, the vice president of BioCubaFarma thanked Hong Thai for the offer made to Cuban researchers and for the demonstrated willingness not only to expand, but also to accelerate joint projects.
Dueñas agreed that the possible areas of collaboration are large and unlimited and made available to this endeavor the more than one thousand products and more than 400 research projects that make up the business group’s portfolio.
“Our best experts and projects will be available for this cooperation,” he said, and also extended an invitation to Vietnamese researchers to work on joint programs in Cuba.
At the meeting, the Vice President of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Chu Hoang Ha, said he expected significant results from this collaboration and also expressed his satisfaction that Vietnamese experts could acquire the experience accumulated by Cuba in these areas.
The minister emphasized that the statement “expresses concern, calls for avoiding actions contrary to international law that worsen the living conditions of the Cuban people, and urges respect for Cuba’s territorial integrity.” Photo: EFE/Archive
“We recognize the dignified and supportive Joint Statement issued by the governments of Brazil, Spain and Mexico,” said Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez.
April 19, 2026 — teleSUR
Cuban authorities welcomed on Saturday the joint statement issued by the governments of Brazil, Spain and Mexico , in which they called for an end to the criminal blockade against the Cuban people and for the United States to prevent armed aggression against the island.
“In the midst of the difficult situation facing Cuba, due to the intensification of the US blockade to extreme levels, the current energy embargo and the constant threats from the US government, we recognize the dignified and supportive Joint Statement issued by the governments of Brazil, Spain and Mexico,” said Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez , in a message posted on his social media.
The minister stressed that the statement “expresses concern, calls for avoiding actions contrary to International Law that worsen the living conditions of the Cuban people, and urges respect for the territorial integrity of Cuba.”
“It is urgent to respect the UN Charter and International Law, in particular the principles of self-determination, respect for the independence and sovereignty of peoples , and to refrain from the threat and use of force,” the Cuban foreign minister concluded.
During the IV Summit in Defense of Democracy, held this weekend in Barcelona, Spain, the governments of Brazil, Spain, and Mexico reiterated their call to respect Cuba’s territorial integrity and announced that they will increase humanitarian support to the island in a coordinated manner, amid constant threats from the U.S. and the strengthening of the blockade to economically strangle the Caribbean nation.
“ We express our deep concern about the serious humanitarian crisis facing the people of Cuba and urge that the necessary measures be taken to alleviate this situation and that actions that worsen the living conditions of the population or that are contrary to international law be avoided,” a joint statement from the three governments said.
The three countries stressed the need to “respect at all times international law and the principles of territorial integrity, sovereign equality and peaceful settlement of disputes , enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations.”
In addition to defending the right of the Cuban people to sovereignly decide their destiny, the governments of Claudia Sheinbaum, Pedro Sánchez and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called for a “respectful dialogue in accordance with international law” between Cuba and the United States.
“We are committed to increasing our coordinated humanitarian response aimed at alleviating the suffering of the Cuban people ,” they stated in the communiqué issued during the IV Summit in Defense of Democracy.
Havana, April 14 (Prensa Latina) The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Josefina Vidal, received today at the headquarters of the Cuban Foreign Ministry the ambassador of the Republic of Suriname to the island, Genia Juliete Lank-Corinde.
At the ceremony, the diplomat presented the Letters of Credence that accredit her as Ambassador designated by her country to the government of the Republic of Cuba.
Before beginning her diplomatic work in the largest of the Antilles, Genia Juliete Lank-Corinde was director of the Ministry of Regional Development from 2012 to 2013 and consul general of Suriname in French Guiana from 2019 to 2021.
Havana, April 1 (Prensa Latina) The organizing secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, Roberto Morales, today thanked China for its firm stance of rejecting the United States economic blockade.
“Once again we express our gratitude for the unconditional support of the sister People’s Republic of China, demonstrating that Cuba is not alone,” he expressed through the social network X.
This expression of gratitude comes after statements by Chinese presidential spokesperson Mao Ning, who affirmed that her country has always defended respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries and “opposes any pretext for violating the sovereignty of other states or interfering in their internal affairs.”
“China firmly supports Cuba in defending its sovereignty and security and opposes foreign interference,” Ning added.
The spokesperson also urged the United States to immediately end the blockade and sanctions against the Caribbean nation, as well as any form of coercion or pressure, and asserted that they will continue to provide the island with all the assistance within their reach.
Havana, March 31 (Prensa Latina) The National Ballet of Cuba (BNC) received a donation of ballet shoes sent by dancers from the San Francisco Ballet, a gesture of solidarity that will mainly benefit the students of the institution’s Dance Department.
The delivery was made by American designer Valeria Landau, daughter of filmmaker and friend of Cuba Saúl Landau (1936-2013), who visited the BNC headquarters and was received by the prima ballerina and general director, Viengsay Valdés.
“I’m just the messenger,” Landau said, conveying the enthusiasm of the American artists for contributing to this shipment, in which each pair of sneakers costs around $125, the BNC explained on social media.
The creator also spoke with teacher Mercedes Beltrán, director of the Dance Chair, about the current conditions of educational work with infants and the positive impact that the donation will have on those processes.
During her stay, she attended a rehearsal of La fille mal gardée, a work that is part of the Cuban company’s upcoming season in April, the dance company added.
Landau stressed that traveling to Cuba “in times of Trump is not for the faint of heart,” highlighting the risks of this type of solidarity initiative, which he considers essential because of the love and admiration he feels for Cuban ballet.
His visit coincided with the presence on the island of the Our America Convoy, an action that brought together dozens of American activists to bring essential supplies amid the blockade imposed by Washington.
