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Cuba is plunging into darkness. Not only because of the increasingly frequent power cuts, but also due to uncertainty in a country used to resilience, yet now more fragile than ever.
The tightening of screws on oil deliveries, instigated by the United States and reinforced by diplomatic pressure on the island's main partners, has transformed a chronic economic crisis into a full-blown humanitarian emergency. It's not an abstract political system that's paying the price, but a population exhausted by shortages of food, medicine, transport and electricity.
Cuba produces around 40,000 barrels of oil a day, less than half its needs. To survive, the island has always relied on imports, first and foremost from the Soviet Union, and then from Venezuela and Mexico. Today, these routes are virtually at a standstill. Caracas has suspended its shipments, and Mexico City, fearing trade reprisals, has done the same. The result is a paralyzed production system, with GDP down by more than 15% since 2020, and tourism in sharp decline.
The lack of energy isn't just about fuel: it's about mobility, it's about the food supply chain, it's about how schools function, it's about how medicines are preserved. Without stable electricity, hospitals struggle to function, ambulances struggle to circulate, refrigerators remain switched off. Daily life is transformed into an exercise in permanent adaptation, where every gesture - getting around, taking care of oneself, studying - becomes a challenge.
The healthcare system, long heralded as the pride of the revolution, is now one of the hardest hit sectors. According to Health Minister José Ángel Portal Miranda, the sanctions no longer merely "paralyze the economy", they now threaten "basic human security", because"you can't hit the economy of a state without hitting its inhabitants". Five million people suffering from chronic illnesses are at risk of treatment interruptions, including thousands of cancer patients awaiting radiotherapy or chemotherapy.
Images from Havana show half-empty wards, equipment at a standstill, doctors forced to prioritize. Emergency medicine is trying to hold on with reduced resources, while infant mortality is on the rise once again and access to essential medicines is becoming increasingly uncertain. At the same time, the streets are filling up with garbage, worsening an already critical situation.
The Cuban crisis is taking place in an international context marked by new tensions. Washington is talking openly of regime change, and using economic weapons as instruments of political pressure. Following its intervention in Venezuela and the halting of crude oil deliveries, the White House imposed punitive customs duties on anyone selling oil to Cuba, making any energy exchange with the island de facto toxic.
Havana says it's ready for dialogue, but only "without pressure and on an equal footing". The overture has so far failed to produce any concrete results. In the meantime, international solidarity remains timid: some humanitarian aid, promises of support, but no structural solutions. The result is an isolation that is pushing more and more Cubans to leave the country: since 2020, the population has fallen by over 15%, a silent exodus that is emptying cities and countryside.
In Cuban homes, people live with the lights going on and off, the hum of generators and queues outside stores. Rationing, already well known in the 1990s, has once again become the norm. But unlike the past, the social safety net that guaranteed minimum stability is now missing. Today, 89% of the population lives in extreme poverty.
And yet, despite everything, Cuban society is still holding together. Between neighborly solidarity, resourcefulness and resilience, the island is trying to stay on its feet. But room for manoeuvre is getting smaller by the day. Cuba is exhausted, but not resigned. The risk, however, is that geopolitical pressure will end up crushing precisely those who have no say in major international maneuvers: the citizens, trapped in a crisis they did not choose.
(©GreenMe.it 2026 / Managing Editor: Selma Keshkire - The Press Junction / Picture: ©Unsplash)