Cuba Analysis

Note: English subtitles on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqlQhqvNnqM🇨🇺 🎙️ In this episode of Cuba Analysis podcast, Helen Yaffe and Nina Blodau speak with Cuba’s Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, about life under the US blockade. He details the 2026 escalation of US economic warfare: new executive orders, an oil siege 🛢️🚫, and expanded sanctions. The Minister highlights the doubled infant mortality rate, 7,000 blocked shipping containers 🚢🔒, and open #usa military threats. Rejecting claims that Cuba threatens US security, he denounces fabrications by Secretary of State #MarcoRubio and reflects on Cuba’s resilience and a future based on dialogue and respect for sovereignty.Alongside economic warfare, the US government has openly threatened a military attack. The Minister confirms that Cubans take these threats seriously and warns that any US military action would result in a bloodbath on both sides, with devastating consequences for the wider Caribbean. Rodríguez Parrilla rejects outright the labelling of Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism and as a threat to US national security. He points to lies and fabrications by US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and argues that only ‘a small group of corrupt politicians’ would benefit from the destruction of Cuba. After almost seven decades of US attempts to force political change in Cuba, why has the policy failed? The Minister reflects on Cuba’s resilience and on the possibility of a future based on dialogue, sovereignty, mutual respect and cooperation between neighbours. This episode of Cuba Analysis podcast was produced in collaboration with Belly of the Beast Cuba: https://www.bellyofthebeastcuba.com/

Interview with Professor Isaac Saney on the US State Department's anti-Cuba report and its implications. In this episode of the Cuba Analysis Podcast, co-hosts Helen Yaffe and Nina Blodau speak with Professor Isaac Saney, a Black Studies and Cuba specialist, historian, professor at Dalhousie University, author of two books about Cuba, and spokesperson for the Canadian Network on Cuba, which is among many groups named in the new US State Department report ‘Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism’.Professor Saney breaks down the 100-page report which, despite lacking evidence, depicts Cuba as a global subversive force guiding the US and international left over decades. Saney explains that the objectives of this McCarthyite document are to justify the genocidal US blockade and lay the groundwork for future military aggression, as well as to revive Cold War-era repression of the left domestically and beyond. We discuss the suffocating US sanctions imposed in 2026, their impact on Cuba’s economy and the population’s access to essential goods, and the muted international response. Professor Saney points out that 136 countries voted against the US blockade at the UN, despite US pressure, although Canada and several EU countries shamefully abstained.We also talk about Cuba’s historic contribution to African liberation struggles, with a focus on Cuba’s support of the struggle for Angolan independence and the defeat of the invading South African army, which contributed to the end of Apartheid – the focus of Isaac’s book, Cuba, Africa, and Apartheid's End. This historic contribution is ignored in the State Department report, which Saney describes as a white supremacist. Saney concludes by calling for more concrete international solidarity with Cuba, arguing that defending Cuban sovereignty, self-determination and socialist development, is also a defence of international law, opposition to normalisation of genocide and resistance to imperialism.Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQG8E8_UsDo

In this episode of the Cuba Analysis Podcast, Helen Yaffe and Nina Blodau speak to radical journalist and filmmaker Abby Martin from The Empire Files about the intensifying US war on Cuba, the human cost of the decades-long blockade, political consciousness and how Cuba has resisted US imperialism. Abby tells us about her first experience of visiting Cuba and, more recently, of interviewing Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canel for the new documentary Cuba After Castro, which undermines US propaganda aimed at manufacturing consent for an attack. Abby draws the connections between Cuba, Palestine, and Venezuela, and underscores the importance of solidarity for all those struggling against US imperialism, including domestically.Follow @CubaAnalysis on Instagram, Facebook, Telegram, and YouTube for more episodes and analysis.🇨🇺 #CubaAnalysis #CubaPodcast #CubaSolidarity #Cuba #CubaHistory #CubaStudies #AbbyMartin #TheEmpireFiles ‪@EmpireFiles‬

In the next episode of Cuba’s Analysis podcast, Nina Blodau speaks with US army veteran Zue Jernstedt, who served in Afghanistan before leaving the army and becoming an anti-imperialist activist. Zue has worked as a human rights observer in the West Bank, participated in the Global Sumud Flotilla to Gaza, and organised with anti-ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) groups in the United States. In March 2026, she met the Cuba Analysis team in Havana during the Nuestra América Global Convoy of international activists who came together to oppose US threats of military aggression against Cuba and to demand an end to the US blockade, recently compounded by a genocidal oil siege. The conversation connects anti-imperialist struggles in Cuba and Palestine to the US domestic front. Zue discusses how the US military exploits poverty as a recruitment tool, the role of the naval base in illegally occupied Guantanamo Bay as a site for torture, US support for the genocidal Israeli state, and the use of starvation as a weapon of war. She reflects on her own political awakening in Afghanistan, where she realised that far from bringing democracy and women’s rights, the US were pursuing its own imperialist interests. This same logic now targets Cuba, she says, not with bombs but with a blockade that starves the population. More recently, Trump has also threatened Cuba with military attack. Zue contrasts propaganda about Cuba with the reality she experienced on the ground: free universal healthcare, a strong sense of community, and a society which, despite crushing sanctions, still cares for each other. Her story is ultimately a call to action. She urges international audiences not to remain passive in the face of imperialism: to engage, to challenge, and to disrupt complacency. As she puts it, “We shall overcome – our day will come. It is absolutely inevitable that we rise up.”Follow us for updates and new episodes:Website: https://www.cubanalysis.orgSocial: @cubanalysisInstagram / Facebook / Telegram / YouTube / TikTokSpotify: https://tinyurl.com/cubanalysisspotifyApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/.../cuba-analysis/id1846065440

In this episode of Cuba Analysis, Helen Yaffe sits down with Cuban Ambassador Ismara Mercedes Vargas Walter to discuss recent and escalating threats from the US government under President Trump. These include the designation of Cuba as a threat to US national security, the imposition of an oil blockade, and the threat of military aggression to enforce regime change. The conversation explores the human cost of these measures, from energy shortages and blackouts to the damage inflicted on Cuba’s public healthcare and education systems. These coercive measures expose the real strategy behind US policy towards since 1960, as outlined in a secret memo written by US diplomat Lester Mallory advocating economic warfare to provoke “hunger, desperation and overthrow of government”. The Ambassador explains how the extraterritorial reach of the US blockade obstructs British entities - from individuals to banks - engaging with Cuba. These restrictions disrupt trade, finance, and everyday diplomatic operations; even the daily functioning of the Cuban embassy in London is affected. This is despite more than a century of stable Cuba-UK relations, spanning from diplomacy to co-operation in science and culture. Despite these challenges, Ambassador Vargas Walter emphasises Cuba’s resilience, highlighting a rapid shift towards renewable energies, strong popular unity and an ongoing commitment to sovereignty and self-determination. The episode closes by highlighting Cuba’s global contributions in healthcare and education and underscoring why international solidarity to defend Cuba is so important right now.Follow us for updates and new episodes:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIjujJoi8ck🌐 Website: https://www.cubanalysis.org 📱 Social: @cubanalysis Instagram / Facebook / Telegram / YouTube / TikTok Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cuba-analysis/id1846065440#CubanNews #CubaInPerspective #CubanFacts #CubaSolidarity #Cuba #CubaStudies #CubaHistory