Cuba survives Hurricane Oscar, but what's really going on?

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/10/21/power-is-gradually-restored-in-cuba-hurricane-oscar-downgraded-to-tropical-storm/

The world stands with Cuba

Amid Cuba’s blackout, the member states of the Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of Our America (ALBA-TCP), expressed in a communiqué their support to the Cuban government and offered their help to overcome the difficult times the island is going through: “The complex situation that [Cuba] is experiencing today is a consequence of the economic war, financial persecution and [the refusal to sell] fuel supplies by the US administration, which seeks to asphyxiate Cuba in its commitment to the well-being of the Cuban people”.

Furthermore, the communiqué adds “The policy of maximum pressure through unilateral coercive measures and the blockade against the nation is cruel and inhuman and has been categorically rejected by the majority of the countries of the world, since […] it only seeks a change of regime, in open violation of the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter and the norms of International Law.”

 

But what's really going on?

https://www.liberationnews.org/psl-statement-the-u-s-blockade-plunges-cuba-into-darkness/

While the blockade has been in place for generations, the severity of the U.S. economic war on the island often varies from administration to administration. As part of its intensification of efforts to strangle the Cuban Revolution, the energy sector was one of the main targets of the 243 new measures imposed during the Trump administration. In 2019, new measures targeted two Cuban enterprises called Cubametales and Panamericana – which were central to oil and gas purchases. Since then, the importation of fuel has been an even more profoundly difficult task for Cuba, and the system finally reached a breaking point. These Trump-imposed measures have been maintained by the Biden administration.

The economic situation is also badly affected by the ridiculous inclusion of the country in the State Department’s list of “state sponsors of terror”. The pretext for this designation was absurd, citing Cuba’s role in supporting peace talks between the Colombian government and guerilla groups. It is even more ironic now that the U.S. government has armed the biggest terrorist regime in the world – Israel – as it conducts a genocide against the Palestinian people. Like the 243 additional measures that tightened the blockade, the “sponsor of terror” designation was imposed by Trump and upheld by Biden.