Cuba has taken its escalating confrontation with the United States to the United Nations Security Council, accusing Washington of worsening hunger and humanitarian hardship on the island through its long-standing economic embargo and fresh sanctions against Cuban companies and officials.
The Cuban government, in a statement to the Security Council on Tuesday, August 25, warned against the use of hunger as a weapon of war and argued that conflicts, economic inequalities and unilateral coercive measures were aggravating global food insecurity.
The Cuban government, in a statement to the Security Council on Tuesday, August 25, warned against the use of hunger as a weapon of war and argued that conflicts, economic inequalities and unilateral coercive measures were aggravating global food insecurity.
Havana specifically linked the worsening food situation in Cuba to the impact of the United States’ economic, commercial and financial restrictions, which it refers to as a blockade.
The intervention came only days after Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez launched a fresh attack on Washington over new sanctions imposed on Cuban state entities and officials, accusing the administration of US President Donald Trump of deliberately squeezing the Cuban economy and undermining the government’s capacity to provide basic services.
Rodríguez said the latest measures were particularly affecting the movement of containers carrying food, medicines and medical equipment, including supplies acquired by Cuba’s private micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.
The latest US measures reportedly targeted nine Cuban state-owned entities operating in mining, metals, construction, trade, imports and related industrial activities. Senior officials of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), including its president Fernando González Llort, were also sanctioned.
Rodríguez accused US Secretary of State Marco Rubio of pursuing a policy designed to damage Cuba’s economy and prevent Havana from guaranteeing essential services to its population.
The Cuban government’s latest diplomatic offensive therefore represents a shift from its traditional condemnation of the US embargo to a broader humanitarian argument before the international community — that economic pressure is having consequences beyond government finances and is reaching food supplies, healthcare, energy and ordinary economic activity.
The controversy comes as Cuba battles a severe economic crisis characterised by shortages of fuel, electricity, food and medicines. The Associated Press reported last week that US sanctions were complicating Cuba’s efforts to attract private and foreign investment even as Havana undertakes economic reforms designed to give private businesses a larger role.
According to the AP report, Cuba has introduced measures allowing greater space for private businesses, imports and exports, foreign investment and private banking. Cuban officials, however, argue that Washington’s continuing sanctions are undermining the very reforms the US has demanded from Havana.
The confrontation has also extended beyond conventional trade sanctions. A January 2026 US executive order sought to tighten pressure on Cuba’s access to fuel, a move UN human rights experts subsequently described as having severe human-rights implications and amounting to “energy starvation.”
For Havana, the combination of the decades-old embargo, intensified sanctions, and restrictions on energy supplies has created a crisis with direct consequences for civilians.
