In a February 4, 2026, editorial, World-Outlook responded to the January 29 announcement by the White House that it would impose punitive tariffs on any country that trades oil with Cuba.

“This is unvarnished economic warfare,” the editorial stated, “a major escalation of Washington’s unrelenting efforts over more than six decades aimed at asphyxiating the Cuban people and overthrowing their socialist revolution.”

Having cut off Cuba’s supply of oil from Venezuela following the January 3 U.S. attack on that country, Washington turned its sights on Mexico, which, after Venezuela, has been Cuba’s most important source of oil. Between the prospect of sanctions and threats of deploying U.S. troops to “fight drug cartels” in her country, Mexico’s president Claudia Scheinbaum buckled, announcing the suspension of oil shipments to Cuba.

The Cuban government responded swiftly to Washington’s latest escalation. “Imperialism is mistaken when it believes that economic pressure and the determination to cause suffering to millions of people will break their resolve to defend national sovereignty and prevent Cuba from falling, once again, under U.S. domination,” it declared in a statement.

With characteristic defiance and determination, the Cuban people are working daily to overcome the hurdles thrown their way. They are installing solar panels, cooking with wood and coal, turning to bicycles and motorcycles for transportation of goods and people, and enduring hours and hours without electricity to allow the power grid to keep essential services up and running. Remote learning is being implemented and school and work hours are being curtailed.

At the same time, trash collection has paused, creating unpleasant and unsanitary conditions in urban areas. Medical care for many patients with critical conditions is also being undermined.

Cuba is not alone

Around the world — including the United States, solidarity groups are organizing campaigns to send medical supplies and medications, solar panels, and other material aid to Cuba with increasing success.

In Mexico, solidarity organizations have collected 226 tons of such material, adding to the more than 800 tons that has already arrived in Havana on two Mexican navy vessels dispatched by that country’s government.

The solidarity from the people of Mexico is mirrored throughout Latin America — from Argentina, and Brazil, to Chile, Colombia, and elsewhere.

As World-Outlook put it in its February 4 editorial, “Cuba needs material aid, solidarity in action. It needs the governments of oil-producing countries like Mexico and Angola to send tankers; it needs foreign investment in solar cells and wind turbines to help reduce its dependence on fossil fuel. And it needs trade in food products, medicines, and other essentials.”

Pressure is now being applied to governments of oil-producing countries in Latin America to send Cuba the one thing that working people, youth, and anyone who cares for human decency cannot provide — petroleum.

Solidarity groups in Mexico are pressing that country’s government to honor its previous oil commitments to Cuba and perhaps expand them.

The “Oil for Cuba” campaign in Brazil, launched by social and labor groups, including the Unified Federation of Petroleum Workers, is demanding that the country’s government send the critical fuel to the Caribbean nation.

So far only Russia seems prepared to challenge the U.S. blockade; a Hong Kong-flagged tanker loaded with Russian oil, reportedly destined to dock in Cuba in early March, is currently “roaming” in the mid-Atlantic, its actual course uncertain. If this tanker is allowed to offload in Cuba, its cargo will help, but it can only provide temporary relief.

U.S. treasury may resell stolen oil to private Cuban entities

Meanwhile, the Trump administration just announced it is prepared to resell to “private sector entities” in Cuba some of the Venezuelan oil it seized since its January 3 raid. While private airlines and other such companies could benefit, this would have little to no impact on the catastrophic cost of the oil blockade for most Cubans.

Electric power generated by Cuban state enterprises — necessary for medical care, clean water, food production and distribution, public transport, and other social services — would be excluded from receiving any of this fuel.

Washington is thus “offering” to sell oil it stole from Venezuela to the very country — and only to private entities in that country — where some of this petroleum was originally destined to go!

U.S. secretary of state Marco Rubio’s recent remarks underscored this shameless cynicism.

“What the Cuban people should know is this: that if they are hungry and they are suffering, it’s not because we’re not prepared to help them. We are,” Rubio claimed. “It’s that the people standing in the way of us helping them is the regime, the Communist Party.”

Nevertheless, the U.S. treasury announcement is a sign that the world-wide outrage over the criminal U.S. oil blockade and its impact on Cuba is being felt even in Washington. It shows that turning up the heat to lift the blockade and re-establish normal trade relations between Cuba and its oil suppliers is starting to produce results.

The article below describes such solidarity efforts in Mexico; it first appeared in La Jornada, a daily publication based in Mexico City.

The headline and photos below are from the original. Translation, and a postscript that follows — which includes links to articles publicizing solidarity efforts across Latin America, are by World-Outlook.

We publish these materials for the information of our readers, and to encourage similar solidarity around the globe.

— World-Outlook editors

*

Collection for Cuba exceeds expectations;
Mexicans donate hundreds of tons at the Zócalo

February 23, 2026

MEXICO CITY — Mexican solidarity has exceeded expectations. After one week, the collection campaign for food and medicine for the Cuban people, set up in the Mexico City Zócalo [Central Square], concluded tonight with approximately 226 tons collected, organizers reported.

Aid from Mexicans continued to flow until the very last minute. Throughout the evening, dozens of people continued to arrive to contribute “a grain of sand” for the resistance of the Cuban people, who have been under siege for more than six decades by the U.S. economic blockade, a situation recently aggravated by a petroleum blockade decreed by Donald Trump.

Alongside the collection efforts, shortly before 7:00 PM, the Mexico City government headquarters — the Old Palace of the City Hall — was illuminated with the Cuban flag: “The one with the solitary star,” as Cuban ambassador to Mexico, Eugenio Martínez Enríquez, put it. This was a decision made by the capital’s administration.

The initiative for the collection — driven by the Va por Cuba collective and the José Martí Association of Cubans Resident in Mexico — began on Saturday, February 14, and concluded yesterday [February 22] amid chants of support for the island, the Revolutionary government, and the 10 million Cubans.

During the closing ceremony, the [Cuban] diplomat said that this effort showed that “resistance is the future. Resistance is the option for peoples against imperialist domination; (it showed) that regardless of force, military might, or control over the media, peoples resist and overcome, and Cuba is the example. Your support encourages us; we know we are not alone.”

Olivia Garza, vice president of the José Martí Association of Cuban Residents in Mexico, detailed that approximately 226 tons of food, medicine, medical supplies, and cleaning products, among others, were contributed.

“The response from the Mexican people has been wonderful. This has made visible the criminal and cruel nature, and the implications of the economic, commercial, and financial blockade, and now the petroleum blockade,” she noted.

The thousands of boxes containing the donations were loaded onto two Mexican Navy cargo trucks to be taken to a warehouse. From there, they will be transported to Veracruz, where they will be sent by sea on a Navy vessel in the coming days.

For her part, Johana Tablada de la Torre, deputy head of mission at the Cuban Embassy in Mexico, expressed gratitude for the support and solidarity of the people of Mexican. “In Cuba, there is not a day that goes by without looking with enormous gratitude and admiration at the effort made here,” she said.

[Tablada] added that behind Washington’s strategy of extermination against the island “is the logic of a warning so that no people dare to do what Cuba dared: to build a system of social justice that serves as an alternative to the neoliberal models of exploitation they seek to impose on our peoples. No country can survive without fuel. We are going to resist — it is the commitment of Cubans — because to resist is to win.”

Itzel Negrete, a graduate in commercial relations from the National Polytechnic Institute and a resident of Mexico City, visited the collection center accompanied by her daughter to donate medicine.

“We came to contribute so that the Cubans can resist. The situation is very unjust. They instill a lot of fear in us, but together we can do it,” she said in an interview with La Jornada.

Regina, a young actress from the capital, highlighted the importance of expressions of solidarity toward the island. “It’s exciting to see the support of so many people. Good always wins, and there are more of us. What is happening in Cuba and the world — the level of malice — is very concerning.”

After contributing food and medicine, Sofía Maya, a retiree in Mexico City, emphasized: “It makes me very angry what they are doing to Cuba. Cuba does not deserve this. Resistance is consciousness. Cubans continue to defend their Revolution; they know that only with their Revolution are they free and able to defend their sovereignty. That motivates me.”

Postscript by World-Outlook

Below are links to articles from Latin American news outlets detailing recent Cuba solidarity efforts in a number of countries.

(Most of the articles highlighted below are in Spanish; a button in a browser will usually provide translation into English, or other languages. If not, a search for “translate Spanish to English” will turn up several options; simply copy and paste the text of the article into the translator.)

*

Argentina

Campaña internacional de solidaridad con Cuba – Clate [International campaign in solidarity with Cuba – Clate]

More than 30 political, social, and labor organizations in Argentina joined the international campaign of solidarity with Cuba. At the House of Argentine-Cuban Friendship in Buenos Aires, representatives met to evaluate the campaign’s first week and plan new actions. “In the difficult times Argentina is going through, the response has been very positive,” said Rubén Zaccaro, president of the host group. Alberto Mas, one of those present, said that in the first five days of the campaign — which includes music concerts across the country — Argentines donated 23 million pesos (~ $17,000) as financial aid for Cuba.

*

Brazil

Brazilian Movements Promote Solidarity Campaign to Send Medicines to Cuba – teleSUR

Brazil’s Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST) is spearheading an effort to buy and ship medicines to Cuba, seeking to break the financial siege that prevents the Cuban people from accessing basic health supplies. In an official communiqué, the MST also pressed Brazil’s government to take a more active role in providing aid to Cuba. The group urged the administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to follow the example of other nations in the region cooperating with Cuba. Social movements are pressing the Brazilian state to facilitate the supply of fuel and food to Cuba to prevent a major crisis.

Brazil Launches Campaign to Help Cuba with Oil – Radio Angulo

The Unified Federation of Petroleum Workers (FUP) announced it sent an official letter to the Executive Directorate of Logistics, Marketing, and Markets of Petrobras, the state-owned oil company, requesting a meeting to discuss the possibility of an emergency fuel shipment to Cuba. This is part of the “Oil for Cuba” campaign, launched by social organizations, popular movements, and oil workers to pressure Brazil’s government and Petrobras to send fuel to the Caribbean nation.

*

Chile

Crisis de combustible en Cuba: llegan buques de México y Chile anuncia el envío de suministros [Fuel crisis in Cuba: Vessels arrive from Mexico while Chile announces it is shipping aid]

Chile’s government announced a shipment of supplies to be dispatched to Cuba within days. Santiago’s commitment is mainly focused on technical and medical aid, responding to the call of international organizations that warn of a possible further deterioration of sanitary conditions in the most isolated areas of the island.

*

Costa Rica

Campaña recoge medicamentos y fondos para paneles solares en solidaridad con Cuba – SURCOS Digital [Campaign in solidarity with Cuba collects medicines, raises funds for solar panels – Digital SURCOS]

Diverse social organizations are driving a country-wide campaign to collect medications and milk, and raise financial contributions, in solidarity with the Cuban people who face a humanitarian crisis due to U.S. government sanctions. The initiative is part of the Latin American and Caribbean Continental Network Campaign of Solidarity with Cuba and Just Causes; the latter promotes the purchase of solar panels for hospitals and the shipment of medical supplies and food. According to journalist and lawyer Rafael Ugalde Quiros, the medications and milk will be collected at the headquarters of the National Union of Social Security Employees  (UNDECA).

If you appreciate this article, subscribe to World-Outlook (for free) by clicking on the link below.

Type your email in the box below and click on “SUBSCRIBE.” You will receive a notification in your in-box on which you will have to click to confirm your subscription.