World News

Duration - 59:25 [A video podcast about Cuba from the podcast team Cuba Analysis Podcasts]

In this episode of Cuba Analysis, Helen Yaffe and Nina Blodau speak with Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, who has served as the nation’s top diplomat for nearly two decades. They ask him to set aside diplomatic language to describe life in Cuba under the US blockade.

Rodríguez Parrilla outlines the impact of the ‘maximum pressure’ strategy pursued during President Trump’s first administration and the sharp escalation of US economic warfare in 2026, including two executive orders, an oil siege of the island, and an aggressive increase in sanctions threatened against Cuba’s global partners.

The Minister stresses the human consequences of these measures: Cuba’s infant mortality rate has doubled, and some 7,000 shipping containers carrying essential food and medical supplies are currently being prevented from unloading on the island. This continues despite almost unanimous international condemnation of the US blockade at the United Nations, where Cuba has become a symbol of the struggle for self-determination and 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.