José Luis Méndez Méndez on July 8, 2025
Cuba is not Alone, photo: Caras y Caretas
When reviewing fake news on social media, so-called “in-depth” comments appear, which are also lies, half-truths, and some of them tailored to perverse interests. A recurring one is: the blockade against Cuba does not exist.
Superfluous arguments are used, some of the most common being the million-dollar purchases made by the Cuban state from the United States, which are real and have been made for food under unfair conditions, a detail that many prefer to omit for their own convenience.
Others claim that it is similar to Swiss cheese, full of holes through which its unilateral coercive restrictive measures against the island are mocked and escape. Nothing could be more fallacious and intentional than to dismantle Cuba’s legitimate demand to eliminate this scourge against humanity, which has been in place for 63 years and has become universal to unimaginable limits in order to strangle and immobilize a nation, a culture, an ideology.
Nothing escapes the predatory thinking of the administration of the embittered Republican and his servile dependents. The blockade, combined with spurious lists, is so universal that science, culture, and sports are not spared.
The month of July brought us the Florida regency’s ban condemning its science and technology centers for having ties to their Cuban counterparts. It is tangible and real that business people and merchants cannot have relations with the tiny Caribbean “enemy.”
At the end of last July, the Cuban authorities legitimately and sovereignly condemned the denial of visas to the Cuban women’s volleyball team for a Central American and Caribbean tournament to be held in Puerto Rico, which the United States is obliged, under international sports agreements, to facilitate for the organizers. Irrational politics prevailed over the impartial practice of sport. In addition to limiting the Cuban team from participating in higher-level competitions by not allowing them to participate in qualifying tournaments. What did the international sporting community do in the face of this immoral deprivation? It simply replaced the Cuban team with another team, which failed to demonstrate that it had what it takes to qualify. This also provoked the strongest rejection due to such a lukewarm response.
photo: Bill Hackwell
The same will happen in the baseball tournament to be held in Puerto Rico in 2026, where Cubans will be deprived of participating. Therefore, the Island of Enchantment cannot host events with Cuban participation because it is a territory under the tutelage of the United States, the country that exercises the real power to decide and act.
Cubans living abroad have spoken out against this type of abuse, as stated in the communiqué of the Union of Cubans Living in Argentina, which denounced the repeated bans by the current US administration on visas for Cuban sports officials and their Olympic Committee, who are deprived of attending official events and meetings of international organizations in the United States for political reasons, taken to insane levels.
This erratic and xenophobic persecution not only affects the island and its athletes, but recently a Brazilian athlete was denied a US visa to compete because he had participated in a sporting event in Cuba in 2023, which is state terrorism against those who travel to the island. It is intended to intimidate and punish those who participate in national or international sporting events on the island. This escalation of repression has been orchestrated by the irate Secretary of State, who displays and expresses a visceral hatred of his origins because of his political preferences.
In February 2025, a Cuban basketball team was unable to participate in Puerto Rico in a decisive final game of the FIBA AmeriCup because of restrictive measures imposed that affect more than just sports. All the numerous US demands were met, the application was submitted on February 23, and the passports were returned without visas. These actions are aimed at weakening the presence of Cuban athletes at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, as well as depriving Cuba of the opportunity to host international events. Athletes who compete in Cuba will not be allowed to compete in the United States, nor will they be allowed to use training centers or sports medicine services.
There is a list of Cuban citizens, incidentally classified as subjects of a country that “sponsors” terrorism, to whom additional measures are applied because of that status. This application for those who “exploit Cuban labor,” talent, and professionals from the island is labeled in this pejorative way to further xenophobia. The cruelty is aimed at the medical sector, with the real goal of depriving the country of finances for the services it provides to dozens of countries.
A number of visa categories are prohibited, including “state officials and their dependents,” as well as health, education, sports, and cultural professionals in Cuba. Even Cuban athletes who play on teams in various countries can compete in the United States with their foreign teams. It is an insane hunt for anyone with Cuban blood running through their veins. The blockade against Cuba has been, is, and will continue to be a clear, real, and tangible danger to humanity.
José Luis Méndez Méndez is a writer and university professor. He is the author of the books “Bajo las alas del Cóndor” (Under the Wings of the Condor), “La Operación Cóndor contra Cuba” (Operation Condor against Cuba) and “Demócratas en la Casa Blanca y el terrorismo contra Cuba” (Democrats in the White House and Terrorism against Cuba). He is a frequent contributor to Cubadebate and Resumen Latinoamericano.
Source: Cuba en Resumen