By Salim Lamrani on November 1, 2025
protest in front of the White House for Cuba, June 2023. foto: Bill Hackwell
On October 29, 2025, for the 33rd consecutive year, during the United Nations General Assembly, 165 countries demanded the lifting of the United States’ unilateral economic sanctions that have been strangling the Cuban population since 1960. Unlike the previous year—when only Israel sided with Washington in opposing the resolution presented by Havana—this time five other nations yielded to the strong pressure exerted by the Trump administration: Argentina, Hungary, North Macedonia, Paraguay, and Ukraine. Twelve other countries chose to abstain.
Unanimously condemned by the international community every year since 1992, this state of siege gravely affects the well-being of the entire Cuban population—particularly the most vulnerable—and remains the principal obstacle to the country’s development. From March 2024 to February 2025, U.S. economic sanctions cost Cuba $7.55 billion—a 50 percent increase compared to the previous year—representing more than $20 million per day and nearly $15,000 per minute.
That amount is equivalent to the electricity consumption of Cuba’s 10 million inhabitants for six years. With the same sum, Cuba could fill every household’s grocery basket for six years, cover the nation’s medical needs for 22 years, or guarantee public transportation for the next six decades.
Imposed by President Eisenhower with the aim of overthrowing Fidel Castro’s revolutionary government, the sanctions have been maintained and reinforced by successive U.S. administrations. They have extraterritorial features—such as the 1992 Torricelli Act—meaning they apply beyond U.S. borders and affect all countries around the world. For example, any foreign ship that docks at a Cuban port is banned from entering U.S. ports for six months. The purpose of this legislation is to prevent Cuba from developing international trade with the rest of the world.
The sanctions are also retroactive under the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, which penalizes foreign companies investing in properties in Cuba that once belonged to U.S. citizens in the 1960s. This constitutes a legal aberration, as a law normally cannot be applied to acts committed before its adoption. The goal of this legislation—which violates the sovereignty of Cuba as well as that of other nations wishing to maintain normal relations with Havana—is to deprive the island of foreign investment.
The diplomatic rhetoric used by Washington to justify the continuation of its hostile policy toward Cuba has evolved over time. In 1960, when Eisenhower imposed the first unilateral coercive measures, he justified his decision by citing the nationalization of U.S. properties. In 1962, when his successor John F. Kennedy decreed total sanctions against the island, he invoked Cuba’s alliance with the Soviet Union. In the 1970s and 1980s, Washington claimed that Havana’s support for revolutionary and independence movements around the world was an obstacle to policy change. Finally, since the collapse of the USSR, the United States has invoked democracy and human rights to prolong its economic war.
Although a brief thaw occurred during Barack Obama’s second term, Donald Trump’s arrival marked a sharp escalation of sanctions against the island. During his first presidency, he imposed no fewer than 243 new coercive measures—50 of them during the Covid-19 pandemic—averaging one new sanction per week for four years. He also placed Cuba on the list of state sponsors of terrorism. Since then, more than 1,000 international banks have refused to work with the island—which urgently needs foreign credit and investment—for fear of U.S. reprisals. As for his successor, Joe Biden, instead of returning to a more constructive approach as during the 2014–2016 period when he was vice president, he chose to maintain the new sanctions.
As a result, more than 80 percent of the Cuban population has been born under the sanctions imposed by Washington. These measures have cost the island a total of $170 billion—enough to fill every Cuban family’s grocery basket for over a century. Each year, they cause losses of several billion dollars for Cuba. Without these economic sanctions, the country’s growth rate would reach 10 percent.
According to the United Nations, “fundamental human rights—including the rights to food, health, education, economic and social rights, the right to life, and the right to development—suffer the consequences” of the anachronistic, cruel, and illegal state of siege imposed by Washington on 10 million Cubans. The U.S. unilateral coercive measures thus violate the fundamental principles of international law and the United Nations Charter.
The economic sanctions underscore the United States’ inability to recognize Cuba’s independence and to accept that the island has chosen a different political system and socio-economic model. There is only one possible solution to this asymmetric conflict between Washington and Havana: a respectful dialogue based on sovereign equality, reciprocity, and non-interference in internal affairs.
Salim Lamrani holds a PhD in Iberian and Latin American Studies from Sorbonne University, and is Professor of Latin American History at the Université de La Réunion, specializing in relations between Cuba and the United States. His latest book in English is Cuba, the Media and the Challenge of Impartiality.
Source: Znet