By Carlos Fernandez de Cossio on May 10, 2026
Without any evidence, the U.S. Secretary of State accuses the Cuban government of squandering resources and failing to address the needs he considers priorities. He seeks to justify the ongoing collective punishment against the entire Cuban people and the possibility of military aggression.
Regardless of each state’s prerogative to decide sovereignly how to allocate its resources, let’s look at the facts.
Even under the intense economic war imposed by the U.S. and reinforced over the last 10 years, Cuba has focused its investments on sustaining the national electricity system, including a major push for renewable energy sources; strengthening telecommunications and expanding internet access; serving the most vulnerable communities and individuals; increasing food cultivation and production; strengthening water infrastructure and bringing water to hard-to-reach or underserved areas and communities; overcoming the major technological limitations imposed by the blockade, which requires significant creative and investment efforts; developing medicines, including COVID-19 vaccines in record time; maintaining investment in tourism due to its important role in development, albeit with less emphasis than in the past; developing the domestic industry in innovative areas such as the assembly of various electric vehicles, components, and parts to sustain infrastructure, increasing domestically produced construction materials, and addressing other pressing needs.
These are just a few examples of a developing country with scarce natural resources, under economic warfare, and committed to a people who are rightly accustomed to having health and education services available to the entire population at all levels of education, free of charge. It is a country at peace, where public order and tranquility are enjoyed—a luxury for many nations today.
Carlos Fernández de Cossío is Director General for the US at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. foto: Bill Hackwell
Meanwhile, the country represented by the Secretary of State—the richest and most powerful in the world—devotes its national resources to increasing the wealth of the plutocratic elite that governs it, and to unleashing wars and conflicts across every continent. Meanwhile, 40 million of its citizens lack access to health care, and education is unaffordable or is admittedly insufficient for the majority. Drug addiction is on the rise, devastating the population. Inequality, polarization, and exclusion are increasing, along with growing outbreaks of violence. Real income for the majority of the working class is stagnating or declining. Infrastructure is collapsing due to decades of neglect, despite having had the resources to maintain it. Shootings in schools and public places resulting in fatalities have become normalized. Racism and xenophobia are surging once again. Thousands upon thousands of young people remain imprisoned indefinitely, without ever standing trial.
All of this is happening in a country that no one is attacking, blockading, or harassing—fortunately for them. But the ruling elite cannot hide its corruption, not even with the oligarchic monopoly on the media. It is true that the country remains a magnet for immigrants, due to the hope many hold of being able to enjoy the enormous wealth concentrated there with such inequality.
Source: Cubadebate, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English