By Raúl Antonio Capote on September 24, 2026
illustration: Lacoste
The U.S. government may continue to lie from the UN podium, but free Cuba will continue to exist
Just because a lie is repeated a thousand times doesn’t make it true; President Trump called Cuba “an absolute failed state” from the UN podium.
When he uttered those words, the Cuban diplomats stood up and walked out of the hall. There was no need to refute him; the action itself was the most eloquent response.
It was not a diplomatic discourtesy, but rather the basic dignity of a sovereign country in the face of slander.
Who is truly responsible for the situation the island is facing? The answer does not lie in Havana; it lies in Washington. Trump himself admitted it: “I don’t think you can put any more pressure on them unless we go in and destroy the place.”
That statement was not a policy declaration; it is a confession, acknowledging that the United States’ intention is not to “help the Cuban people,” but to “destroy” the Caribbean nation.
From 1962 to the present, more than six decades of economic blockade have not for a single moment loosened the grip around the island’s throat. In recent months, the current administration has tightened the grip even further.
Let’s see what the 2026 calendar of the economic war says: On January 29, Trump signed an executive order imposing tariffs on countries that sell fuel to Cuba and declaring it a “threat to national security.”
What was the result? More than 60% of the country in darkness during peak hours, medical equipment in hospitals unable to function, and 100,000 patients—including 12,000 children—on surgical waiting lists with no set dates.
Patients are dying of cancer every day, with a survival rate that has plummeted from 85% to 65% for a reason that is painfully simple: there is a shortage of medications, there is no equipment, and there is no fuel.
On May 1, Executive Order 14404 expanded sanctions and targeted the financial, mining, and energy heart of the Largest of the Antilles. More followed: on June 23, five entities and one individual were blacklisted; on September 2, sanctions were imposed against the International Financial Bank and an oil import company.
Behind every list lies a minute stolen from the lives of Cubans. The numbers are cold, but the story they tell is searing.
According to the report the island will present to the UN itself next October, between March 2025 and February 2026 alone, the blockade caused losses totaling $8,083 million—7% more than the previous year.
The cumulative damage amounts to $178.7 billion. Adjusted for the revaluation of gold against the dollar, the figure climbs to 3.89 trillion; without the blockade, Cuba’s GDP would have grown by 10.8% in 2025. This is not an economic “failure”: it is prosperity systematically strangled.
The energy crisis is the most stark: a fuel deficit of 2.67 million metric tons, a loss of 1,400 megawatts of available power, and 983 gigawatt-hours less generated by diesel and fuel oil. Of 15 thermoelectric plants, 11 cannot undergo their normal maintenance cycle.
That is the truth behind the “utterly failed state” Trump referred to in his speech: not the failure of a system, but the “success” of a superpower that uses every means at its disposal to prevent a small nation from functioning normally.
The president of the northern nation claims that Cuba is a “haven for hostile foreign forces that threaten the United States.” He claims there is an entrenched Russian and Chinese military presence on the island.
The evidence? None—not a single piece—no satellite images, no intelligence reports, no confirmation from UN observers. Nothing. Just the word of the executioner on the UN podium.
A word that serves to lend new legitimacy to an economic war that has lasted more than 60 years.
Meanwhile, what is Cuba doing? It is carrying out “profound transformations” in its economy. It is not the “failure” that Trump touts, but rather the resilience of a system in the face of extreme pressure.
As the United States tries to cut off every drop of oil, the island is restructuring its economy, boosting the private sector, and seeking new trading partners among those willing to deal on equal terms.
This is not the agony preceding collapse: it is the ingenuity of a small country surviving under siege.
And what about “Option Zero”? Trump’s spokespeople immediately bring it up, but they fail to mention that the supposed “official emergency communiqué” regarding “Option Zero” never existed.
The Civil Defense General Staff denied that any such document was circulating on social media: it is false; it is not a Cuban government plan; it is part of the information war—aimed at sowing panic, undermining trust, and laying the groundwork for the “regime change” referred to by the occupant of the Oval Office in his remarks.
Trump says that Cuba “will fall,” but he doesn’t say who will fall. The Cuban system will not fall, dignity will not fall, sovereignty will not fall: the war affects ordinary families enduring more than 20 hours of blackouts; what does sink into the mud once again is the White House’s shame—if it has any left.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez once responded to Washington with a simple yet profound statement: “Cuba is not a threat. The blockade is.”
That statement is worth repeating; it is worth etching into the consciousness of every UN delegate. Cuba is a peaceful country; it is not the one threatening Iran with total annihilation if it does not submit, nor does it threaten Venezuela, nor does it lie and boast about how it steals that nation’s oil, as the U.S. president did at the UN.
The U.S. president says that “freedom will come to Cuba,” but the island is already free and won its freedom through the sacrifice of its finest sons and daughters.
Washington can keep repeating “failed state,” can keep signing unilateral coercive measures, can keep lying from the UN podium, but free Cuba will continue to exist.
Sources:
The New York Times, “Trump Calls Cuba a Failed State in His Speech to the UN,” September 22, 2026.
United Nations Digital Library.
Granma, “The Embargo Punishes Every Aspect of People’s Daily Lives,” September 8, 2026.
Radio Habana Cuba, “Cuba Denies Alleged Official Statement on ‘Option Zero,’” March 13, 2026.
Source: Cuba en Resumen