Speaker: Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Cuba
Occasion: Cuba solidarity movement meeting, New York City, May 27, 2026
Overview
Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla addressed members of the Cuba solidarity movement in New York City on May 27, 2026, speaking in unsparing terms about the economic and military crisis his country faces. The speech ranged across the energy blockade and its humanitarian toll, the Trump administration’s escalating threats, the federal indictment of Raúl Castro, the $100 million U.S. aid offer, ongoing U.S.-Cuba diplomatic contacts, and Cuba’s determination to resist. He closed with a direct appeal to the solidarity movement to hold the line.
The scale of the crisis
Rodríguez Parrilla opened with a stark summary of conditions inside Cuba, framing the current moment as a qualitative break from anything the revolution has faced before.
“Cuba is currently facing one of the most serious junctures in its contemporary history. The threat of military aggression against Cuba has been escalating in the course of this year to a very dangerous level. The economic warfare imposed since decades ago has been strengthened during the last few months in an unprecedented way, with ever more aggressive and ruthless measures.”
He enumerated the effects of the fuel cutoff directly: “The U.S. government’s efforts to completely disconnect Cuba from the global economy have intensified, and have brutally deprived the country of fuel supplies since January of this year, or even before. The cost to the economy and the country’s performance has been huge and cross-cutting. It has impacted power generation, public transportation, hospital services, industry, food production, transportation and distribution of supplies for people’s consumption, the availability of drinking water, public utilities, and virtually all spheres of life.”
He placed the crisis in its broader context: “This is a coldly calculated aggression that takes advantage of the well-known limitations of the Cuban economy, given its condition as a developing country with scarce natural resources, subjected for almost 70 years to an economic blockade that restricts access to financial revenues, markets, and technology. It is a plan to bring about an induced humanitarian crisis.”
The energy blockade as an act of war
Rodríguez Parrilla was unequivocal in his characterization of the energy measures as warfare.
“The tightening of the blockade over the past ten years has obviously had an impact in terms of social and humanitarian consequences and on our economic performance. Since 2019, with the introduction of 243 new coercive measures, the U.S. government has made increased efforts to deprive Cuba of its supplies, including fuel supplies, during the summer of 2020. This is an act of war. This is not acceptable. This is not possible in a situation of peace. This is an act of war. This is equivalent to a naval blockade. This is an action that causes extraordinary harm to our people and to every Cuban family.”
He described the operational mechanism: “It began affecting us early on, when U.S. military commanders began to pursue, interdict, and confiscate foreign oil tankers in the Caribbean and beyond. It is known that Cuba cannot, for the time being, produce all the crude oil or fuel required to sustain the lives of our people and our economy. Cuba needs to import fuel, in the exercise of an internationally recognized right to freedom of trade and navigation. When the U.S. pursues fuel shipments, it not only stops a vessel or harms a supplier, a shipping company, or an insurer — it disrupts transportation in Cuba, affects medical services and health services, and threatens the lives of millions and millions of people. It harms our children, the elderly, the ill, and does so with the intent to breed despair.”
On the broader legal character of the blockade: “This is an unprecedented situation in a world where a superpower routinely abuses its capacity to impose on virtually all states the prohibition to act in a sovereign manner — and in the case of Cuba, bans trade in its own domestic products with any country it wishes, and prohibits U.S. citizens from visiting Cuba. This is not only a criminal attack against Cuba, but against the sovereign prerogatives of states everywhere.”
The humanitarian toll: specific numbers
Rodríguez Parrilla put specific figures on the humanitarian impact, several of which have not previously been reported in international wire coverage.
“The brutally reinforced blockade has a devastating and incalculable impact on the daily lives of the Cuban people. It is an act of genocide and a collective punishment that causes extraordinary humanitarian harm, suffering, deprivation, and extreme hardship to Cuban families. The energy blockade has affected power generation, leading to prolonged blackouts, difficulties in water pumping, and disruptions in the supply of LPG, as well as in the production and distribution of food, goods, and services.”
He then delivered the sharpest figures of the speech: “Currently, the infant mortality rate in Cuba has doubled. At the end of 2025, it stood at 9.9 deaths per 1,000 live births. Similarly, the survival rate for children with cancer dropped from 85% to 65%. Around 100,000 patients — including 12,000 children — are awaiting surgery. The doubling of the infant mortality rate means newborn children dying. It is critical.”
The $100 million aid offer: cynical and insufficient
Rodríguez Parrilla addressed the U.S. offer of $100 million in humanitarian aid directly, neither accepting nor refusing it outright, but placing it in sharp arithmetic context.
“A few weeks ago, the U.S. government announced the promise of humanitarian aid worth $100 million — a figure that stands in stark contrast to the billions and billions of dollars in damages caused every year by the policy of economic coercion. We will wait and see if it truly materializes, and whether Cuba accepts this offer — if it is truly humanitarian aid, without tricks or political opportunism — despite the cynicism that accompanies the offer.”
He gave the calculation that strips the offer of its apparent significance: “They offer $100 million in humanitarian aid, but the damages caused by the implementation of the blockade in just five days — less than a week — are equivalent to $100 million. That same $100 million in fuel would be enough to generate power for only 15 days at a limited consumption level.”
On the proposed role of the Catholic Church in distributing aid: “The U.S. government has said it wishes the reception and distribution of the material aid to be carried out by the Catholic Church, and we have no objection to the participation of the Catholic Church or Protestant churches in this humanitarian process. We have absolutely no objections, as we have accumulated a long experience of working with Christian churches in humanitarian endeavors.”
He was equally direct about what would constitute genuine assistance: “The only effective assistance the U.S. government could provide to the noble people of Cuba — at this time or at any other time — would be to de-escalate the energy, economic, commercial, and financial blockade measures, which have been strengthened as never before in recent months and are severely affecting all sectors of the Cuban economy and society, and every Cuban family.”
The Raúl Castro indictment: a pretext for war
On the federal indictment of Raúl Castro, unsealed May 20, Rodríguez Parrilla was categorical.
“On May 20 of this year, the U.S. government formalized a criminal indictment against Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, leader of the Cuban Revolution — an indictment that lacks every legal or moral ground. It is an immoral effort to fabricate an argument that would serve as a pretext to carry out a reckless military action against Cuba.”
Cuba is not the threat
Rodríguez Parrilla rejected the national security framing underpinning Trump’s executive orders — and did so in terms calculated to expose its absurdity.
“Cuba is neither an unusual nor an extraordinary threat to U.S. security, as is claimed in the executive orders signed by President Trump on January 29 and May 1 of this year. That is a deliberate lie. It is a totally slanderous and ridiculous claim that the tiny island of Cuba could be a threat to the national security of this nuclear superpower. It is my country — it is Cuba — that is being threatened and under attack.”
“The pretexts wielded by the U.S. to justify its increasing aggressiveness are diverse, and none of them will withstand honest scrutiny. Cuba does not threaten and does not pose any threat to the United States. There are no foreign military bases in Cuba, nor any foreign forces acting against the U.S. from our territory. The only exception is the illegal presence of the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo, maintained against the will and the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Cuba.”
He quoted Trump’s own January 8 statement to make the threat concrete: “In a radio interview on January 8 of this year, the President of the United States said: ‘Well, I don’t think we can put much more pressure than entering there and destroying everything.’ The president had been asked whether he would apply additional economic pressure measures against Cuba, and he acknowledged that the U.S. had almost completely exhausted its arsenal and that the only thing left was to enter and destroy everything.”
Cuba’s readiness to resist
The foreign minister addressed the possibility of military attack with neither bluster nor evasion.
“No one should have any doubts about the determination of the Cuban people to defend their sovereignty, their independence, and their right to self-determination. If the most reactionary — neoconservative, neofascist — sectors of the U.S. extreme right prevail in their aggressive approach, they will find a united people ready to confront any aggression against our homeland.”
He was explicit about the regional consequences: “A military aggression could have unpredictable consequences for the region and for Cuba in particular. It is our desire to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe, the shedding of blood, and the death of both our compatriots and U.S. citizens. Should a military action take place, the warmongering zeal of the current neofascists in the White House would clash with the resolve, preparedness, and tradition of struggle of the Cuban people.”
He pressed the question of justification: “What justification could the U.S. government of this nuclear superpower possibly have for such a barbaric, brutal, crude, and uncivilized act? What excuses could be made to justify dozens or thousands of deaths and the resulting destruction and suffering? What would be the goal? What would happen next? What impact would a military adventure of this nature have on the destabilization of the region, damaging the main trade and air routes that supply the eastern part of the United States?”
U.S.-Cuba diplomatic contacts
Rodríguez Parrilla confirmed that diplomatic exchanges are underway, while drawing a firm line around what is and is not on the table.
“We have begun a process of diplomatic exchanges with the government of the United States. This is nothing extraordinary. We have done so in the past with almost all U.S. administrations. If my memory serves me right, there have been thirteen since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. Fidel, Raúl, Díaz-Canel — the leadership of the Party, the state and the government — have always been willing to establish a respectful, serious, and responsible dialogue to try to resolve our profound political differences. There is prior experience, and we are ready to move forward down that path. There are bilateral issues on which we can discuss that both peoples could find it worthwhile to resolve.”
He left no ambiguity about the limits of those talks: “Cuba’s political and economic order is not, in any way, part of that exchange. No domestic issue relating to our people or our revolution can be part of talks with the United States. We will never discuss with the U.S. government those issues that are inherent solely to the sovereignty, independence, and free self-determination of Cubans.”
The revolution’s social foundation
Against the U.S. narrative attributing Cuba’s crisis to socialist mismanagement, Rodríguez Parrilla offered a direct rebuttal — and pointed to structural strengths the blockade cannot reach.
“It is cynical — totally cynical — to claim that this crisis is a result of the alleged incompetence of the Cuban government, or of the evils inherent to the socialist economic model.”
“The consequences are not as severe for Cuba as they would likely be for the vast majority of nations, precisely because of the human-centered nature and social justice of our socioeconomic and political model. It is remarkable to see how Cuban families have adapted to these critical circumstances — how our people, in a creative, innovative, resilient, and steadfast manner, yet at the same time optimistic and cheerful, face the consequences.”
He described steps the government has taken in response: “The government has not remained idle. It has updated and relaxed regulations for direct foreign investment. New opportunities have been opened for Cubans residing in the U.S. or abroad to participate in our socioeconomic development program. Priority has been given to accelerating the transformation of our country’s energy matrix through important investments in photovoltaic solar energy, for which we are receiving invaluable assistance from friendly countries.”
The true purpose of U.S. policy
Rodríguez Parrilla named the historical logic behind sixty-seven years of blockade.
“Creating shortages, deprivation, and complete suffocation in order to provoke a social situation that could lead to the overthrow of the Cuban Revolution has always been the true purpose of the United States’ hostility and perverse policy toward Cuba.”
He identified what this means for the international order: “This poses a great dilemma for the entire international community. In the face of these actions, no state will be able to act in a sovereign and independent manner or exercise sovereignty over its own people. No state will be able to consider that the sole sphere of law applying within its territory is its own national law. No state will be able to defend the principle that only its national courts have jurisdiction over its own affairs — unless they take a stand today in favor of justice, in favor of Cuba.”
The conditions Cuba will not accept
In his closing remarks, Rodríguez Parrilla defined Cuba’s bottom line with precision.
“We are a peace-loving country and we want peace — but not a peace without sovereignty, without independence, where Cubans are not the owners of the national wealth, where the country is submitted to the dictates of the U.S. government and the economy returns to a relation of dependence on the U.S. economy. We do not accept that peace.”
He closed with a direct appeal to the solidarity movement: “Cuba resists. Cuba does not give in. We know we have friends in the United States, and that certainty only makes us stronger. Please accept the profound gratitude of the Cuban people, of the Cuban nation. Do not abandon the friendship between the peoples of the United States and Cuba.”
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