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No time to recover: Hurricane Melissa and the Caribbean’s compounding disaster trap as the storms keep coming

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Hurricane Melissa tore off roofs and stripped trees of their leaves, including in many parts of Jamaica hit by Hurricane Beryl a year earlier. Ricardo Makyn/AFP via Getty Images

Farah Nibbs, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Headlines have been filled with talk of the catastrophic power of Hurricane Melissa after the Category 5 storm devastated communities across Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti in October 2025. But to see this as a singular disaster misses the bigger picture: Melissa didn’t hit stable, resilient islands. It hit islands still rebuilding from the last hurricane.

Jamaica was still recovering from Hurricane Beryl, which sideswiped the island in July 2024 as a Category 4 storm. The parish of St. Elizabeth – known as Jamaica’s breadbasket – was devastated. The country’s Rural Agriculture Development Authority estimated that 45,000 farmers were affected by Beryl, with damage estimated at US$15.9 million.

An aerial view of a city damaged by the hurricane. Mud is in the streets and buildings have lost roofs and walls.
St. Elizabeth Parish, Jamaica, suffered intense damage from both Hurricane Melissa in October 2025 and Hurricane Beryl a year earlier. Ivan Shaw/AFP via Getty Images

In Cuba, the power grid collapsed during Hurricane Oscar in October 2024, leaving 10 million people in darkness. When Melissa arrived, it struck the same fragile infrastructure that Cubans had barely begun to rebuild.

Haiti’s fragile situation before Hurricane Melissa cannot be overstated. The island nation was still reeling from years of cascading disasters – deadly hurricanes, political instability, gang violence, an ongoing cholera crisis and widespread hunger – with over half the population already in need of humanitarian assistance even before this storm hit.

This is the new reality of the climate crisis: Disasters hitting the Caribbean are compounding and can trigger infrastructure collapse, social erosion and economic debt spirals.

The compounding disaster trap

I study disasters, with a focus on how Caribbean island systems absorb, adapt to and recover from recurring shocks, like the nations hit by Melissa are now experiencing.

It’s not just that hurricanes are more frequent; it’s that the time between major storms is now shorter than the time required for a full recovery. This pulls islands into a trap that works through three self-reinforcing loops:

Infrastructure collapse: When a major hurricane hits an already weakened system, it causes simultaneous infrastructure collapses. The failure of one system – such as power – cascades, taking down water pumps, communications and hospitals all at once. We saw this in Grenada after Hurricane Beryl and in Dominica after Hurricane Maria. This kind of cascading damage is now the baseline expectation for the Caribbean.

Economic debt spiral: When countries exhaust their economic reserves on one recovery, borrow to rebuild and are then hit again while still paying off that debt, it becomes a vicious cycle.

Hurricane Ivan, which struck the region in 2004, cost Grenada over 200% of its gross domestic product; Maria, in 2017, cost Dominica 224% of its GDP; and Dorian, in 2019, cost the Bahamas 25% of GDP. With each storm, debt balloons, credit ratings drop and borrowing for the next disaster becomes more expensive.

Social erosion: Each cycle weakens the human infrastructure, too. More than 200,000 people left Puerto Rico for the U.S. mainland in Maria’s aftermath, and nearly one-quarter of Dominica’s population left after the same storm. Community networks fragment as people leave, and psychological trauma becomes layered as each new storm reopens the wounds of the last. The very social fabric needed to manage recovery is itself being torn.

The interior of a school that has been torn apart by hurricane winds. Desks and debris are scattered and light shines through the rafters
When schools are heavily damaged by storms, like this one in Jamaica that lost its roof during Hurricane Melissa, it’s harder for families to remain. Ricardo Makyn/AFP via Getty Images

The trap is that all three of these loops reinforce each other. A country can’t rebuild infrastructure without money. It can’t generate economic activity without infrastructure. And it can’t retain the skilled workforce needed for either when people are fleeing to safer places.

Rebuilding a system of overlapping recoveries

The Caribbean is not merely recovering from disasters – it is living within a system of overlapping recoveries, meaning that its communities must begin rebuilding again before fully recovering from the last crisis.

Each new attempt at rebuilding happens on the unstable physical, social and institutional foundations left by the last disaster.

The question isn’t whether Jamaica will attempt to rebuild following Melissa. It will, somehow. The question is, what happens when the next major storm arrives before that recovery is complete? And the one after that?

Without fundamentally restructuring how we think about recovery – moving from crisis response to continuous adaptation – island nations will remain trapped in this loop.

The way forward

The compounding disaster trap persists because recovery models are broken. They apply one-size-fits-all solutions to crises unfolding across multiple layers of society.

Breaking free requires adaptive recovery at all levels, from household to global.

A line of people pass bags of food items one to another.
Residents formed a human chain among the hurricane debris to pass food supplies from a truck to a distribution center in the Whitehouse community in Westmoreland, an area of Jamaica hit hard by Hurricane Melissa in October 2025. Ricardo Makyn/AFP via Getty Images

At the household level: Helping amid trauma

Recovery isn’t just about repairing a damaged roof. When families experience back-to-back disasters, trauma compounds. Direct cash assistance and long-term, community-based mental health services can help restore dignity.

Cash transfers allow families to address their own needs, stimulate local economies and restore control to people whose lives have been repeatedly upended.

At community level: Mending the social fabric

Repairing the “social fabric” means investing in farmer cooperatives, neighborhood associations and faith groups – networks that can lead recovery from the ground up.

Local networks are often the only ones capable of rebuilding trust and participation.

At the infrastructure level: Breaking the cycle

The pattern of rebuilding the same vulnerable roads or power lines only to see them wash away in the next storm fails the community and the nation. There are better, proven solutions that prepare communities to weather the next storm:

A man looks into an open drainage area that has been torn up out by the storm
Hurricanes can damage infrastructure, including water and drainage systems. Hurricane Beryl left Jamaican communities rebuilding not just homes but also streets, power lines and basic infrastructure. Ricardo Makyn/AFP via Getty Images

At the global level: Fixing the debt trap

None of this is possible if recovery remains tied to high-interest loans. There are ways for internal financial institutions and global development lenders to allow for breathing room between disasters:

The current international disaster finance system, controlled by global lenders and donors, requires countries to prove their losses after a disaster in order to access assistance, often resulting in months of delay. “Proof” is established by formal evaluations or inspections, such as by the United Nations, and aid is released only after meeting certain requirements. This process can stall recovery at the moment when aid is needed the most.

The bottom line

The Caribbean needs a system that provides support before disasters strike, with agreed-upon funding commitments and regional risk-pooling mechanisms that can avoid the delays and bureaucratic burden that slow recovery.

What’s happening in Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti today is a glimpse of what’s coming for coastal and island communities worldwide as climate change accelerates. In my view, we can either learn from the Caribbean’s experiences and redesign disaster recovery now or wait until the trap closes around everyone.

Farah Nibbs, Assistant Professor of Emergency and Disaster Health Systems, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
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Continue ReadingNo time to recover: Hurricane Melissa and the Caribbean’s compounding disaster trap as the storms keep coming

Twenty years after “No to the FTAA”, Latin American movements reaffirm their anti-imperialist commitment

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Original article by Pablo Meriguet republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

In 2005, in the city of Mar del Plata, the presidents of the brother countries of the Americas, Lula da Silva, Hugo Chávez, Evo Morales, and Néstor Kirchner stood firm against the United States. Photo: X

The meeting in Mar del Plata paid tribute to the moment when several Latin American presidents defeated the US attempt to establish a regional free trade agreement.

In the same place where the regional free trade project was “buried” two decades ago, 150 delegates from various social movements in Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia, Cuba, Mexico, Portugal, Haiti, Palestine, Chile, Nicaragua, Peru, and Paraguay gathered to reaffirm the anti-imperialist spirit that led to the regional rejection of the FTAA project, they say.

“The world faces greater levels of inequality, injustice, and authoritarianism, with a growing concentration of financial and technological power that deepens poverty and limits the autonomy of countries in the Global South,” the delegates said in the event’s final declaration.

The meeting was also attended by the governor of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof, who stated that the rejection of the FTAA in 2005 was a “new declaration of independence” for Latin American countries. “The rejection of the FTAA was a victory for Latin American sovereignty, voiced by a group of presidents with enormous courage, represented in our country by Néstor Kirchner. Twenty years after that historic milestone, we have a responsibility to continue building unity, because there is no possibility of development for our countries outside the framework of regional integration. We cannot afford not to have a project on behalf of our people, because Argentina and the countries of Latin America are not anyone’s backyard,” Kicillof wrote in X.

Peoples Summit No al ALCA
Delegates from dozens of Latin American countries reaffirm the anti-imperialist spirit of the “No to the FTAA” summit in 2005.

For his part, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Argentine Workers’ Central Union (CTA), Adolfo Aguirre, stated: “In this very place, in front of the President of the United States, George W. Bush, and before the eyes of the whole world, our peoples, workers, together with leaders such as Néstor Kirchner, Hugo Chávez, and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, marked a turning point. We said no to surrender, no to dependence, no to the model that wanted to turn our America into the backyard of economic power.”

Twenty years ago, the anti-imperialist slogan was born

Twenty years ago in Argentina, several political leaders from the Latin American left gathered at a People’s Summit, whose fundamental slogan was the rejection of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), an initiative promoted, among others, by the George W. Bush administration. The FTAA sought to significantly reduce customs barriers between American countries.

According to popular and left-wing forces in Latin America and the Caribbean, the agreement would have promoted a regional market in which the United States would have had an enormous advantage over other countries and which, in the long run, would have led to the destruction of the still immature regional industry to benefit the interests of large US companies.

However, the economic and geopolitical project did not prosper due to fierce and coordinated opposition from several Latin American presidents, including Néstor Kirchner (Argentina), Hugo Chávez (Venezuela), and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Brazil), among others. The political maneuver took place in Mar del Plata, during the Summit of the Americas, where Bush and his entourage suffered a severe setback. Thus, the proposal that had been in the works and planned since 1994 in Miami and was definitively defeated.

The Summit of the Americas is considered by several experts to be a turning point in the geopolitical relations of the American continent. New progressive and pro-sovereignty processes joined those of Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela, giving rise to an attempt at regional integration that to this day is pushed by progressivism and boycotted by Washington’s neoliberal allies.

While the summit was taking place, thousands of people from left-wing and progressive movements and political parties gathered at a parallel conference with the slogan “No to the FTAA,” which was eventually attended by several political leaders. Among them, Hugo Chávez made a statement in his speech that would go down in history: “ALCA (FTAA in Spanish), al carajo! (FTAA, go to hell!)”.

A historic event

The region has undoubtedly changed its political composition. The seemingly unstoppable rise of progressive governments is now fragmented due to the emergence of new right-wing and neoliberal projects, such as those of Javier Milei in Argentina and Daniel Noboa in Ecuador, and the recent victory of the Bolivian right after more than 20 years of left-wing governments, among others.

However, in several countries, progressivism managed to regain government, as in the case of Lula da Silva himself, or managed to remain in power, as in the case of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela. Also, in other countries such as Colombia with Gustavo Petro and Mexico with Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Claudia Sheinbaum, progressive governments took office for the first time in their recent history.

In this sense, the dispute over governments in Latin America remains open, and much of the structure of that dispute can be found in what happened in Mar del Plata 20 years ago, where one regional project was buried and another was established, for almost a decade, as the model for regional integration around a position that, although it had its clear limits, always declared itself sovereign and independent.

Original article by Pablo Meriguet republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Continue ReadingTwenty years after “No to the FTAA”, Latin American movements reaffirm their anti-imperialist commitment

Ten lies the US ambassador told the UN about the blockade on Cuba

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Original article by republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz speaking at a UNSC session. Photo: Mike Waltz / X

Ahead of the UN vote on the US-imposed blockade on Cuba, the US once again spread lies about the nature and intent of its coercive policy on Cuba

The United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, told multiple lies during his speech in the debate on the resolution demanding an end to the blockade against Cuba.

His speech repeated – almost point by point – the repertoire of already debunked arguments that Washington typically uses to justify its sanctions regime that is condemned year after year by the international community.

Under the guise of “correcting misinformation,” Waltz repeated claims that do not stand up to confrontation with the facts nor with current US legislation itself, and which seek to shift the focus from the material responsibility of the blockade towards political accusations against Cuba.

Waltz received a strong reaction from the Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez who interrupted the representative from his seat:

“The Permanent Representative of the United States is not only lying, substantially straying from the topic, but he is also speaking rudely and, contrary to his president, against the dignity of the assembly and the member states. He is doing so in an uncivilized, crude, and rude manner. That is not acceptable in this democratic forum. Mr. Waltz, this is the United Nations General Assembly. It is not a Signal chat, nor is it the House of Representatives.”

The ten lies of the US Ambassador:

1. “The blockade does not exist.”

The US legislation that sustains the blockade – the Helms-Burton Act (including its Title III), the Torricelli Act, the “180-day rule,” sectoral and financial sanctions lists – exists and is in force. The Cuban Resolution against the blockade does not “invent” these rules: it documents them and shows their practical application. Furthermore, official US documents, such as the reissuance of Presidential Memorandum No. 5 (06/30/2025), confirm the continuity of the “maximum pressure” policy against Cuba.

2. “Cuba’s economic difficulties are the exclusive responsibility of the Havana government.”

The stated goal of US policy is to “strangle the economy” to provoke social unrest; this includes targeting fuel, finances, tourism, and medical cooperation. This siege impacts prices, investments, logistics, and liquidity, and explains a large part of the current economic tensions.

3. “The annual UN resolution is propaganda.”

The vote expresses a broad defense of international law and the UN Charter; the unusual deployment of US diplomatic pressures to alter votes underscores the isolation of this policy and the relevance of the multilateral pronouncement.

4. “The shortage of food and medicine is the fault of the Cuban government.”

There is a chain of bottlenecks caused by the US economic siege: in healthcare, the Basic Drug List (651 items) shows a 69% impact, with 364 drugs (56%) lacking due to payment obstacles, suppliers refusing to operate, and technological prohibitions blocking equipment or supplies with ≥10% US components. This prevents the acquisition or severely increases the cost of advanced medicines and critical devices (for example, percutaneous aortic valve prostheses or dialysis equipment), with a direct impact on care and health indicators.

Regarding food, the lack of financing and banking refusals forced the halt of imports of approximately 337,000 tons of corn and ~120,300 tons of soybeans (animal feed), leading to failures in the production of eggs for the Basic Food Basket. Even “authorized” purchases in the US are made under non-standard conditions: specific licenses, cash payment in advance (without credit), transport only on US ships and on one-way trips, which increases freight costs and delays deliveries. The lack of goods is due to lack of financing, limited access to credit, increased prices, high freight costs, and delays in arrivals, direct consequences of the blockade.

5. “The blockade allows for free export.”

There is no commercial “freedom”: the US legal framework establishes a policy of denial for exports/re-exports to Cuba (EAR) and prohibits subsidiaries of US companies in third countries from trading with Cuba; furthermore, the “180-day rule” is in effect, which discourages shipping companies from calling at Cuban ports, and permitted agricultural sales require cash payment in advance, without US financing. All this restricts and makes any operation more expensive, both for exporting and importing.

Added to this is extraterritorial financial persecution: fines and threats to banks and suppliers, refusals to open or maintain accounts, and blocked operations that cut off payment and collection flows. Cuba’s own report includes recent cases (OFAC fine to EFG; refusal to open an account for the EXPO Osaka; closures of embassy accounts) and quantifies widespread impacts on contracts, letters of credit, and transfers.

That is to say, far from “exporting freely,” Cuba trades under veto, licenses, and regulatory fear; in fact, the document lists measures that Washington could authorize – biomedicine, mining, tourism, easing of investment licenses, raising the 10% US component threshold, authorizing banking correspondents, removing Cuba from the SSOT list, and suspending Title III – and which it currently obstructs.

6. “Cuba has full freedom to trade with other countries.”

The US secondary (extraterritorial) measures deter and punish third parties (banks, shipping companies, insurers), increasing the costs and risks of operating with Cuba, which restricts real freedom of trade.

7. “The Cuban government traffics its medical personnel.”

Cuba maintains voluntary and widely recognized international cooperation; the US persecution seeks to cut off these revenues and deprive vulnerable populations of essential services, ignoring UN and PAHO standards.

8. “The Cuban government benefits from mercenarism.”

Cuba applies “zero tolerance” to mercenarism and has criminally prosecuted recruiters; it does not support or condone the participation of its nationals in external conflicts.

9. “Cuba destabilizes the hemisphere.”

What is destabilizing is the US military deployment and diplomatic blackmail in the Caribbean and the region; Cuba and CELAC uphold the principle of a “Zone of Peace”.

10. “Cuba contributes to the Russian ‘war machine’.”

Cuba does not participate in the war in Ukraine nor send troops; it has dismantled recruitment networks and sanctions mercenarism.

Continue ReadingTen lies the US ambassador told the UN about the blockade on Cuba

Tens of thousands of Cubans march in support of Venezuela’s sovereignty amid US aggression

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This article by Pablo Meriguet republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

People hold up Cuban and Venezuelan national flags during a rally in support of Venezuela, in Havana, Cuba, October 17, 2025. Photo: CGTN

The demonstration rejected US interference in Venezuela’s internal affairs as US military operations in the Caribbean Sea increase.

On October 17, tens of thousands of Cubans took to the streets of Havana to show their support for Venezuela in the face of a potential intervention by the United States following its recent military deployment in the Caribbean Sea.

Under anti-imperialist and pro-sovereignty slogans, nearly 50,000 participants gathered in front of the statue of Simón Bolívar, the Venezuelan military leader and independence politician. The event was led by the country’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel.

The event was also attended by Pedro Infante Aparicio, vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela and the National Assembly, who told those present that both Cuba and Venezuela are victims of the supremacism and warmongering of the White House. He added: “From this platform, we join President Nicolás Maduro in calling for an end to the xenophobic attempts to compare the dignity of Venezuelans with criminal groups, and we demand an end to the policy of terrorism against our people.”

For his part, Díaz-Canel wrote on X: “At a time when the empire and its misguided leader are approving covert CIA operations against Venezuela, we express our solidarity with that brotherly people and, especially, with its President Nicolás Maduro. Today, Cuba is more mindful than ever of the words of [José] Martí: ‘Give me Venezuela to serve, she has in me a son,’ and of Fidel [Castro]: ‘For Venezuela, we must give everything. We are confident that Venezuela and its popular, military, and police forces will once again overcome the threats and actions of the empire.”

Read More: Trump’s military escalation against Venezuela repeats the Iraq War blueprint

In addition, Díaz-Canel presented a book containing more than 4 million signatures from Cubans who support the Bolivarian Revolution and condemn attempts to destabilize the government of Nicolás Maduro. 

For his part, Roberto Morales Ojeda, secretary of organization of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, stated: “We are one soul, which does not give up. Receive these signatures as the greatest and most eloquent show of love that can be offered to a sister nation, led by constitutional President Nicolás Maduro and with an admirable military-popular fusion, which is preparing to face and defeat any aggression that may occur.”

For its part, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuba, Granma, wrote in an editorial: “Because the sister nation of Venezuela is not alone and because its resistance symbolizes the history of all peoples who believe in sovereignty, more than 50,000 Havana residents, representing all Cubans, gathered today in front of the statue of liberator Simón Bolívar in solidarity with that country.

Military pressure against Venezuela intensifies

Several weeks ago, the United States deployed a large number of ships and troops to the Caribbean Sea to supposedly stop drugs from entering the United States. In addition, Washington declared the Cartel of the Suns an international terrorist organization and claimed that Maduro and other senior Chavista leaders were running the cartel.

Read More: Trump chooses war over diplomacy in the Caribbean

The United States is offering a USD 50 million reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest and conviction. These accusations have been categorically denied by Venezuelan authorities, who see them as an attempt to legitimize a possible armed invasion of the South American country.

Under this premise, which many have questioned, Washington has claimed that it has sunk five small boats allegedly carrying drugs, killing 27 people on board. This type of pressure is in addition to the economic sanctions and trade blockades imposed by Washington for several years.

In addition, it was revealed a few days ago that Donald Trump had authorized secret CIA operations in Venezuela, according to the New York Times. Among the covert operations are lethal actions carried out in coordination with or independent of the US military.

This article by Pablo Meriguet republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

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Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.
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Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.

Continue ReadingTens of thousands of Cubans march in support of Venezuela’s sovereignty amid US aggression

Drawing lessons from the Cuban Revolution: organization, unity, and internationalism

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This article by republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

On February 16, 1959, Cuba established the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, the executive body of their defense force, and its first Army General, Raúl Castro Ruz. Photo: Miguel Díaz-Canel/X

A recent webinar by Pan Africanism Today and the International Peoples’ Assembly looked at global struggles, from Africa to Latin America, showing how Cuba’s enduring resistance offers vital lessons in organization, unity, and internationalism for today’s movements fighting oppression and war.

The world is in an era marked by relentless wars and overlapping crises, from the devastating civil war in Sudan and violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo to the unfolding genocide in Palestine. The demand to end all wars has never carried greater urgency. And in the midst of all these visible battlegrounds persists a more enduring and insidious conflict; the hybrid war and economic blockade waged against the Cuban people and their revolution.

This was the central focus of a recent global webinar convened under the banner of Pan-African and internationalist solidarity, bringing together progressive voices to draw lessons from Cuba’s anti-imperialist struggle. The session, held on October 15, was facilitated by Mbali Gwenda from Pan Africanism Today, who situated the discussion within a broader historical and moral framework, invoking the revolutionary spirits of Thomas Sankara, martyred on the same date in 1987, and Assata Shakur who recently passed, and whose life consistently symbolized uncompromising resistance to oppression.

“We are dealing with the question of the hybrid war and blockade against the Cuban Revolution and her people,” Gwenda said. “A revolution that has been a source of inspiration for all oppressed peoples throughout the world till this day.”

The keynote address was delivered by Manolo De Los Santos, executive director of The People’s Forum and a researcher at the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, who framed Cuba’s defiance not as a miracle, but as the outcome of a centuries-long process of people’s struggle, organization, and consciousness.

The long arc of revolution

De Los Santos began by looking at Cuba’s revolution more than an event confined to the years 1953–1959, when Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and others led the guerrilla war against the Batista dictatorship. Revolutions, he reminded the audience, are not events but processes, collective journeys of resistance that unfold across generations.

Cuba’s revolution, he argued, has roots reaching back to centuries of anti-colonial and anti-slavery resistance, when the island was still a colony of the Spanish Empire. Unlike many independence movements in Latin America, Cuban revolutionaries understood that genuine freedom required addressing three interlinked questions:

  1. Could Cuba truly be independent if it remained a slaveholding society?
  2. Could it be free if it continued under the exploitative system of capitalism?
  3. Could it claim sovereignty while dominated by imperial powers, first Spain and later the United States?

These questions shaped the consciousness of generations of Cuban patriots, culminating in the 1959 triumph of the socialist revolution. But as he explained, the revolution’s endurance has rested on three essential pillars: organization, unity, and internationalism.

Organization: the bedrock of resistance

Organization, De Los Santos emphasized, has been the Cuban people’s greatest weapon against imperial aggression. From the early independence wars to the 26th of July Movement led by Fidel Castro, Cubans have understood that only a disciplined, organized people can confront an empire with infinite resources.

This organizational spirit persisted after 1959, with the creation of mass democratic structures that unite workers, women, peasants, students, and youth. The Federation of Cuban Women, for example, mobilizes millions in defense of gender equality and revolutionary ideals, while student and peasant organizations remain vital spaces for political education and collective problem-solving.

Even under today’s extreme shortages such as the lack of fuel to power garbage collection, Cuban communities respond not with despair but with collective initiative, a reflection of their revolutionary organization and social consciousness.

Unity, he continued, has been the second indispensable lesson from Cuba. Every time the people were divided, the empire gained the upper hand; every time they stood together, they won. This unity has transcended class, race, and regional divisions, dismantling the legacies of slavery and racism that imperialism imposed.

The Cuban Revolution’s unity was forged not just through ideology but through practice, through collective participation in building a new society. It remains, as Manolo put it, “the most important defense the Cuban people have.”

Internationalism is the soul of the revolution

If organization is the body and unity the shield, then internationalism is the soul of the Cuban Revolution.

Quoting Fidel Castro, the New York-based researcher reminded participants that “a people who are not willing to fight for the freedom of others will never be able to fully fight for their own freedom.”

This principle drove Cuba to send tens of thousands of its sons and daughters to fight alongside liberation movements in Angola, Namibia, and South Africa, contributing directly to the defeat of apartheid. As he noted, “Cuba doesn’t need gold or minerals from Africa, it knows that its freedom is tied to the freedom of the peoples of the African continent.”

Even today, with over 24,000 Cuban doctors working abroad, many across Africa, Cuba continues this legacy of solidarity. The US, in its campaign of distortion, now accuses Cuba of “human trafficking” for this very act of humanitarianism.

Read more: Cuba’s medical brigades in Africa embody a long tradition of solidarity

The anatomy of a hybrid war

The United States’ war against Cuba has been fought through unconventional means. It is a hybrid war, a combination of economic blockade, financial strangulation, media disinformation, and covert sabotage.

For more than 65 years, the blockade has inflicted immense human and economic damage. In 2024 alone, it cost Cuba USD 7.5 billion, money that could have been used to buy food, medicine, or oil for its 11 million citizens.

The US uses its control of global financial systems to punish any country or institution that trades with Cuba. Banks in Africa or Latin America face sanctions simply for handling Cuban transactions. The blockade’s reach extends into every corner of global trade, designed to isolate Cuba and make daily life unbearable for its people.

Read More: Tens of thousands of Cubans march in support of Venezuela’s sovereignty amid US aggression

The war is also fought in the terrain of ideas. US-funded media campaigns spread false narratives about repression and poverty in Cuba while erasing the country’s achievements in health, education, and solidarity.

Socialism and survival

When asked on how Cuba has managed to survive more than six decades of blockade, Manolo’s answer was clear: because Cuba made a socialist revolution.

Socialism, he said, allowed Cuba to create a system where the needs of the people come before profit. In capitalist societies, when crises hit, the rich survive and the poor starve. In Cuba, food, healthcare, and education are distributed equitably, even in times of scarcity. This social organization transforms a siege economy into a community of resilience.

This difference, he explained, is what makes Cuba unique among nations facing US aggression. It’s also what inspires global movements seeking alternatives to neoliberalism and imperial domination.

Cuba, Sankara, and the spirit of resistance

The session also honored Thomas Sankara linking a symbolic bridge between the African and Latin American revolutionary traditions. Both embodied a commitment to self-reliance, dignity, and international solidarity.

Sankara’s vision of a self-determined Africa resonated deeply with the Cuban experience. His assassination on October 15, 1987 marked a turning point in African politics, yet his ideas continue to inspire movements across the continent, just as Cuba continues to stand as living proof that another world is possible.

Read More: Thomas Sankara’s legacy lives on in Burkina Faso 38 years after his death

A call for global solidarity

In closing, Manolo issued a clear call; the Cuban people will overcome the blockade, but they cannot and should not do it alone. Their survival depends on the solidarity of all who believe in justice, sovereignty, and equality.

Cuba’s endurance is not simply a Cuban story; it is a lesson for all peoples resisting imperial domination. As the world faces renewed militarization and economic warfare, the spirit of organization, unity, and internationalism must also be crucial as ever.

“When they stand with the Palestinians, when they stand with the Congolese, when they stand with the peoples of the African continent,” Manolo concluded, “they are breaking the blockade too.”

This article by republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Continue ReadingDrawing lessons from the Cuban Revolution: organization, unity, and internationalism