Caribbean & Central America - February 2026

The continued pressure on Cuba by the US administration led by President Donald Trump, in the wake of the 3 January military raid in Venezuela and capture of former president Nicolás Maduro (2013-2026), a key ally of Havana, comes amid mounting concerns that the island, already suffering economic collapse [EB-12-25], could be facing a deepening humanitarian crisis. This was already indicated in a report released in July 2024 by Spain-based NGO Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos (OCDH) on the state of social rights in Cuba.

The OCDH report, which interviewed 1,148 Cubans, estimated that 89% of Cuban families suffered from extreme poverty. It also found disapproval of the government’s economic and social management stood at 91%, the highest proportion recorded in any OCDH survey. It showed that just 4% of respondents approved of the government’s policies, while 3% said that they believe that Cuba’s current economic model should be the reference for future development.

With the OCDH report issuing an “early warning about a humanitarian crisis” that looks set to deepen, it found that the food crisis was the chief concern among Cubans, cited as such by 72% of respondents, with 70% of those surveyed saying that they had stopped eating breakfast, lunch, or dinner due to lack of money or food shortages. Just 15% of respondents claimed to be able to consistently eat three meals a day. The food crisis already made headlines in March 2024 when, for the first time, Cuba turned to the United Nations (UN) World Food Programme (WFP) for assistance to provide powdered milk in order to “guarantee supply to Cuban boys and girls”.

Following a visit to Cuba from 11-21 November 2025 to assess the impact of unilateral sanctions imposed on the island by the US, the UN special rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, Belarus’ Alena Douhan, shed more light on the humanitarian situation. With a final report due to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council in September 2026, she warned that “shortages of essential machinery, spare parts, electricity, water, fuel, food and medicine, alongside the growing emigration of skilled workers – including medical staff, engineers and teachers – have severe consequences for the enjoyment of human rights, including the rights to life, food, health and development”.

As regards food security for instance, Douhan said that this is “reportedly severely impacted by a lack of fuel and limited possibility to import food, seeds, fertilizers, livestock vaccines, equipment and spare parts for food production, processing, conservation and delivery”. She described “a noticeable decrease” in Cuba’s industrial production”, with production estimated to be operating at just 22% of capacity by the end of 2025, while highlighting that due to declining agricultural output, Cuba's food industry has increasingly relied on imports of raw materials, which account for 70–80% of food. She also pointed out that since 2021, when Cuba was designated as a state sponsor of terrorism under the first Trump administration (2017-2021), there has “been a reported decrease in the number of imports of food items such as powdered milk, flour, poultry, beef, and pork”.

More generally, as regards health, Douhan noted that while medicines and medical devices are not technically subject to sanctions, there is widespread inaccessibility, with 69% of medicines inaccessible to Cubans. She also highlighted that Cubans suffer from blackouts lasting up to 18 hours per day, and also have limited access to clean water.

Political prisoners

On 15 January Spain-based human rights group Prisoners Defenders reported that the Cuban government’s political repression had not only continued but intensified in 2025. According to the NGO, last year there were an additional 134 political prisoners, with the total number currently standing at 1,197. Prisoners Defenders said that this confirms that “persecution and deprivation of liberty remain central tools for silencing citizens and preventing them from exercising their fundamental rights”.