FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 3, 2026

Media Contact: Melissa Garriga | [email protected] 

CODEPINK Joins International Humanitarian Convoy to Break U.S. Siege on Cuba

WASHINGTON – As Cuba faces deepening blackouts, fuel paralysis, and life-threatening shortages of food and medicine, an international coalition of humanitarian organizations will arrive in Havana on March 21 to deliver urgently needed supplies — and to challenge the brutal U.S. policies that are strangling the island.

The Nuestra América Convoy, including CODEPINK, Progressive International, The People’s Forum, and Global Health Partners, will converge along Havana’s Malecón by air and sea. This is not charity. It is an act of solidarity — and defiance — against a decades-long economic war that has only intensified under the latest round of U.S. sanctions.

The Trump administration’s renewed assault on Cuba — particularly its deliberate restrictions on fuel shipments — has pushed an already suffering population into crisis. Hospitals are plunged into darkness during surgeries. Ambulances sit idle due to a lack of gasoline. Families cook with charcoal in apartment buildings because there is no cooking gas. Public transportation barely exists. Food rots without refrigeration.

This is collective punishment.

For more than 60 years, the United States has enforced a sweeping blockade condemned by the overwhelming majority of the international community. Now, with fuel deliveries choked off and financial penalties threatening any country or company that dares to help, the siege has reached a dangerous new level. The United Nations has warned of escalating humanitarian consequences if these conditions persist.

The Nuestra América Convoy is bringing food, medicine, and essential goods — small lifelines in the face of policies designed to create maximum suffering. The effort has drawn support from international voices such as climate activist Greta Thunberg and former British MP Jeremy Corbyn, who recognize that humanitarian solidarity must transcend borders.

“We refuse to stand by while our government conducts economic warfare that is depriving 11 million people of electricity, healthcare, and the basics of life,” said CODEPINK cofounder Medea Benjamin, who has been delivering powered milk to children’s hospitals on the island for the past two years.

This mission is a declaration: The Cuban people are not alone. The blockade must end.

For more information, please contact Michelle at [email protected]. 

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