FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 2, 2026
Media Contact: Melissa Garriga | [email protected]
CODEPINK Statement on Trump’s Latest Escalation Against Cuba
The Trump administration has launched a new escalation against Cuba that deepens the decades-long economic blockade and pushes the country closer to an engineered humanitarian crisis. By declaring a so-called national emergency, the administration is unlocking extraordinary executive powers that allow it to restrict trade, punish third countries, and impose sweeping economic measures without congressional oversight. These powers are not being used to protect people in the United States. They are being used to deliberately inflict harm on civilians abroad.
This escalation targets Cuba’s energy lifelines. When fuel is cut off, electricity fails. When electricity fails, hospitals struggle to function, food and water systems are disrupted, and daily life becomes a fight for survival. These consequences are entirely foreseeable.
The administration has justified these actions by invoking an alleged “threat” posed by Cuba to the United States, even as officials simultaneously describe the country as being on the brink of collapse. This kind of language stretches the meaning of security to justify economic warfare. It allows collective punishment to be framed as defense and humanitarian suffering to be treated as leverage.
This strategy closely mirrors the U.S. approach toward Venezuela, where sweeping sanctions were imposed under the banner of protecting democracy and stability, while in reality crippling public services and deepening social hardship. In Venezuela, the resulting suffering was then cited as evidence of failure, rather than acknowledged as the result of deliberate external pressure. The same logic is now being applied to Cuba.
In both cases, the issue is not a threat. It is political defiance. Countries that assert sovereignty and refuse to submit to U.S. economic and political control are punished until suffering itself becomes a tool of coercion. This policy undermines international law, violates basic human rights, and isolates the United States from much of the world. Deliberately starving a population, cutting off its energy, and destabilizing civilian life is not diplomacy. It is collective punishment.
CODEPINK calls for an immediate end to this escalation, the reversal of the national emergency order, and the lifting of the blockade on Cuba. The United States must abandon the failed logic of the Monroe Doctrine and commit to a true Good Neighbor Policy rooted in cooperation, non-intervention, dignity, and respect for sovereignty.
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