Hybrid Warfare and US-Backed Destruction

Sanctions: 

• Cuba has been under a brutal blockade for decades that has cut it off to crucial lifesaving resources, infrastructure, food, and supplies. 
  • The blockade has prevented seed exchange needed for resilient biodiversity in the face of flooding. 
  • The blockade has also prevented the implementation of Cuba’s robust climate plan, which includes energy transition, adaptation, and natural solutions. 
  • In 2022, the blockade made it extremely difficult for Cuba to recover after Hurricane Ian, partially due to the blockade necessitating that many resources were devoted to addressing the COVID pandemic, which was difficult due to the blockade. 
• In Venezuela, sanctions have also cut the country off from crucial resources needed for adaptation. 
  • The US has destabilized the country in part because of its possession of the largest oil reserves in the world.  
  • The US has implemented heavy sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry, which has become a lifeline under sanctions. 
  • Sanctions have led to increasing oil leaks, deforestation, and destruction of natural environments due to the necessity to meet basic needs, lack of regulation due to economic conditions, and inability to make repairs. 

US-Backed Destruction: 

• In Haiti, as of 2023, the US Department of Defense has allocated 300 million dollars for the invasion of Haiti
  • In 2010, a cholera outbreak in Haiti, which was traced back to sewage negligently released from a United Nations peacekeepers base into a river near the town of Mirebalais, caused about 9,800 deaths and over 820,000 infections.
  • Consistent intervention and instability causing gas shortages has created a dependency on wood for fule, with less than 2% of its original forest cover remaining
  • As of 2016, 80-90% of all rice was imported. Most cooking oil, and 50-85% of the food consumed in Haiti is imported as of 2024. Due to degradation of the natural environment over time, the mono-cropping/lack of agricultural diversity encouraged/created by colonial powers over the course of the country’s history.
  • Haiti ranks as one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to weather-related disasters due to agricultural degradation and US destabilization of the economy from the backing of political instability.
• The Democratic Republic of the Congo has been a hotspot for western intervention for decades
  • In the early half of the 20th century, the country was exploited for uranium used to make nucelar bombs, the use of which poisons areas and individuals for decades. 
  • Since then, US/UN intervention after intervention has killed millions, for the sake of extracting minerals for “green” technology like Tesla cars, as well as for phone batteries for Apple, Google, Dell, and Microsoft. 
  • The DRC is extremely rich in cobalt, coltane, copper, and gold yet sees little return on that wealth to the people of the region. 
  • The mining process has resulted in massive deforestation, which is not only dangerous for the ecological cycles in the DRC, but for the entire world. 4% of the Congo rainforest stores 20 years of fossil fuel emissions for the entire U.S. 
  • Water sources near mining areas have become extremely contaminated.