cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/48264079

Duration - 2:56  

[a video about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

Harassment and intimidation from the U.S. government doesn’t scare Medea Benjamin — U.S. policy toward Cuba does. “I pray every day the U.S. is not going to invade,” she says.

cross-posted from: https://expressional.social/users/Peter_Link/statuses/116688714931166406

“No War on Cuba” (#NoALaGuerraContraCuba) en Los Ángeles, 6 de junio: convocan protesta de emergencia contra las amenazas militares de EE. UU. a la Isla
https://www.cubainformacion.tv/solidaridad/20260603/123188/123188-no-war-on-cuba-en-los-angeles-6-de-junio-convocan-protesta-de-emergencia-contra-las-amenazas-militares-de-ee-uu-a-la-isla

de cubainformacion
03/06/2026

El comité U.S. Hands Off Cuba Committee, junto a numerosas organizaciones sociales, sindicales, comunitarias y de solidaridad internacional, ha convocado una protesta de emergencia contra las agresiones y amenazas de #EstadosUnidos hacia Cuba, que tendrá lugar el próximo sábado 6 de junio de 2026, a las 11:00 horas, frente al Edificio Federal Wilshire, en la ciudad de #LosÁngeles (#California).

La movilización se realiza bajo el lema “No War on #Cuba” (No a la guerra contra Cuba) y denuncia la escalada de medidas de presión contra la Isla, incluyendo el recrudecimiento del bloqueo económico y las amenazas de intervención impulsadas desde Washington.

#NoWarOnCuba
#VivaCuba #CubaSí #AbajoElBloqueo #SolidaridadConCuba
#noticias #política #EEUU
@cuba

cross-posted from: https://expressional.social/users/Peter_Link/statuses/116672634085694765

Reportback by #labor delegates from #Atlanta, #Georgia, #USA about their recent solidarity visit to #Cuba

#NoWarOnCuba
#USHandsOffCuba
#news #politics #USpol
@cuba

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/48191871

Duration - 2:46

[a video about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

May 20 is celebrated in Miami as Cuba’s “Independence Day.” In Cuba, people don’t care about the date because it wasn’t really about Cuban independence. It was about U.S. control over Cuba.

On May 20, 1902, a four-year U.S. military occupation ended and Cuba officially became a republic. But Cuba was still controlled by the United States. For example, Cuba’s Constitution allowed the U.S. to invade militarily whenever it wanted. It’s no surprise then that the Trump administration chose May 20 to announce an indictment against Cuba’s former President Raúl Castro, which could be used as a pretext to try to take control of Cuba, just as it did more than a century ago.

Belly of the Beast journalist Liz Oliva Fernández breaks it down.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/48171382

Duration - 3:21

[a video about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

When they first arrived in Italy, some of their Italian colleagues and patients were distrustful of Cuban doctors, but they quickly realized what people all over the world know: Cuban doctors are top-notch.

Cuban medical workers have served on international cooperation missions in more than 150 countries since the 1960s. They usually work in Global South countries facing severe staffing shortages and health inequities. But since 2022, they have also been in Calabria, Italy.

During Covid, a Cuban brigade helped Italians in Lombardy, which triggered Calabria’s President Roberto Occhiuto to reach out to Cuba to bring hundreds of doctors to his region. Calabria is one of the poorest regions in Italy, and their healthcare sector has suffered greatly from staffing and other issues.

Listen to these Cuban doctors describe their experience in Italy.

“We haven’t left yet, but patients are already worried about what will happen when we do,” says Cuban surgeon Asbel Díaz. “We work from the heart. We work thinking of helping others, and we give our all every day for the Italian people.”

Don’t miss the New York premiere of From Cuba to Calabria: Medical Missions in Times of Crisis on June 4 at The People’s Forum (Paul Robeson Theater), 320 W. 37th Street, New York, NY 10018. See the full documentary before its online release and join the conversation about Cuba’s global medical missions.

RSVP now: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/from-cuba-to-calabria-film-premiere-and-discussion-tickets-1989232897144?aff=oddtdtcreator

cross-posted from: https://expressional.social/users/Peter_Link/statuses/116672437373837649

Emergency Webinar - #USHandsOffCuba
Saturday, June 6 at 7pm -#Jacksonville, #Florida, #USA

#Cuba
@cuba

it seems that even the economist warns against it

cross-posted from: https://expressional.social/users/Peter_Link/statuses/116671731442421175

#Video - #news on #GlobalSumudFlotilla for #Gaza and #US Economic War on #Cuba
https://youtu.be/Xq6V8p55V80

May 30, 2026
from #DoubleDownNews on #YouTube

#Palestine #politics #USpol #AltTxt4Me
@palestine

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/48086193

May 29, 2026 [weekly newsletter about Cuba (with YouTube video links) from the Belly Of The Beast news collective. Their videos can also be found at: https://peertube.world/c/cuba_botb_videos/videos]

Also:

• “Sanctions Kill. I Have Watched Them Do It.”
• Congressional Black Caucus: “Enough is Enough”
• China Delivers Aid in Boatloads; U.S. in “Wheelbarrows”
• Ex-Intelligence Officials Reject Cuba Threat Narrative
• Ex-NATO Analyst: "Absurd” to Claim Cuba Would Attack U.S.
• Cuba’s Top Diplomat Calls Out Rubio on Fox News
• This Week in Cuba Collapse Forecasting
• Cuban-American Hardliners Obsess about Cuba, Ignore Constituents
• Thousands March in Havana to Support Raúl Castro
• “You Can’t Run a Society Without Oil”
• Cuba Publishes Holy Week Amnesty List
• Join Us for Our June 4 NYC Premiere!

LOS PALACIOS, Pinar del Río.- “All obstacles must be removed.” Thus, leaving no room for nuances that might justify bureaucracy, the President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, expressed this Thursday morning, almost at the end of his visit to the Los Palacios Agro-industrial Grain Company, a setting from which he was able to observe the integration of that entity with the Vietnamese company Agri-VMA, in a vital task such as rice production.

Moments before the Head of State arrived at the Agro-industrial Grain Company, located in the westernmost province of the Island, its general director, Michel Ballate Camejo, explained to journalists that the company from the Asian country has at its disposal one thousand hectares of land in usufruct, and applies production models jointly with its counterpart from the Caribbean country.

The executive explained that Agri-VMA “has been working here for about three seasons now”, and boasts yields far superior “to what we have today on average as a country”.

"How many hectares have you planted here?" we asked Michel Ballate. He then spoke of more than 800 hectares planted thanks to the joint project, adding that they expect to reach about 1,700 hectares, and that they plan to harvest about 14,000 tons of rice.

“Today we are harvesting rice,” the Cuban company executive stated, “at nine tons per hectare, a yield that we haven’t seen in the country for many years.”

-What advantages has this alliance with the Vietnamese brought them?

-First, obtaining the necessary inputs. Rice is a very expensive grain, requiring a robust technological package; and they have it. The other factor is the wisdom of these friends: they have many years of experience in cultivation; and that's why the Cuban experience, which is very extensive agriculture, is combined with their intensive experience, and the results we see today are achieved.

Ballate spoke of high yields and very good quality rice. He explained that a joint venture is planned. It's a type of collaboration, he said, that will extend to other parts of the island: "The trend is to grow."

The expert producer, dedicated to that world for three decades, shared his conviction that there is an "expeditious way for us rice farmers to give the answer that our people need."

Regarding the Pinar del Río scenario, Michel Ballate Camejo explained that they are seeking to acquire a land fund "of around 4,000 hectares, which will allow us to guarantee the basic food basket, and generate a certain amount of rice to be able to sell it on the market in foreign currency and make the production model self-sustaining."

This endeavor, as the company's CEO reflected, is not separate from the difficulties the country is experiencing. He said this because "the energy problem is very serious"; and that is why they are "working on installing a biomass furnace, which would save 2,050 liters of diesel per day."

They are not, he commented, undertaking ideal processes: “rice is being dried on roads, on tracks; that is, with the sun, but we have the imperative need to modify our industries that today, in truth, are lagging behind the results of agriculture.”

Ballate acknowledged that “Vietnamese businesspeople are very willing to continue investing despite the pressure currently being exerted on foreign businesses not to invest in Cuba. They have maintained an unwavering position, they haven't hesitated for a second, and they have provided the necessary resources and continue working.”

In the area visited this Thursday by President Díaz-Canel Bermúdez - who was accompanied by the member of the Political Bureau and Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Roberto Morales Ojeda; the Minister of Agriculture, Ydael Pérez Brito; and the authorities of the territory - work is done 13, 14 hours a day.

These days of heavy rain have complicated everything for the past week. But there is a good purpose, as Ballate explained to reporters: “To keep the company going; and to work together with the Vietnamese to save all that high-quality rice in the fields.”

Standing amidst fields where various types of machinery were operating, President Díaz-Canel spoke with representatives of the Vietnamese company Agri-VMA—including its president, Nguyen Van Quang. At one point during the exchange, he highlighted the ideas emerging from the dialogue among the island's producers and executives: “They are proposing to use this as a workshop to train our producers. And I believe that all the experience we are accumulating here can be transferred to other places.”

There, the dignitary emphasized the importance of planting as much land as possible – “how much land there is still to be planted,” he said – and highlighted the value of continuing to connect more producers to agricultural areas. Towards the end of the tour, from a warehouse where he spoke with farmers and asked them about their earnings, he praised the significance of the shared experience:

“This is productive prosperity: we substitute imports; we achieve production levels we weren't having before, employment, income for the family, well-being… This is already associated with prosperity.”

Not long ago, the meeting was held in Havana by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, with Comrade Nguyen Van Quang, President of Agri-VMA.

Then, they had both discussed the success of the joint experience in Los Palacios; about how the Asian entity is developing in areas of the Agro-industrial Grain Company, in Pinar del Río territory, a collaboration that inspires hope, especially because of the facts.

On that day of the meeting, the dignitary thanked Nguyen Van Quang for support that demonstrates "that in a short time Cuba will be able to become self-sufficient in rice." It was also the moment when the visiting friend thanked President Díaz-Canel Bermúdez for the welcome and commented that his arrival in Cuba was in line with his country's leadership's decision to continue supporting sister nation Cuba.

cross-posted from: https://expressional.social/users/Peter_Link/statuses/116661497045890497

Leaflet(v2) - #LosAngeles Emergency Response Plan if the #US attacks #Cuba

#USHandsOffCuba
#NoWarOnCuba #AltTxt4Me

leaflet created by US Hands Off Cuba Committee (USHOCC)
https://www.ushandsoffcubacommittee.com/

leaflet file can be found at:
https://drive.proton.me/urls/035WTDDYVM#A8T2ygk9YBaz

List of co-sponsors can be found at:
https://drive.proton.me/urls/868R1REDTC#0NibfbHjYegR

@cuba

cross-posted from: https://expressional.social/users/Peter_Link/statuses/116663464400736672

Leaflet templates - [your city] Emergency Response Plan if the #US attacks #Cuba

#USHandsOffCuba
#NoWarOnCuba #AltTxt4Me
@cuba

leaflet templates created by US Hands Off Cuba Committee (USHOCC)
https://www.ushandsoffcubacommittee.com/

Templates to create media for your own city are here:

• Flyer (printable): https://canva.link/pahpbcwj418ciqx
• IG post 4:5: https://canva.link/9nqsmjvrmbd8omq

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/48085493

Duration - 2:50

[a video about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

Medea Benjamin traveled last march to Cuba with medicine and food for children's hospitals. The U.S. Treasury Department wanted to know everything about it. “This request for information is really just a form of intimidation,” she said.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/47993690

May 27, 2026
[very powerful, beautifully written account by a Cuban doctor.]

By an Anonymous Cuban Surgeon

This article was originally published by CounterPunch.

I am a surgeon in Havana, Cuba.

Last month, I operated on an elderly man with a perforated peptic ulcer. The surgery was textbook. I closed his abdomen cleanly, without complication. We had antibiotics available that time. What we did not have was intravenous crystalloid fluid for resuscitation. It’s the most basic of solutions, cheap enough to cost almost nothing, yet essential enough to save almost everything. It exists. It is manufactured in Santiago de Cuba, 500 miles away. It could not reach Havana since there was no petroleum to transport it. By the time it arrived, my patient had died.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/48017599

Duration - 2:05

[a video about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

Dr. Gloria Caballero, a Cuban-American academic and U.S. politician, speaks in this interview about the U.S. blockade, race, and why Rubio doesn't speak for her as a Cuban. "They don't speak on my behalf."

Watch the full interview now on Patreon with early access for supporters. Join us and help sustain independent, on-the-ground journalism.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/47987951

Duration - 13:19 

[a video about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

What happens when a U.S. citizen tries to deliver humanitarian aid to Cuba and criticizes the U.S. government’s economic are on Cuba?

That was what Medea Benjamin did, and now the U.S. government is investigating and intimidating her.

Last March, Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink (@codepinkaction), traveled to Cuba as part of the Humanitarian Convoy Nuestra America, amid a devastating economic crisis brought about by U.S. sanctions and an oil blockade designed to choke the island.

She came to bring food, medicines, especially to the children’s hospitals, where the maximum pressure sanctions are killing babies.

Medea explains to Liz Oliva Fernández what the investigations really are, how she was saved by Cuban doctors, why Hasan Piker's (@Hasan) reach made him a target and why this won’t stop the solidarity towards Cuba.

“It's a form of intimidation, to try to get people who travel to Cuba to be afraid that the U.S. government's going to go after them,” she said.

What Medea describes is part of a much larger crisis.

Read the latest article, “Sanctions Kill. I Have Watched Them Do It.” — a firsthand account from a Cuban surgeon living through the devastating impact of U.S. sanctions: https://www.bellyofthebeastcuba.com/sanctions-kill

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/47961884

Duration - 1:27

[a video about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

The U.S. government is manufacturing a pretext to attack Cuba, affirmed Hal Klepak, professor emeritus of Latin American and other strategic studies in military history at the Royal Military College of Canada.

“The issue of Cuba being a threat can only be seen as a pretext to prepare U.S. opinion, or at the very least, the MAGA base, for accepting an intervention” said Klepak. “The idea that the Cubans would choose this moment to attack the United States is an absurd assertion.”

According to Klepak, Cuba’s military has a defensive posture and would not attack the United States.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/48013600

Duration - 1:09

[a video about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

At the UN Security Council, Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodriguez called on the international community to act to prevent the “human catastrophe” that could result from the ongoing energy blockade and potential U.S. military aggression.

Thousands of Cubans would die defending their homeland,” he said. “And young U.S. citizens would also perish, without a cause or ideal worth fighting for dragged into violence by an imperialist, neofascist policy of domination, plunder and conquest.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/47888119

Duration - 5:49

[a video about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

Belly of the Beast recently held a screening of two documentaries on Cuban medical missions. One is focused on Cuban doctors deployed to Calabria, Italy, and another follows a brigade of African students from ELAM (Cuba's Latin American School of Medicine), who traveled to Guinea-Bissau to provide medical care based on the training they received on the island. Some of the ELAM students attended the screening and were given a standing ovation.

One audience member said: "Thank you for being heroes, not just of Cuba, but of the entire world."

𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 ❤️ Make a tax-deductible donation or join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/BellyoftheBeastCuba

00:00 – Why We Made From Cuba to Calabria 00:31 – Southern Italy’s Healthcare Crisis and Cuban Doctors 01:05 – Discovering Cuba’s Medical Brigades 01:24 – “Cuban Doctors Bring Hope” 01:43 – Filming ELAM Students in Guinea-Bissau 02:31 – Medical Students React to the Documentary 02:54 – Audience Member: “Thank You for Being Heroes” 03:38 – Criticism of the U.S. Healthcare System 04:13 – Can Documentaries Help End the Blockade? 04:34 – Liz Oliva Fernández on Sanctions and Infant Mortality 05:20 – “1,800 Babies Could Have Been Saved” 06:03 – Belly of the Beast’s Mission to Humanize Cuba

#cuba #cubanews #blockade #sanctions #solidarity #embargo #havana

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/47836549

Duration - 1:32
[a video about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

Victor Coronado is a U.S. activist with the Hands Off Cuba Committee who traveled to the island in solidarity with the Cuban people.

After visiting the island, he says many people in the U.S. have been given a distorted image of the country. What he found instead, he says, was an organized society where people were respectful, professional and where he felt safe.

According to Coronado, Cuba’s biggest obstacle is the U.S.-imposed blockade.

He argues that sanctions and new restrictions have cut Cuba off from markets, technology, capital and oil, making economic recovery far more difficult. “You can’t run a society without oil,” he says.

U.S. Voices Against the Blockade is a series featuring U.S. citizens who oppose U.S. sanctions on Cuba.

Watch Episode 4 and stay tuned for more voices challenging the U.S. government’s economic war on Cuba.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/47836018

[weekly newsletter about Cuba from the BellyOfTheBeast news collective. Their videos can be found at: https:// peertube.world/c/cuba_botb_videos/videos]
May 22, 2026

Trump justified his Jan 29 executive order imposing an oil blockade on Cuba by claiming its government poses “an unusual and extraordinary threat.” Since then, as the Trump administration has rolled out a new wave of punishing sanctions, it has also ramped up its rhetoric portraying Cuba as a national security threat to the US.

Also:

• May 20: Glorifying Colonial History
• The Return of Gunboat Diplomacy
• Supreme Court Sides With Heirs of Nazi-Linked Tycoon
• Fuel For Everyone, Except Cuba
• Shipping Giants Retreat
• Don’t Miss Our Latest Documentary in NYC
• Former Trump Advisor Eyes Cuba’s Mineral Wealth
• Cubans on Rubio: “It’s Not Worth Listening to Him”
• Belly of the Beast Recommends

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/47804016

Duración - 2:12

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/47764254

Duration - 44:41
[A video podcast about Cuba from the podcast team Cuba Analysis Podcasts]

In the next episode of Cuba’s Analysis podcast, Nina Blodau speaks with US army veteran Zue Jernstedt, who served in Afghanistan before leaving the army and becoming an anti-imperialist activist. Zue has worked as a human rights observer in the West Bank, participated in the Global Sumud Flotilla to Gaza, and organised with anti-ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) groups in the United States. In March 2026, she met the Cuba Analysis team in Havana during the Nuestra América Global Convoy of international activists who came together to oppose US threats of military aggression against Cuba and to demand an end to the US blockade, recently compounded by a genocidal oil siege.

The conversation connects anti-imperialist struggles in Cuba and Palestine to the US domestic front. Zue discusses how the US military exploits poverty as a recruitment tool, the role of the naval base in illegally occupied Guantanamo Bay as a site for torture, US support for the genocidal Israeli state, and the use of starvation as a weapon of war. She reflects on her own political awakening in Afghanistan, where she realised that far from bringing democracy and women’s rights, the US were pursuing its own imperialist interests. This same logic now targets Cuba, she says, not with bombs but with a blockade that starves the population. More recently, Trump has also threatened Cuba with military attack.

Zue contrasts propaganda about Cuba with the reality she experienced on the ground: free universal healthcare, a strong sense of community, and a society which, despite crushing sanctions, still cares for each other.

Her story is ultimately a call to action. She urges international audiences not to remain passive in the face of imperialism: to engage, to challenge, and to disrupt complacency. As she puts it, “We shall overcome – our day will come. It is absolutely inevitable that we rise up.”

Follow us for updates and new episodes: Website: https://www.cubanalysis.org/ Social: @cubanalysis Instagram / Facebook / Telegram / YouTube / TikTok Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/cubanalysisspotify Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/.../cuba-analysis/id1846065440

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/47756896

Brett Wilkins
May 22, 2026

Tens of thousands of Cubans rallied Friday in Havana to denounce the Trump administration’s indictment of former President Raúl Castro and threats to attack the island nation, whose socialist government has been preparing its citizens to defend their homeland and revolution against US aggression.

“No disrespect is shown to the heroes of the homeland!” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said as people flooded the streets outside the US Embassy in Havana. “History and traditions are not insulted without a response! That does not happen in Cuba!”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/47756603

Duration - 2:17 [a video about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

Thousands of Cubans gathered at Havana’s José Martí Anti-Imperialist Tribune on Friday after the U.S. Department of Justice indicted Cuba’s former President Raúl Castro over the 1996 shoot-down of two small planes operated by pilots of the Miami-based group Brothers to the Rescue.

“We had the right to defend ourselves,” said Adalgisa Durán Vargas, referring to repeated warnings Cuba made to the U.S. about repeated provocative incursions into Cuban airspace made by Brothers to the Rescue to provoke a confrontation with the Cuban government.

At the rally, speakers defended Raúl Castro’s historic role in the Cuban Revolution and questioned the legitimacy of the U.S. accusations nearly three decades after the fact.

The demonstration unfolded amid Washington’s escalating economic war on Cuba , which includes an oil blockade and sweeping extraterritorial sanctions aimed at companies from other countries.