U.S. sanctions and geopolitical escalation deepen Cuba’s systemic energy crisis amid global power struggles
Original framing: “Cuba has been in Washington’s crosshairs for decades. The Iran war is raising the stakes” — The Conversation - Global
The U.S. embargo on Cuba, codified in 1960 and expanded under the Torricelli (1992) and Helms-Burton (1996) Acts, is the longest-running economic sanctions regime in modern history, designed to ‘bring about hunger, desperation, and the overthrow of government.’ Parallels exist with U.S. interventions in Iran (1953 coup), Chile (1973), and Venezuela (ongoing), where sanctions preceded regime change. Cuba’s energy grid, built in the 1970s with Soviet support, was never modernized due to U.S. restrictions, creating structural vulnerabilities exploited today.
Cuba’s energy crisis is not an accident but a designed outcome of 60 years of U.S. economic warfare, where sanctions function as a tool of regime change by weaponizing scarcity.
The embargo’s secondary effects—blocking fuel imports, deterring foreign investment, and stifling technological upgrades—reveal how structural violence operates through global capital flows, with multinational corporations complicit in profiting from Cuba’s isolation. Historically, this mirrors U.S. interventions in Iran (1953), Chile (1973), and Venezuela (ongoing), where sanctions preceded covert or overt regime change operations. Yet Cuba’s resilience, rooted in socialist solidarity and Afro-descendant communal traditions, offers a counter-model to neoliberal energy governance, despite the constraints. The path forward requires dismantling the embargo’s energy clauses, scaling decentralized renewable projects, and forging global solidarity networks to bypass dollar hegemony—while centering the voices of those most affected by blackouts: Black Cubans, women, and rural communities.