Cuba's Leader Calls U.S. Sanctions “Genocidal Siege”

(MENAFN) Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel launched a fierce condemnation of American sanctions Monday, branding Washington's economic pressure campaign a "genocidal siege" and demanding international accountability for what he called deliberate harm inflicted upon ordinary Cubans.

"The collective punishment being imposed on the Cuban people is an act of genocide that should be condemned by international organizations and should lead to criminal prosecution of those promoting it," Diaz-Canel wrote on X.

The broadside came hours after Washington unveiled fresh punitive measures targeting several high-ranking Cuban officials and state institutions — among them ministers overseeing justice, energy, and communications — alongside the island's principal intelligence apparatus.

Pushing back against the designations, Diaz-Canel dismissed their practical impact, noting that neither Cuba's political leadership nor its armed forces held any assets within American legal reach.

"The US government knows it has no evidence to present," Diaz-Canel said, arguing that "anti-Cuban rhetoric of hatred" was being used to justify an escalation of Washington's "economic war" against the island.

He made clear Havana had no intention of backing down. "That is why we will continue denouncing, in the strongest and most forceful way, the genocidal siege aimed at strangling our people," he said.

Diaz-Canel widened his criticism to include U.S. measures penalizing foreign companies that supply Cuba with essential goods, calling the policy a triple violation.

"It is immoral, illegal and criminal," he said, referring to sanctions that penalize firms providing Cuba with fuel, food, medicine, hygiene products and other basic goods.

The remarks underscored a deepening energy crisis gripping the island. Since Washington imposed an oil embargo on January 30, Cuba has endured acute fuel shortages and sweeping blackouts.

"We have absolutely no fuel and absolutely no diesel," Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy said last week in Cuban state media, adding that the national grid was in a "critical state."

The escalating pressure is part of a broader posture adopted by U.S. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly signaled that Cuba is squarely in his administration's crosshairs — declaring the communist-governed island is "next" following military action against Iran and predicting it would fall "soon."

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