As has become yearly tradition, the United Nations voted overwhelminglyon Wednesday to end the blockade on Cuba. The vote came at an immensely difficult time for the island, as a hurricane made landfall the same day. Though there would be no better time for the United States to reevaluate its deadly policies towards the island, the Trump administration predictably voted against lifting the blockade.
While the vote to end the U.S. blockade has taken place since 1992, this year felt different given the stakes. Early Wednesday morning, shortly after ravaging Jamaica, Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Cuba. Though downgraded from a Category 5 to a Category 3 storm, its impact was severe: flash floods, up to 20 inches of rain, and winds reaching 120 miles per hour battered the eastern coast. Wednesday afternoon the worst has passed and the storm moved on towards the Bahamas, yet flooding and evacuations continued throughout the day. The full extent of the damage is not yet known.
The hurricane was only the latest blow to a country already in crisis. Cuba has endured an extremely difficult year marked by widespread blackouts, rising infant mortality, and a deepening economic collapse that has fueled record outmigration from the island. While the causes of the crisis are complex, the Trump administration’s sanctions and tightening blockade have starved the government—and its people—of the food, fuel, and medicine necessary to reproduce human life. In June, Trump signed an executive order reversing the meager advances of the Biden administration, including Cuba’s brief removal from the State Sponsors of Terrorism List. The order reinstated the policies of Trump’s first term and imposed new sanctions, further targeting key sources of revenue such as Cuba’s international medical brigades.
Last month, ahead of the UN vote, the Cuban government released its annual report detailing the adverse effects of U.S. sanctions. The report estimated that between March 2024 and February 2025, direct sanctions, secondary sanctions, and lawsuits filed in U.S. courts cost the state nearly $7.6 billion—although critics have questioned the report’s methodology. At the ceremony unveiling the report, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez emphasized that “it is impossible to quantify the emotional damage, anguish, suffering, and deprivation that the blockade causes Cuban families.”
On Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz placed blame for Cuba’s suffering people squarely on its government. In his remarks, he denied that a blockade exists, claiming that food and medicine shortages are the “fault of the Cuban government” and that Cuba has “full freedom to trade with other countries”—statements that are demonstrably false. Waltz went a step further, alleging that the Cuban government is “propping up the Venezuelan regime and its cartels,” supporting “terrorist organizations around the world,” and “allowing mercenaries to fight in the war in Ukraine,”—a central argument in the U.S. pitch to persuade its allies to vote against the resolution. Waltz’s outburst led to a wild scene when Rodriguez interjected to admonish Waltz, reminding him that “this is the UN General Assembly, not a Signal chat”—a pointed reference to SignalGate, the controversy that cost Waltz his position as National Security Adviser in May.
The resolution ultimately passed with 165 votes in favor, 7 against, and 12 abstentions—a marked increase in support for the U.S. position compared to last year’s vote. The result, however, remains largely symbolic: only the U.S. Congress has the authority to lift the embargo.
Machado's support for—and from—the world's far-right leaders makes a mockery of her prize and complicates the task of the Venezuelan popular struggle.
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WINTER ISSUE COMING SOON!
In 1950, Martinican author Aimé Césaire used the term "imperial boomerang" to describe a historical circuit, in which the tactics of imperial domination tested abroad return home, reshaping the very societies that invented them. Our winter issue, “Boomerangs of Empire and the Technofascist Turn,” takes Césaire’s insight not as metaphor but as method, tracing how this returning and disseminating violence is shaping the Americas today.
A frontline protester holds an improvised shield as the police advance in Lima on October 15. On his back is written, "Peru, I defend you because I love you. Long live the Peruvian struggle." The photo comes from Raisa Ferrer Pizarro's recent NACLA article on Peru's frontline protesters. (José Rubio)
AROUND THE REGION
RIO’S BLOODY RAID—A massive police raid involving more than 2,500 officers in Rio de Janeiro left 132 people dead, including four police officers, in the deadliest raid in the city’s history. The unprecedented toll shocked Brazil and “horrified” the UN human rights office. President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva was himself reportedly “astonished” by the scale of the violence and surprised that the federal government had not been notified in advance. The raid was launched by Rio’s right-wing governor Cláudio Castro—a close ally of former president Jair Bolsonaro—who analysts say wanted to score political points by appearing tough on crime. Castro framed the assault on the Red Command gang as a war on “narco-terrorists,” a label Brazil’s federal government explicitly rejected during meetings with the Trump administration in May. After the raid, he accused Brasília of leaving Rio “completely alone” in its fight against crime, a claim the federal government rejected by pointing to scores of joint security initiatives. On Wednesday, community members of the working class neighborhoods targeted by the raid lined the streets with the bodies of those killed, denouncing what they called a state “massacre” and accusing police of carrying out extrajudicial executions.
U.S. STRIKES CONTINUE—Fourteen people were killed Monday in the Trump administration’s deadliest day of strikes since launching its blatantly illegal “war” on alleged drug traffickers in early September. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced the operation—which involved three “lethal kinetic strikes” on four vessels in the eastern Pacific—claiming, without evidence, that those killed were “narcoterrorists.” He argued these groups “have killed more Americans than Al-Qaeda,” a perfect encapsulation of the Trump administration's shoddy attempt to link the “War on Drugs” to the "War on Terror.” By Wednesday, another four people were killed, bringing the total death toll to more than 60. Last week, in a stunning escalation, the Trump administration deployed the USS Gerald R Ford—the Navy’s largest aircraft carrier—to the Caribbean, and on Monday, two long-range supersonic bombers flew within 45 miles of Venezuela’s capital region in a pointed show of force.
MILEI’S VICTORY—President Javier Milei’s Libertad Avanza (LLA) party won Argentina’s midterm elections on Sunday, securing nearly 41 percent of the vote. When combined with another center-right party that ran alongside LLA, the result gives Milei a decisive edge over the Peronist opposition that had become increasingly successful at overriding Mile’s agenda. The outcome stunned analysts, the opposition, and even the government itself, which had sought to lower expectations by calling any showing above 30 percent a victory. Coming after a defeat in provincial elections and a string of corruption scandals, the showing was remarkable: Milei performed better than he did in the first round of his 2023 presidential race—a rare midterm surge in a country where sitting presidents typically falter. Looming over the election was the Trump administration’s influence. Washington had made clear that a planned bailout of up to $40 billion to stabilize Argentina’s economy hinged on support for Milei’s party. Trump celebrated the result as a “big win,”telling reporters, "He had a lot of help from us.”
COLOMBIA’S UNIFIED LEFT—Iván Cepeda, the 63-year old philosopher, human rights defender, and senator from Bogotá, will be the Colombian left’s candidate in the country’s presidential elections in May. On Sunday, Cepeda won 65 percent of the vote in the internal primary of the Pacto Histórico, the coalition that brought President Gustavo Petro to power in 2022 and formally unified in September. Turnout for the primary, which also determined the coalition’s congressional lists, was unprecedented: more than 2.75 million voters turned out to nearly 20,000 polling stations nationwide, far exceeding expectations from both the government and the opposition. Petro celebrated the turnout on social media and credited recent U.S sanctions against him with helping to drive turnout. Cepeda, who announced his candidacy only two months ago, has surged in popularity thanks to his long-running fight to hold former right-wing President Álvaro Uribe accountable for his ties to paramilitary groups—a battle that is deeply personal for him. The son of a left-wing senator who was assassinated by paramilitary forces in 1994, Cepeda cast himself in his victory speech as a “survivor of political genocide” and one of Colombia’s many orphans of politcal violence. Undeterred, he has called for "revolutionary" changes in Colombia and vowed to resist U.S. empire and its increasing incursions into Colombian affairs.
