What is often framed as a “humane” form of political pressure is, in reality, anything but humane. The crisis described in a recent New York Times article makes clear that blockades carry an enormous human cost, and that cost is paid first by those who are already most vulnerable: disabled people, the chronically ill, pregnant women, children, and the elderly. When oil blockades disrupt electricity, transportation, hospital services, and the delivery of essential medicines, they are not abstract policy tools; they become mechanisms of suffering that can cost human lives.
As the article shows, Cuba’s worsening fuel shortage has contributed to blackouts, reduced ambulance access, delayed surgeries, shortages of basic medical supplies, delays in vaccination schedules and major disruptions in care for people with chronic illnesses and pregnant women. Doctors are warning that patients are dying under conditions that make even basic treatment difficult. That is why it is important to call this what it is, a form of collective punishment whose heaviest burden falls on those least able to bear it.
Read more about the disruption of Cuba’s healthcare system: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/world/americas/cubas-health-system-us-oil-blockade.html
Image: Jorge Luis Baños