HAVANA (AP) — Cuba’s most vulnerable patients are bearing the brunt of U.S. energy restrictions, with surgical procedures being postponed, kidney dialysis schedules thrown into chaos, and children battling cancer facing a dramatically higher risk of death, according to a report released Monday by Cuban state-run outlet Cubadebate.
The report reveals that the survival rate for children with cancer has plummeted from 85% to just 65% since energy restrictions took effect in January. It also states that 100,000 children under the age of 7 are no longer receiving the daily liter of milk they had previously been provided by the government, and that Cuba’s 16-vaccine immunization program for infants is now considered “at risk.”
The report further notes that 100,000 Cubans are currently waiting for surgical procedures, and that treatment schedules for nearly 3,000 patients who require kidney dialysis have been thrown off course. On the medication front, 300 out of 395 essential medicines normally produced on the island are now unavailable due to shortages of the chemical components needed to make them.
Cuba operates a free, universal healthcare system, but that system has been pushed to its limits by a combination of resource shortages, scarce fuel supplies, and power outages lasting more than 20 hours at a time.
The island went three months without receiving a fuel shipment after the U.S. took action against Venezuela, one of Cuba’s key oil suppliers, and threatened tariffs against any nation that sells or delivers oil to Cuba.
Cuba was already struggling under a significant tightening of longstanding U.S. sanctions, which restrict the country from importing certain goods. The Trump administration has demanded that Cuba’s socialist government free political prisoners, undertake sweeping economic reforms, and change how it governs — or risk being deemed a national security threat. Cuba has consistently maintained that it does not pose any threat to the United States.
As the standoff between the two nations intensifies, United Nations officials have sounded alarms about a looming humanitarian disaster. In late March, the UN launched an emergency fundraising appeal on behalf of the island.
Paolo Spadoni, an associate professor at Augusta University in Georgia, described the current situation in stark terms. “What we are experiencing now is a unique situation,” he said. “There is no doubt that there were problems with healthcare and basic services in Cuba, but there is also no doubt that these recent events have vastly amplified what was already happening, and that we are now in a different dimension.”
While Spadoni acknowledged that Cuba faces real challenges and systemic failures that require reform, he argued that “it is impossible to deny” that the United States carries responsibility for the “acute humanitarian crisis” now unfolding there.
Monday’s Cubadebate report also revealed that roughly 1,400 megawatts of electricity generating capacity have gone offline due to shortages of diesel and fuel oil at smaller power plants, and that larger thermoelectric plants are unable to receive the spare parts they need.
Bread supplies have also been cut roughly in half compared to pre-restriction levels, the report said, due to “logistical and payment hurdles” in wheat procurement. A lack of fuel has also prevented the delivery of 170 containers of essential goods across the country.
The report concluded with a pointed statement: “Beyond numbers and coercive measures, the blockade amounts to an extreme and unjustifiable form of collective punishment inflicted on the Cuban people.”
