The Island of Long Shadows: When Geopolitics Becomes a Human Hunger

Feb 15, 2026 Letters

Dear Editor,

In the golden hour of a Cuban sunset, the city of Havana no longer glows; it fades. As the sun dips below the Malecón, a heavy, velvet darkness settles over the capital—not the natural quiet of night, but the eerie, engineered silence of a nation running out of breath.

Since the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in early January 2026, the vital artery of oil that once sustained this island has been severed. What remains is a “silent siege.” There are no warships on the horizon, yet the effects are as visceral as any bombardment. In the corridors of power in Washington, this is called “strategic leverage.” In the darkened kitchens of Santiago and Holguín, it is called a catastrophe.

Today, the rhythm of Cuban life is dictated by the “energy lottery.” Blackouts now stretch between 10 and 20 hours a day. For a mother in Vedado, the arrival of electricity at 2:00 AM isn’t a time for sleep; it is a frantic race to pump water, charge a single flashlight, and cook whatever rice remains before the hum of the refrigerator dies again.

The toll is measured in more than just darkness:

Hospitals in Crisis: Surgeons operate under the fickle glow of battery-powered lanterns, and the delivery of life-saving oxygen is hamstrung by dry fuel tanks.
The Classroom Silence: Schools have shortened their days; universities have moved to remote learning that few can access without power. A generation’s future is being dimmed alongside the streetlights.
The Food Queue: At empty gas stations, the lines are no longer just for cars. They are for the spirit. Public transport has all but vanished, leaving workers to walk miles in the tropical heat just to find bread that has doubled in price.

The “fuel chokehold” is a masterclass in economic coercion. By threatening tariffs on traditional partners like Mexico’s PEMEX and the Dominican Republic, the U.S. has effectively walled off the island. While domestic solar projects—shining rows of Chinese-backed panels—offer a glimpse of a self-sufficient future, they cannot fill a void that grew overnight. Cuba’s current domestic production covers barely 20% of its needs. The math of the siege is simple and brutal: without oil, the grid collapses; without the grid, the society teeters

“We are living as best we can,” says Cristina, a 51-year-old house cleaner who now walks two hours to work. “I was born here. This is my lot. But how much more can we sacrifice before there is nothing left to give?”

We must ask ourselves: at what point does a political objective become a humanitarian crime?

Defenders of the “maximum pressure” campaign argue it is a necessary tool to topple a revolution. But revolutions are made of people, not just statues and slogans. When we “cow suppliers” and “watch the grid crumble,” we are not just fighting a government; we are spoiling the milk in a child’s cup and silencing the monitor in a grandfather’s hospital room.

The resilience of the Cuban people is legendary, but resilience is not an infinite resource. It is a candle that burns lower with every dark night. As President Díaz-Canel signals an openness to dialogue “without preconditions,” the world watches to see if the response will be a hand extended or a fist tightened.

Empires may find it easy to topple regimes through wallets rather than warships, but the “human toll” remains the same. If we pride ourselves on humanism, we cannot remain silent while an entire population is used as a pawn in a geographic gambit.

The siege of Cuba is silent because we choose not to hear the sound of pots-and-pans protests or the quiet sighs of those waiting in the dark. It is time to listen

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