Cuba's latest report on the impact of the blockade published
News from Cuba | Friday, 19 September 2025
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla
On 17 September, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla presented Cuba's annual report on the damage caused by the blockade. The report has been published in advance of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 79/7, titled “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial, and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba", which will be considered on October 28 and 29.
"It is impossible to express in numbers, in figures, the emotional damage, anguish, suffering, and deprivation that the blockade inflicts on Cuban families. This has been the case for several generations; more than 80% of Cubans were born after the blockade began," he said at the press conference.
The report states that the financial damage caused by the blockade in the period from March 2024 to February 2025 amounts to more than $7.5 billion, which compared to the previous period represents an increase of 49%. Since the blockade's inception, the accumulated now amounts to over $170 billion.
"What could Cuba have done, beyond all the good things it has done in these 60 years, with that exorbitant figure, for a small economy like ours?" Rodríguez Parrilla asked.
The Foreign Minister highlighted some of the most severe measures implemented by the Trump administration since January, including the country's reinstatement on the US 'State Sponsors of Terrorism' list, the reactivation of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act and recent attacks on Cuba's programme of international medical cooperation programmes.
You can read the full report here.
The blockade in figures - a snapshot
- Two months ($1.6 billion) is equivalent to the cost of fuel to meet the country's normal electricity demand
- 5 days is equivalent to the financing needed to repair one of the large thermoelectric plants (approximately $100 million each)
- Ten minutes ($148,966) is equivalent to the funding needed to cover the demand for hearing aids for children and young people with disabilities in special education
- Two months ($1.6 billion) is equivalent to financing, for one year, the delivery of the standard 'family basket' to the population
- 16 days is equivalent to the funding needed to cover the key needs of the entire country's basic medications ($339 million)
- 14 hours ($12 million) is equivalent to the cost of purchasing the insulin needed to cover the needs of all diabetics in the country
- 4 months ($2.85 billion) would finance the purchasing of buses necessary for public transport in the country
