In an official statement released in early May 2026, the International Relations Committee of Cuba’s National Assembly of People’s Power has issued a sharp rejection of a new U.S. Executive Order that further intensifies the decades-long economic, commercial and financial blockade against the Caribbean nation. The committee emphasizes that this latest measure is designed to deepen the illegal, immoral collective punishment imposed on the Cuban people for more than 60 years, constituting another direct attack on Cuba’s national sovereignty and right to self-determination.
Beyond tightening restrictions on the island, the new executive order pushes an extreme internationalization of the blockade, the committee notes. It expands coercive secondary sanctions, pressuring and threatening third countries, foreign businesses and global financial actors to cut off all commercial and financial ties with Cuba, isolating the nation from the global economy.
The statement goes further to condemn escalating belligerent rhetoric from the current U.S. administration, which has recently included open threats of military aggression against Cuba. The committee describes the long-running U.S. blockade as an inherently genocidal policy, one that has inflicted widespread harm on Cuban livelihoods for generations, and argues the new measures only worsen this humanitarian harm.
Against this backdrop, the committee reaffirms the Cuban people’s unwavering commitment to defending their sovereign political system, which was enshrined in the national Constitution via a universal popular referendum supported by an overwhelming majority of Cuban voters. Cuba remains dedicated to building a socialist society centered on advancing social justice for all its citizens, a path the Cuban people have repeatedly chosen and defended.
Just weeks before this statement, more than six million Cuban adults – 81% of all Cubans over the age of 16 – participated in the nationwide “Signature for the Homeland” initiative, reaffirming their collective support for Cuban independence, the Cuban Revolution, and the nation’s sovereign revolutionary governance. More recently, on International Workers’ Day, more than five million Cuban men and women marched through streets and public squares across the country, demonstrating their united resolve to defend the homeland against external aggression and interference.
Cuba’s longstanding commitment to global peace is also reaffirmed in the statement, which reiterates the principles of the 2014 Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, signed by heads of state and government during the CELAC summit held in Havana.
The committee, acting on behalf of the Cuban people through their elected parliamentary representatives, issued a global call to parliamentarians, national legislative bodies, and inter-parliamentary organizations around the world to raise their voices and take collective action to end the U.S. military threat, economic blockade, and energy sanctions against Cuba.
The statement references the recent International Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba, held in Havana on May 2, where participants from across the globe unanimously agreed that Cuba has an inalienable right to live in peace, defend its sovereignty, and pursue independent national development – and that global solidarity with Cuba cannot be blocked by any external power. The meeting’s Final Declaration praised Cuba’s consistent commitment to peace, called out the escalating aggression from the current U.S. administration, and pledged to expand global resistance and support for Cuba as the world marks the centennial of the birth of iconic Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.
The statement concludes with the iconic slogans that have defined Cuban resistance for decades: Long live peace! Down with aggression! Defend the Homeland! Homeland or death, we shall prevail! (Venceremos!)