English Newsletters Archives | Boletines en Español

Major media outlets have largely told the story of Cuba's medical missions through the voices of U.S. officials, politicians and U.S. government-funded "experts" who portray Cuban doctors as victims of "forced labor." Rarely do audiences get to see the missions themselves — or hear directly from the doctors still serving in them.

In our latest documentary, From Cuba to Calabria, we follow Cuban doctors as they travel from the island to work in public hospitals in one of Italy’s poorest regions. The film offers a rare inside look at a Cuban medical mission, letting the doctors speak for themselves about why they volunteer to leave their families and travel thousands of miles to care for patients in another country.

You can watch From Cuba to Calabria NOW on our Patreon!

For early access to documentaries like this one, exclusive screenings and behind-the-scenes content:

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The false narratives about Cuba don't stop with the Trump administration’s campaign against Cuba’s health internationalism.

This week, Belly of the Beast journalist Liz Oliva Fernández examines six claims Donald Trump and Marco Rubio are making to portray Cuba as a threat to U.S. national security — and why they collapse under scrutiny.

Also:

Why Is The U.S. Indicting Raúl Castro 30 Years After The Fact?
Reporting on Cuba, From Cuba
Cuba Defends GAESA as New Sanctions Take Effect
Tourism and Finance in Washington’s Crosshairs
Rubio: “Why Would I Need New Evidence?”
Despite U.S. Hostility, Cuba Keeps Channels Open
UN Experts Condemn U.S. Measures Against Cuba

Six Lies About the “Cuban Threat”

From drones to alleged Chinese and Russian spy bases to Hamas and Hezbollah, Trump and Rubio have thrown the kitchen sink at Cuba to portray it as a national security threat.

Belly of the Beast journalist Liz Oliva Fernández debunks six of the reasons the Trump administration has given to claim that a small island of 10 million people is threatening the most powerful country in the world.

Watch the video HERE.

Why Is The U.S. Indicting Raúl Castro After 30 Years?

Thirty years after the Brothers to the Rescue shoot-down, the Trump administration has indicted Raúl Castro on murder and conspiracy charges. The timing is raising questions, including from Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche himself — who has admitted he isn’t sure why the case was being brought now.

In a new video, Belly of the Beast journalist Yohan Rodríguez revisits the events surrounding the 1996 incident, examines the warnings that came from both sides of the Florida Straits, and explores how a decades-old tragedy is being revived as Washington intensifies its economic war on Cuba.

Watch the full video.

Reporting On Cuba, From Cuba

Belly of the Beast journalist Liz Oliva Fernández joined Al Jazeera's The Listening Post to discuss media coverage of Cuba, the challenges of reporting from the ground on the island and why independent journalism matters.

As Cuba faces a devastating economic crisis and a flood of misinformation, telling stories with context from the island has never been more important.

Watch the Al Jazeera feature on Liz and Belly of the Beast HERE.

Cuba Defends GAESA as New Sanctions Take Effect

The Cuban government issued a public defense of GAESA as the Trump administration increasingly targets the conglomerate.

In an article published in the state-run newspaper Granma, the Cuban government rejected claims that GAESA operates outside of state oversight. It described GAESA as a “well-coordinated and proven effective response to the [U.S.] economic blockade.”

Administration officials and South Florida hardliners have increasingly portrayed the conglomerate as an all-powerful institution that controls the Cuban economy while siphoning resources away from ordinary citizens.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently repeated claims that GAESA is hoarding $18 billion and that “not a penny” of it reaches the Cuban people.

The $18 billion figure — which has been parroted by politicians, journalists and pro-embargo activists — comes from dubious reporting in the Miami Herald. Last August, we took a critical look at the Herald’s reporting, which builds a series of sweeping claims on top of what appears to be an egregious accounting error.

Read our article: The Miami Herald’s Fuzzy Math Makes the Case for Economic Warfare on Cuba

Tourism and Finance in Washington’s Crosshairs

Four foreign hotel operators are ceasing operations in Cuba as Trump’s May 1 executive order is about to take effect. Spain’s Iberostar and Meliá, Canada’s Blue Diamond and Indonesia's Archipelago International have all announced plans to leave or reduce operations in Cuba ahead of a June 5 deadline.

Executive Order 14404 imposes “secondary sanctions” that effectively give carte blanche to Rubio, a Cuban-American politician from South Florida who has never stepped foot in Cuba, to go after third parties in other countries doing business on the island. Companies engaging with GAESA, which is heavily invested in Cuba’s tourism industry, have borne the brunt of the order’s impact.

On May 7, the Treasury Department gave foreign companies until June 5 to wind down transactions involving GAESA before facing potential sanctions.

Tourism remains one of Cuba’s main sources of foreign exchange and supported hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country before the first Trump administration began ramping up the U.S. government's long-running economic war on the island.

The impact of the order has gone beyond the hospitality industry. The Cuban Central Bank announced this week that Visa and Mastercard transactions will be suspended beginning June 6 after a foreign bank severed ties with Fincimex, which is a part of GAESA.

And last month, Canada’s Sherritt International, which operates a 50/50 joint nickel mining venture with the Cuban government, announced it would dissolve its Cuban operation immediately following the executive order. Just days after the decision, Sherritt reversed course when a former Trump executive signed a pre-agreement to acquire a majority stake in the company.

The May 1 executive order is the latest onslaught in an economic war that seeks to asphyxiate the island’s economy. Cuba has already been suffering from an oil blockade that has ground daily life to a halt and is pushing the country toward a full-blown humanitarian crisis. The one-two knockout punch of the fuel blockade and secondary sanctions has come on top of around eight years of “maximum pressure” measures that began during Trump’s first term.

Rubio: “Why Would I Need New Evidence?”

Appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered a blunt defense of the Trump administration’s economic war on Cuba, claiming the island is a security threat.

Rubio revived familiar Cold War-era talking points, arguing that “virtually every left-wing, radical, violent terrorist group in the Western Hemisphere has at some point relied on support from Cuba.”

When Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) asked whether Rubio could provide evidence to support the claim that Cuba is a state sponsor of terrorism, Rubio responded: “Why would I need new evidence?”

There is no credible evidence Cuba sponsors terrorism.

Rubio’s comments come amid a growing campaign to portray Cuba — and anyone who criticizes U.S. policy toward the island — as a security threat. In the past week, Fox News has reported on alleged “administrative subpoenas” issued to members of a humanitarian aid convoy to Cuba. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) has accused her Democrat colleagues of treason for publicly discussing ways to address the island’s fuel crisis, while Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) attempted to link a U.S.-based anti-embargo organization to the accused killer of conservative activist Charlie Kirk — without providing any evidence.

On Wednesday, Rubio told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that Cuba’s current model is “not sustainable” and that meaningful change would require new leadership. Rubio neglected to mention the impact of nearly a decade of maximum pressure sanctions or the current oil blockade.

Despite U.S. Hostility, Cuba Keeps Channels Open

General Francis Donavan, head of the U.S. Southern Command, met with senior Cuban military officials at the perimeter of the U.S. base in Guantánamo, Cuba last week. According to both governments, the talks focused on security issues around the base. Both sides agreed to maintain communication between their respective military commands.

The meeting follows CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s recent trip to Havana, which fueled speculation about possible U.S. military action against the island. Despite U.S. aggression toward the island, Cuban authorities have consistently expressed a willingness to engage in dialogue with their U.S. counterparts and the two sides often communicate on security issues.

Watch our video exploring the little-known cooperation between Cuba and the United States in combating drug trafficking in the region.

UN Experts Condemn U.S. Measures Against Cuba

A panel of United Nations human rights experts on Tuesday denounced Washington’s coercive measures against Cuba, including the embargo, designating Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism and the fuel blockade. The experts warned the economic siege on the island is placing the rights and well-being of millions of Cubans at risk.

“Efforts to change the constitutional order of a sovereign state through threats and coercion echo colonial-era practices,” the experts said. They also criticized President Trump’s recent statement that he would have the “honor of taking Cuba,” saying it was part of a “deeply concerning strategy of coercion against a sovereign state.”

The statement follows another warning made by UN experts last month that Washington’s fuel blockade amounted to “energy starvation.” Those experts cautioned that the blockade was “undermining the enjoyment of a wide range of human rights” and disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable sectors of the population by causing severe disruptions to healthcare, transportation, water access and other essential services.

In the latest UN statement, the experts argue that recent U.S. actions cannot be viewed in isolation. They are “part of a broader strategy,” including the embargo, Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, the fuel blockade and sanctions targeting third countries. The UN experts also criticized the indictment of former Cuban President Raúl Castro and the deployment of the USS Nimitz to the Caribbean.

“These actions are part of a disturbing trend of lawlessness and contempt of multilateralism of the UN Charter,” they said. “The normalization of coercion and threats of regime change undermines the integrity of the entire international legal order.”

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