Cuba says no negotiations with US despite ‘genocidal’ blockade

By Al Jazeera Staff, AFP and Reuters. Published On 7 Sep 20267 Sep 2026.

Key points

• Rodríguez remarked the General Assembly will take up its annual resolution calling for an end to the US embargo on October 27 and 28.
• Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez remarked on Monday that Havana and Washington are not negotiating, and that there is no agenda for future negotiations.
• Tensions between Washington and Havana have intensified under US President Donald Trump, even after authorities held negotiations earlier this year.
• As the Trump administration continues its campaign of economic pressure on the island, cuba notes it is not at present negotiating with the United States.
• "All family life damaged, " he remarked, adding that Cuba is not a threat but the blockade is.

As he laid out Cuba's latest estimate of the damage caused by the decades-old US embargo, imposed since former leader Fidel Castro's communist revolution in 1959, his comments came during a media conference.

Notably, the Cuban administration states the US embargo cost its economy $8bn between March 2025 and February 2026, the highest figure yet recorded and seven percent more than in the previous reporting period.

For context, the total does not include some of Washington's more recent sanctions, including restrictions on the island's energy supply imposed in January and secondary sanctions imposed in May, remarked Rodriguez.

In a post on X, Rodríguez called the policy one of "economic asphyxiation" and described the blockade. It havana has long blamed for shortages and economic hardships, as "genocidal".

"These are long months of living with only two or three hours of electricity per day or less, " Rodríguez wrote, painting a bleak picture of what the country's worsening energy crisis looks like for Cubans.

He described food spoiling without refrigeration, parents fanning their babies through the heat, children trying to do their schoolwork in the dark and young individuals going without internet access.

Rodríguez called the situation "collective punishment", blaming what he described as a US "energy siege", an "extreme tightening of the blockade" and secondary sanctions.

Tensions between Washington and Havana have intensified under US President Donald Trump, even after authorities held negotiations earlier this year. Those contacts have since halted. The diplomatic fight will shortly move back to the United Nations.

He accused Washington of putting "extraordinary pressure and intimidation" on other UN member states ahead of the vote, but remarked Cuba still expects "overwhelming support" for ending the embargo.

In short, cuba says no negotiations with US despite 'genocidal' blockade is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.