As Colombia moves toward its presidential elections on May 31, the country stands at a pivotal political crossroads — one that will not only shape its domestic future, but also carry significant implications for Latin America as a whole.
Often described as one of the last remaining strongholds of progressive governance in the region, Colombia now faces an electoral cycle marked by intense political competition, shifting alliances, and growing polarization. The results of the March 8 legislative elections have already begun to redraw the political map. A fragmented Congress, the absence of clear governing majorities, and an increasingly complex path toward coalition-building are defining what comes next. Presidential candidates are now positioning themselves in what is shaping up to be a highly competitive and uncertain race, one that the rest of the region is watching closely.
Yet the deeper challenges facing Colombian democracy are not new — and they will not be resolved at the ballot box alone.
For communities that have lived through decades of armed conflict, the 2016 Peace Agreement represented a promise that politics, not violence, would be the terrain on which Colombia’s future was decided. That promise remains unfulfilled. Victims and former peace signatories who have tried to enter political life continue to face obstacles that formal guarantees have done little to remove. At the same time, in the wake of the legislative elections, questions about the reliability of the electoral system itself — including how votes are counted, who oversees the process, and whether institutions can be trusted — have moved to the center of public debate.
These questions will follow Colombia all the way to May 31.
Aura Camargo Mercado is a social leader and victim of Colombia’s armed conflict, and a former candidate for the Special Transitional Peace Districts (CITREP) — constituencies created for communities most affected by the conflict. She brings a firsthand perspective on the limitations that victims and peace agreement signatories face in accessing the right to be elected.
Rubén D. Acosta O., Scrutiny Delegate before Colombia’s National Electoral Council (CNE), brings a clear view of how the electoral system functions in practice, where it falls short, and what the coming months will demand of it.
Together, they offer something rarely available in these conversations: a grounded, firsthand account of what Colombian democracy looks like from within.
Global Exchange is launching a Bay Area Humanitarian Aid Hub for Cuba in San Francisco’s Mission District to mobilize community solidarity and deliver urgently needed supplies to the island. Working directly with Cuban communities, we will collect and ship essential humanitarian goods, including medical supplies, basic medicines, hygiene products, and other critical materials to communities facing acute shortages.
Cuba is only 90 miles from U.S. shores, yet decades of U.S. policy have severely restricted the flow of essential goods. Today, Cuba is facing one of the most severe shortages of fuel, food, and medicine in decades, the result of more than 60 years of U.S. economic warfare that has imposed collective punishment on the Cuban people.
As the Trump administration ramps up its campaign to isolate the island, shortages are deepening and the human consequences are becoming more severe. The effects of this economic siege are felt most sharply by the most vulnerable—newborns and parents, the elderly, and those living with serious illnesses who struggle to access basic medicines and care.
For nearly 40 years, Global Exchange has worked in solidarity with the Cuban people, organizing educational delegations, people-to-people exchanges, and humanitarian efforts, while calling for an end to the inhumane U.S. blockade and for Cuba to be removed from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list.
How to Support the Humanitarian Aid Hub:
• Donate supplies at our Mission District collection hub. View the donation list below. • Donate online to support humanitarian aid shipments. Donate here.
Thanks to community solidarity, we have already delivered more than $43,000 worth of specialized cancer medicines to hospitals in Cuba and transported over 2,000 pounds of humanitarian aid collected through local donations. We will continue sending urgently needed medicines and supplies with the support of online donations.
Every shipment we send is both an act of solidarity and a statement: we refuse to accept policies that inflict suffering on innocent communities. Humanitarian aid alone cannot end the blockade. But it can save lives, meet urgent needs, and sustain communities while we continue the fight to end these cruel and unjust policies.
📦 Donation Drop-Off Dates & Times
Fridays9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
April 17
April 24
May 20
May 22
May 27
We are happy to coordinate alternative drop-off times if needed.
Location 2973 16th St., Suite 300 San Francisco, CA 94103
The following medicines and supplies are in high demand due to ongoing shortages of fuel, electricity, and medical resources. All items must be new, unopened, and within expiration dates.We are only accepting items from this list.
Lice and scabies treatments — shampoos, creams, sprays
Oral rehydration salts ORS packets
Cold and flu medication
Women’s & Baby Care
Feminine hygiene pads and tampons — all sizes
Menstrual cups — reusable, extremely high impact
Baby diapers — newborn through size 5
Adult diapers — for elderly and ill patients
Wet wipes and baby wipes
Diaper rash cream
Baby shampoo and body wash
Food
Powdered milk
Canned fish – tuna, sardines, salmon, mackerel
Canned meat – chicken
Dried beans
Pasta and noodles
Peanut butter and other nut butters -powdered if possible, no glass
Bouillon cubes and soup packets
Baby food pouches
Fortified cereals
Vitamins & Supplements
Multivitamins — adults and children separately
Vitamins A, B complex, C, D, and E
Iron supplements — especially for women and children
Calcium supplements — especially for the elderly
Prenatal vitamins
Medical Supplies & Equipment
Medical gloves — nitrile, all sizes
Surgical face masks and N95 respirators
Digital medical thermometers
Bandages, gauze pads, and rolls
Medical tape and adhesive bandages Band-Aids, all sizes
Alcohol wipes and swabs
Hydrogen peroxide and iodine solution
Syringes — unused and sealed only
Wound closure strips — steri-strips
Blood pressure monitors — battery-operated
Blood glucose test strips
Reading glasses for the elderly — various strengths
Mosquito & Vector Control
Mosquito repellent —spray or lotion DEET-based
Mosquito nets — for sleeping
Permethrin spray — for treating clothing and mosquito nets
Life and Death Under Trump’s Oil Blockade
By Corina Nolet With appreciation to Elena Gutierrez and Marco Castillo for their partnership and shared experience during the delegation. Written following participation in the Nuestra América Convoy to Cuba March 26, 2026
Pharmacy shelves lie bare. Streets darken. Refrigerators sweating as the power fails once again. Doctors counting doses. Families counting meals. This is what the U.S. blockade looks like in Cuba. It is the daily struggle to keep life going.
We leave Cuba changed. Not because we did not expect hardship, but because of its scale, and because of the quiet endurance of a people, of a community, of a nation required to live within these conditions year after year.
What we witnessed cannot be captured in headlines or statistics. It is etched into daily life across the island: into the long lines for transportation that never arrive, into homes that go dark without warning, into cancer patients waiting for treatment that has been delayed, and into the question many carry: Is this the worst, or is the worst yet to come?
U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have made clear their intention to pursue regime change in Cuba.
For over three months, no fuel has been allowed to reach the island. Not a drop
The United States oil blockade is driving Cuba toward a humanitarian crisis. The most vulnerable — newborns, the elderly, and the sick — are at the greatest risk. What is debated in distant, cold political language is lived here as daily deprivation.
It is difficult to convey what that means unless you see it firsthand. The stillness of streets once filled with buses, the darkened neighborhoods when electricity falters, the palpable fatigue in the faces of people who have adapted again and again to scarcity that is neither natural nor inevitable.
And yet, even in the midst of profound exhaustion, life continues. Communities organize. Teachers return to their classrooms. Doctors keep working, caring for the sick. Neighbors share what little they have. The resilience of the Cuban people is steady, daily, and collective. Even in the face of the most egregious acts of violence, Cubans remain committed to life, dignity, and self-determination.
This visit to Cuba has made silence impossible.
Global Exchange traveled to Cuba as part of the Nuestra América Convoy, a coordinated international effort that brought together hundreds of people from across the United States, Latin America, Europe, and beyond in a collective act of solidarity. Communities organized, gathered supplies, and joined hands to deliver urgently needed humanitarian aid during a period of severe shortages. As part of this effort, Global Exchange carried more than $23,000 worth of life-saving cancer medicines and approximately 1,700 pounds of humanitarian aid, contributing to the convoy’s delivery of more than 20 tons of supplies to communities across the island.
When Fuel Disappears, Everything Slows. Then Stops.
At first glance, cutting off oil to Cuba may look like a pen pressed to paper in a quiet office, a decision made under bright lights, far from the darkened streets it will leave behind. On the ground, it reshapes daily life in the most fundamental ways.
Cuba stretches nearly 800 miles across the Caribbean, just 90 miles from the shores of the United States. The country can refine oil, but it does not have its own supply of crude. Like most nations, its basic infrastructure depends on fuel for transportation, electricity, water systems, agriculture, and healthcare.
Cuba’s last shipment of oil arrived on January 9. Since then, the country has been forced to operate with dwindling reserves.
When fuel disappears,
Cars and trucks remain idle. Ambulances remain parked because there is no fuel. Food cannot be transported from farms to markets. Electrical grids falter, and when electricity fails, so, too, do water systems. Hospitals are canceling surgeries and sending patients home because doctors and nurses can’t commute to work.
The effects ripple outward through every layer of society.
Daily life begins to falter. Slowly at first, then a rapid collapse. This is the cruel intention of the United States’ fuel blockade. Its impact is measured in human lives. Its target is the Cuban people.
In recent weeks, the consequences have become horrific. Entire sections of Havana have gone permanently dark. On some nights, the power fails across the entire nation. We were there during one of the blackouts. On Saturday, Cuba’s power grid collapsed, leaving the country without electricity for the third time in March. The streets fell silent. Businesses closed their doors. Cell phones stopped working, and the internet disappeared. Entire neighborhoods went dark. At our casa, a table sat covered with flashlights that could not be used because there were no batteries. In refrigerators across the country, the little food families had managed to store began to spoil as the power failed. One friend told me she has been getting sick repeatedly, forced to rely on food that has gone bad after yet another outage.
Hospitals are designed to be the last institutions to lose power, but even they are vulnerable during nationwide blackouts. Healthcare workers we met described racing to the bedsides of infants and patients on ventilators, manually pumping life-support equipment while waiting for generators to engage. These are moments measured not in policy debates, but in seconds. Seconds that determine whether a baby in the NICU survives.
This is inhumane. This is genocidal.
Photos by Lexine Alpert
Photo by Lexine Alpert
Photo by Lexine Alpert
Photo by Lexine Alpert
A Health System Under Siege
Across hospitals and clinics, doctors are working with critically limited supplies of essential medicines, forced into decisions under inhumane conditions that no healthcare professional should ever face.
Doctors we met with spoke about the impossible choices they are forced to make when life-saving medicines are scarce. They must weigh whether to administer a scarce treatment that may extend one life briefly, or to reserve it for another patient with a greater chance of survival.
In the face of these shortages, healthcare workers improvise.
It is difficult to fully convey the severity of the U.S. blockade on Cuba, and the extraordinary measures it forces healthcare workers to take simply to provide basic care. They adapt, repair, reuse, and invent.
In one hospital we visited, a child was using a makeshift device fashioned from a discarded plastic bottle to collect urine, an improvised solution created because proper medical supplies were unavailable.
The nurse who showed us the device did not present it as an innovation or a success. She held it carefully in her hands and explained that this was what they had available. She spoke about the responsibility of caring for children when supplies run out, about the fear of making mistakes when equipment is scarce, and about the exhaustion of working every day under conditions that no healthcare system should be forced to endure.
That exhaustion does not end when her shift is over. She often returns home to a dark apartment, unable to cook because the electricity has failed again. Sometimes the power returns in the middle of the night for a few hours before shutting off again before sunrise. When that happens, she gets up to cook whatever food she can, preparing meals for her children to take to school and something to carry with her to work, and then lies back down to rest before the next day begins.
At the oncology hospital we visited, it was a matter of life and death.
Today, 96,000 Cubans are waiting for surgery as shortages of fuel and electricity slow hospital operations across the country. About 11,000 of those patients are children. Doctors explained that an estimated 16,000 cancer patients in Cuba require radiotherapy and are experiencing disruptions in treatment — not because the country lacks trained doctors, hospitals, or medical expertise, but because the resources needed to sustain care are increasingly difficult to obtain.
Healthcare professionals remain ready to treat their patients. Facilities remain staffed. The will to provide care is intact. But when medicines, fuel, replacement parts, and medical equipment are restricted, even the most capable health system cannot do what it was built to do — save lives.
Communities Sustaining Life
We visited a school serving children with hearing impairments, part of Cuba’s universal education system, where students with disabilities learn alongside their peers and receive specialized support. Teachers spoke about their work with deep commitment and with growing concern about the difficulty of obtaining something as basic as batteries for hearing devices. Inside the classroom, students receive the support they need to learn and communicate. But outside the classroom, shortages create new barriers. When batteries are unavailable, families struggle to maintain the tools children depend on to connect with the world around them. A small detail with enormous consequences.
We visited organic farms and community gardens where farmers are working collectively to grow food under increasingly difficult conditions. These projects reflect a long tradition of resilient communities adapting, sharing knowledge, and sustaining local food systems when imports become unreliable. What we saw was not just agriculture, but cooperation: neighbors working side by side to ensure that families have something to eat, even when resources are scarce.
We met with members of the Henry Reeve Brigade, a contingent of Cuban doctors and nurses who have traveled the world responding to disasters, epidemics, and humanitarian crises. Since its creation in 2005, Cuban medical teams have deployed from Haiti to West Africa to communities across the Americas, providing care when it was needed most.
What we witnessed tells a very different story from the one often told about Cuba. This is a country that has sent doctors — not bombs — across borders for decades. Cuban medical teams have responded to disasters in Haiti, treated patients during the Ebola crisis in West Africa, supported overwhelmed hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, and worked alongside Indigenous communities across the Americas to expand access to healthcare. Their work reflects a model of international solidarity rooted in care, prevention, and service.
In recent months, several countries have been forced to scale back or end Cuban medical missions under pressure from the Trump administration. In Honduras, communities lost the Cuban healthcare workers who had been providing free medical care for nearly two years. Guatemala, Paraguay, the Bahamas, Guyana, and Jamaica have also terminated long-standing medical partnerships, including programs serving Indigenous and rural communities. These closures mean fewer doctors in clinics, longer travel distances for patients, and reduced access to basic healthcare for millions of people who depend on these services.
Silence Is Not an Option
The suffering caused by the U.S. blockade against Cuba is not hidden. It is visible to anyone willing to look closely, in hospital wards, in pharmacies with empty shelves, and in the daily calculations families make about survival.
As I told The Nation, the policies imposed on Cuba are not just economic measures; they are conditions that shape whether hospitals can function, whether patients receive treatment, and whether families can meet their most basic needs.
It is measurable in lives interrupted, treatments delayed, and systems stretched to their limits.
And it is why silence is not an option.
Until the Blockade Ends
In response to the requests of our Cuban partners and the communities we met, we are taking the following steps:
Organizing additional solidarity delegations to Cuba in April, June, and September, with more to follow. Each delegation carrying humanitarian aid. Again and again, Cubans told us the same thing: Come if you can. Come see for yourselves. Come stand with us. Return home with the truth to share.
Send monthly shipments of aid to Cuba. These shipments will reach hospitals, community projects, and families facing ongoing shortages.
Building a local hub of solidarity in San Francisco. We are beginning the collection of donated items at our office, connecting neighbors here with families there.
Raising funds nationwide to purchase and deliver urgently needed supplies. For those who are not in the Bay Area, online contributions will help sustain this ongoing humanitarian effort. You can donate here.
Bring our call directly to Washington, D.C. Congress must demand an end to the blockade. In the weeks ahead, we will share ways for supporters to stand with us in this effort.
And this work will continue.
End all the blockades. Break the sieges that starve nations and fracture communities. Feed the people. From Cuba to Palestine to Haiti, we all deserve dignity, sovereignty, and the chance to live.
There is enough for everyone.
Global Exchange arrives in Havana today as movements from across the hemisphere come together by air, land, and sea with the Nuestra América Convoy, delivering humanitarian aid while challenging the U.S. blockade of Cuba.
On March 21, international delegations and solidarity movements from across the Americas and around the world will converge in Cuba as part of the convoy, bringing more than 20 tons of humanitarian aid and standing together against the policies that are deepening this humanitarian crisis.
The ongoing blockade has plunged the island nation into a severe energy crisis, with many parts of Cuba experiencing up to 16 hours without power each day. United States President Donald Trump has also suggested the possibility of military action and regime change, and has publicly expressed a desire for the United States to “own” Cuba.
Yesterday, Global Exchange co-director Corina Nolet and Board Chair Walter Turner spoke with Hard Knock Radio on KPFA about the current crisis in Cuba, the tightening U.S. blockade, and why this humanitarian convoy is so urgent. Read / listen here.
“We stand in solidarity with the people of Cuba. People around the world are coming together to make clear that Cuba is not alone, and that the inhumane blockade will not stop us from carrying out this vital people-to-people mission,” said Corina Nolet, co-director of Global Exchange
For nearly four decades, Global Exchange has organized people-to-people delegations to Cuba and led grassroots advocacy efforts to end the blockade and normalize relations between Cuba and the United States. Thanks to supporters like you, Global Exchange and our international partners have already secured nearly $23,000 worth of urgently needed cancer medicines. These treatments are critically needed as shortages of basic medicines continue to affect patients across the island.
This effort brings together participants from more than a dozen countries. At a time when the Trump administration is escalating the economic war against Cuba, tightening sanctions, and deepening shortages across the island, people across the Americas are stepping forward in solidarity. Together, we refuse to stand by while an entire nation is punished.
Members of our delegation are also carrying 34 large suitcases filled with humanitarian supplies — more than 1,700 pounds of aid. These bags are packed with over-the-counter medicines, medical supplies, and essential items that Cuban families are increasingly unable to obtain because of the tightening economic blockade.
And this is just the beginning.
In April, Global Exchange will launch a Bay Area Humanitarian Aid Hub in San Francisco to continue this work, organizing regular shipments of medical supplies, food, and essential goods to the people of Cuba.
We will share updates, photos, and stories from Cuba as the convoy arrives and the aid begins reaching communities. For up-to-the-moment updates, follow us on social media.
Thank you for making this work possible.
Written by Ted Lewis.
Epic Fury, Domestic Decay: The War on Iran as a Tool to Eviscerate Democracy
The blackened skylines of Tehran and the smoldering ruins of Beirut are more than just the markers of a new Middle Eastern war; they are the smoke signals of a dying American democracy. As “Operation Epic Fury” accelerates, we are witnessing a terrifying historical first: a major regional conflict launched without a coherent rationale, sustained by the personal survival instincts of its architects, and used as a blunt instrument to dismantle the rule of law at home.
The Strategic Vacuum
The most contemporary “stupidity” of this conflict is its utter lack of an endgame. We are told this is about “security,” yet every missile fired into Lebanon and Iran ensures a century of instability. To upend the global order on a midnight whim—without a defined metric for victory or a structural plan for the “morning after”—is not statecraft. It is a nihilistic tantrum with a multi-billion-dollar price tag, a war whose only clear objective is the continuation of the war itself.
A Partnership of Criminality
The fundamental immorality of this campaign is laid bare by the motives of its drivers. By tethering American military might to Benjamin Netanyahu, the United States has become a silent partner in a campaign of personal preservation. Netanyahu, desperately clinging to power to evade his own corruption trials, views regional bloodletting as a convenient shield against a prison cell.
When a leader uses the lives of soldiers to stay in office, it ceases to be “defense” and becomes a high crime. The United States is no longer merely supporting an ally; we are subsidizing the venal desperation of a premier who treats global stability as an acceptable sacrifice for his own immunity.
The Foreseeable Ruin
There is no “fog of war” here—only the blinding light of ignored warnings. The “oil shock” currently destabilizing the global economy was a mathematical certainty. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz was the inevitable first move on the Iranian chessboard, yet the administration acted as if it were a surprise.
Perhaps the most cynical casualty of this “Fury,” however, is the Iranian people themselves. For years, they were fed the hollow oxygen of Western encouragement, urged by successive administrations to “rise up” and reclaim their future from a theological cage. Yet, as the missiles fall, that encouragement has revealed itself as a cruel bait-and-switch.
By pivoting from supporting internal democratic aspirations to unleashing brutal destruction, we have effectively abandoned the Iranian street. They are now trapped in a lethal pincer movement of history: haunted by an emboldened, vengeful regime at home and a “liberation” from abroad that offers only the smoldering peace of a graveyard. We aren’t breaking their chains; we are collapsing the ceiling on their heads.
Similarly, the expansion into Lebanon was entirely telegraphed. The two bloody attacks on Lebanon this month—specifically the systematic bombing of the al-Qard al-Hassan branches—were designed to bankrupt the civilian poor and trigger a mass exodus of nearly a million people. To claim this is “surgical” is a lie; it is the intentional demolition of a sovereign nation’s social fabric.
In the past, the American people were the final check on the madness of unpopular wars. From Vietnam to Iraq, the moral clarity of the public eventually broke the momentum of the state. But today, the challenge of ending the war is inextricably linked to the survival of our own democracy.
Under the current administration, the traditional avenues for dissent are being systematically paved over. With Donald Trump’s ongoing attempts to eviscerate the rule of law and dismantle democratic institutions, the war abroad serves as the perfect fog to hide the decay at home. When the executive branch views the Constitution as an “interference” with “Epic Fury,” the fight for peace becomes a fight for the Republic itself.
This is why the “No Kings” marches on March 28 are no longer just a protest against domestic overreach—they are a desperate plea for global sanity. To march on the 28th is to declare that we will not be ruled by a commander-in-chief who treats the world as a personal chessboard and the law as a mere suggestion.
The Bitter Truth: We cannot stop the fires in the Middle East while the arsonists are dismantling the fire department at home. On March 28, the message must be singular and deafening: Yes to democracy, No to war. Ending this conflict requires us to remember that we are a nation of laws, not a kingdom of whims. To save the world from this fury, we must first end the regime that unleashed it.
Today marks the 10th anniversary of Berta Cáceres’ Siembra (sowing), honoring the life, legacy, and enduring struggle of the Lenca Indigenous leader, environmental defender, and co-founder of Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras (COPINH).
In the Lenca worldview, Siembra is not simply remembrance. It is planting. It is continuity. It is the understanding that what is rooted in community cannot be extinguished.
For most of her life, Berta organized to defend rivers, forests, and Indigenous sovereignty in Honduras. She challenged dams, mining projects, militarization, and the political and economic interests that advance them. Through COPINH, she helped build one of the most powerful Indigenous resistance movements in the Americas.
Berta was assassinated for defending the sacred Gualcarque River from the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project, a project imposed without the free, prior, and informed consent of Lenca communities. She understood what so many movements across the world continue to confront: extractive projects backed by powerful political and economic interests often move forward through dispossession, militarization, and violence.
This week, Global Exchange is in Honduras accompanying COPINH and Lenca communities as they mark her 10-year Siembra, not only to remember, but to recommit.
Investigations and independent experts have made clear that the assassination was not an isolated act, but a crime linked to powerful economic interests, including members of the Atala Zablah family and financiers connected to the Agua Zarca project, as well as complicity within sectors of the Honduran state.
Accountability must extend beyond gunmen and intermediaries. It must reach intellectual authors, financial backers, and the political structures that enabled the violence.
It must also include international accountability.
U.S. security assistance, military training, diplomatic backing, and development financing have long strengthened institutions in Honduras that have failed to protect land and human rights defenders. International banks that financed extractive projects cannot evade scrutiny. Global North capital cannot remain insulated from consequence.
But the extractive model she confronted remains intact.
Across Honduras and throughout Latin America, land and water defenders continue to face threats, criminalization, and violence. Projects imposed without free, prior, and informed consent still advance. Communities defending territory still risk their lives.
We join COPINH, the Cáceres family, and communities in resistance in calling for:
• Full truth and accountability for Berta’s assassination — including intellectual and financial authors • Accountability from the Honduran state and international actors who enabled or financed the project • Protection for land and human rights defenders • Respect for Indigenous sovereignty and free, prior, and informed consent • An end to extractive violence and impunity
¡Berta no murió, se multiplicó! Berta didn’t die. She multiplied.
The lights are going out in Cuba, and instead of relief, Washington is talking about takeover.
Earlier today, President Donald Trump suggested that the United States might pursue a “friendly takeover” of Cuba, claiming the country has “no money, no oil, no food.” This language, layered atop intensified sanctions and fuel restrictions, signals a dangerous escalation.
At the same time, tightened restrictions on fuel and energy imports have severely strained Cuba’s electricity grid. Blackouts are spreading. Hospitals are operating under extreme pressure. Transportation and food distribution systems are destabilized. These measures have real, immediate human consequences.
Cuba needs an end to the U.S. Blockade. Cuba does not need a U.S. takeover.
We refuse to stand by while economic warfare deepens and a nation’s sovereignty is undermined.
There are still a few spaces available to travel with us. Learn more here.
Traveling with Global Exchange means delivering humanitarian aid directly to the Cuban people, engaging with health workers, educators, and community leaders, and witnessing firsthand the impacts of sanctions and fuel shortages. It means standing for sovereignty, dignity, and self-determination at a critical moment.
Our friends in Cuba are asking us to come and bear witness at a moment when isolation is being weaponized against them. Join the Global Exchange delegation.
Global Exchange is mobilizing a humanitarian aid campaign to send essential supplies and funds with the convoy. When power grids collapse, intensive care units are at risk. When fuel disappears, food distribution breaks down, and entire neighborhoods are plunged into darkness. These policies are designed to create pressure through deprivation. Your contribution helps us counter that pressure with solidarity, material support, and presence.
For nearly 40 years, Global Exchange has brought people to Cuba to break the isolation imposed by the U.S. blockade and to build direct, people-to-people ties across borders. That commitment remains firm.
We are returning to Cuba in April, in June, and again in September with additional solidarity delegations — with more to follow. We are organizing monthly humanitarian shipments to ensure that material support continues beyond any single visit.
We will keep showing up, in solidarity.
Solidarity With Cuba in the Face of Economic Warfare
We are writing at a moment of grave urgency.
On January 29, the U.S. government took a dangerous step toward open economic warfare against the people of Cuba. President Trump declared Cuba an “unusual and extraordinary threat” and authorized sweeping new measures designed to cut the island off from fuel — the lifeblood of electricity, water, transportation, food systems, and hospitals.
This is an emergency.
It is now widely reported that Cuba has as little as 15–20 days of oil remaining. As a result of direct U.S. threats and economic coercion, Venezuelan shipments have been halted, Mexico’s state oil company has suspended deliveries, and other countries are being threatened with punitive tariffs if they continue fuel transfers. The consequences are already unfolding: prolonged blackouts, fuel rationing, stalled transportation, and deepening hardship across the island.
This is economic warfare waged through hunger, darkness, and the collapse of life-sustaining systems.
For more than six decades, the U.S. blockade has sought to break Cuba through economic strangulation. What we are witnessing now is not a departure from that strategy, but its most dangerous escalation yet, deliberately leveraging systemic breakdown in the hope that desperation will succeed where decades of coercion have failed.
Since 1990, Global Exchange has been at the forefront of the movement to normalize U.S.–Cuba relations and end the blockade (bloqueo). That same year, we launched our first travel challenge to Cuba under the Freedom to Travel campaign, demanding that the U.S. government: End the U.S. blockade on Cuba; End travel restrictions between the U.S. and Cuba; Remove Cuba from the U.S. list of terrorist countries
Through education, publications, speaking tours, campaigns, and our Cuba Reality Tours program, we have accompanied thousands of people to Cuba, breaking the blockade of information and building people-to-people solidarity grounded in truth, dignity, and mutual respect.
And yet, more than thirty years later, most of these demands remain unmet. Instead of normalization, we are witnessing renewed escalation. Instead of dialogue, coercion and the deliberate manufacture of crisis.
Global Exchange stands in unwavering solidarity with the people of Cuba. No nation should be starved into submission for refusing U.S. domination. Cuba is not a threat. What threatens peace and stability is the use of economic warfare as foreign policy.
Secondary sanctions criminalize trade and cooperation, using force and threat to bring the entire international community into line and making solidarity itself a punishable act. At the same time, the U.S. government is intensifying violence at home — against immigrants, workers, and communities demanding dignity and democracy. These are not separate struggles. They are rooted in the same system of militarism and coercion.
Cuba’s people know this reality intimately. And still, they organize, sustaining systems of collective care that have ensured universal health care, near-universal literacy, and strong community networks even under relentless pressure. Neighborhoods share resources, doctors continue to serve without basic supplies, educators keep schools open, and communities care for one another under conditions the U.S. government is actively trying to make unbearable. This is organized, collective resistance.
Year after year, the overwhelming majority of the world condemns the U.S. blockade at the United Nations. Washington persists — not because this policy brings peace, but because diplomacy has been replaced with economic war.
Ending the blockade is a legal and moral obligation. Solidarity with Cuba is inseparable from the fight against militarism, racism, and economic violence everywhere.
As the U.S. escalates economic war, we must deepen solidarity.
Join us this Thursday at 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET for La Encrucijada, featuring Elena Gutiérrez, Global Exchange’s Mexico–U.S. Program Director, who recently returned from Cuba after meeting with delegation partners and community organizers.
Elena will share reflections from her trip, what she witnessed firsthand, and voices from Cuban people navigating the deepening impacts of the blockade. Join here.
Another powerful way to act in solidarity is to travel with Global Exchange on one of our upcoming Cuba Reality Tours. Participants bring life-saving donations, meet directly with community organizers, health workers, and cultural leaders, and help strengthen the people-to-people ties the U.S. government has worked for decades to sever. Traveling to Cuba is a way to break the blockade of information, bear witness to what communities are facing, and return with deeper relationships and responsibility.
Cuba’s surgeons are facing severe shortages of basic medical supplies. Without a steady supply of sutures, doctors are unable to perform critical, life-saving surgeries.
One immediate way to act in solidarity is to support efforts to get surgical sutures to Cuban hospitals: https://ghpartners.org/sutures/
Cuba is not alone. And we will not be silent.
The killing of Alex Pretti demands more than condemnation — it demands accountability and an end to ICE’s reign of violence. Pretti, a Veteran’s Administration ICU nurse and community member, was volunteering in sub-zero Minneapolis cold because he cared deeply about his neighbors — just as he did, for the critically ill patients he served every day. He was murdered by masked federal officers while documenting and seconds before his death, supporting women being harassed by ICE. His death is the latest in a string of deadly enforcement actions by ICE and Border Patrol in Minnesota, exposing the human cost of a system built on force, fear, and punishment
Everything about ICE’s presence in our communities is violent. Raids, armed patrols, home invasions, and surveillance are not about safety — they are about control. ICE operates within a broader system of militarized enforcement under the Department of Homeland Security that relies on force, fear, and impunity instead of care, accountability, or human dignity.
None of this is accidental. It is the system working as designed. We cannot accept this violence as normal or inevitable. We must act — now.
Take Action (Even If You’re Outside Minnesota)
1. Contact Your U.S. Senators This week, the Senate will vote on Department of Homeland Security funding. Senators face a clear choice: continue funding ICE and Border Patrol’s violence, or refuse to give these agencies another dollar to terrorize communities.
Vote NO on any DHS funding bill that increases or preserves funding for ICE and CBP
Use their power to rein in these agencies and halt deadly enforcement operations
2. Support Mutual Aid & Community Care in Minnesota
ICE raids don’t just harm individuals — they destabilize families, workplaces, and entire neighborhoods. Mutual aid and community care are critical right now to meet immediate needs like food, housing, legal support, childcare, and transportation.
Community Resource Hubs
Stand With Minnesota A Minnesota-built, constantly updated resource hub connecting people to mutual aid funds, legal support, food assistance, rent help, and volunteer opportunities. https://www.standwithminnesota.com
MPLS Mutual Aid A central hub for Minneapolis-based mutual aid efforts, including food distribution, support groups, and collaboration links. https://linktr.ee/mplsmutualaid
MN NOICE A searchable statewide directory of organizations supporting immigrants and refugees across Minnesota. https://mnnoice.com
Legal Support & Advocacy
Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota Provides free immigration legal services to Minnesota families, individuals, and asylum seekers. https://www.immigrantlawcenter.org
ACLU of Minnesota Defends civil liberties and constitutional rights, including immigrant rights and due process protections. https://www.aclu-mn.org/
Interfaith Coalition on Immigration (ICOM) A faith-based coalition focused on advocacy, education, and community action supporting immigrant justice. https://mnicom.org
Food Distribution, Drop-Offs & Community Support
Community Aid Network MN (CANMN) Organizes weekly free food distributions across the Twin Cities and coordinates volunteers. https://www.canmn.org
Parents for Good — Anoka-Hennepin Community-led mutual aid and family support organizing donation drives and drop-off efforts. https://www.facebook.com/parentsforgood
Bad Wolf Adventure Studios (Coon Rapids) A local community space that has served as a donation drop-off point during mutual aid efforts. Confirm current needs before dropping off. https://badwolfadventurestudios.com
Metta Coffee (Anoka) Collecting donations such as shelf-stable food, baby formula, and menstrual products. 215 E Main St, Anoka, MN https://www.mettacoffee.com
Pow Wow Grounds A Native-owned community space supporting Indigenous and neighboring communities through pantry services, fundraising, and resource mobilization. https://powwowgrounds.com
International Institute of Minnesota Offers legal services, resettlement assistance, employment support, and volunteer opportunities for immigrants and refugees. https://www.iimm.org/volunteer/
Support immigrant-led mutual aid in your own community
Participate in Know Your Rights or legal observer trainings
Help build rapid response networks to support neighbors facing raids or detention
This violence is not inevitable — it is a choice, funded and enforced by policy. But so is care. So is solidarity. So is resistance. Together, we can refuse a system built on fear and demand one rooted in safety, dignity, and collective care. Take action today and stand with our communities.
Today, a Global Exchange delegation of 47 observers from 13 countries arrived in Honduras to participate in an international electoral observation mission organized in partnership with the Honduran Center for Democracy Studies (CESPAD) and the Honduras Solidarity Network (HSN). Our teams will be monitoring conditions across electorally sensitive regions leading up to the November 30 elections.
We are entering this moment with grave concern about escalating U.S. intervention and external pressure. The Honduran people deserve free and fair elections, free from manipulation, fear-mongering, or interference from any foreign government, including the United States. As international observers, we will closely monitor any efforts to shape outcomes or undermine Honduran sovereignty.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump escalated U.S. involvement in the Honduran elections by endorsing National Party candidate Tito Asfura and attacking the other candidates as “communists,” “narcoterrorists,” and “unreliable.” Ted Lewis of Global Exchange said, “Trump’s declaration is not just disrespectful of Honduran sovereignty and democratic dignity; it is part and parcel of a full-on return to gunboat diplomacy.” A wave of similar red-baiting and anti-communist messaging emanating from congressional hearings, op-eds, and State Department communications reflects the broader posture Washington is taking toward these elections.
Karen Spring of the Honduras Solidarity Network said, “These red-baiting messages synchronize with those of the very same forces in Honduras that supported the 2009 coup. This election period has been marked by sharp polarization, fear-mongering, and sophisticated attempts to undermine confidence in the electoral process.”
Over the next several days, GX, CESPAD, and HSN teams will be traveling widely across the country, from urban centers to rural communities, to accompany local organizations, observe conditions at polling sites, and share timely information about what communities are facing on the ground.
Global Exchange has long stood with Honduran civil society, Indigenous and Black communities, land defenders, campesino movements, women and youth leaders, journalists, and human rights defenders, who continue to risk their lives to defend their territories, their rights, and their future. Our mission is grounded in solidarity with communities who have faced violence, displacement, and criminalization for demanding dignity and democratic rights.
Watch the Press Conference (Livestream) live from Honduras: Anuncio del despliegue de la Misión Internacional: Global Exchange, CESPAD y la Plataforma Juvenil Electoral Today, Thursday, November 28 8:00 a.m. Pacific / 11:00 a.m. Eastern Hotel Plaza San Martín, Salón Audiencias Livestream: https://www.facebook.com/CespadCentroDeEstudioParaLaDemocracia
Throughout the election period, we will be providing live updates from polling stations, communities under pressure, and from our mission headquarters in Tegucigalpa.
