By Vijay Prashad

News Americas, WASHINGTON, D.C., Thurs. Feb. 19, 2026: In January 2026, US President Donald Trump declared Cuba to be an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US security – a designation that allows the United States government to use sweeping economic restrictions traditionally reserved for national security adversaries. The US blockade against Cuba began in the 1960s, right after the Cuban Revolution of 1959, but has tightened over the years. Without any mandate from the United Nations Security Council, which permits sanctions under strict conditions, the United States has operated an illegal, unilateral blockade that tries to force countries from around the world to stop doing basic commerce with Cuba. The new restrictions focus on oil. The United States government has threatened tariffs and sanctions on any country that sells or transports oil to Cuba.

Members of the Association of Cuban Residents in Mexico A.C. “Jose Marti” prepare humanitarian aid in front of posters of Argentineborn Cuban revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara and Cuban leader Fidel Castro at a collection center set up in Plaza El Zocalo in Mexico City on February 17, 2026, as part of a collection campaign in solidarity with Cuba. (Photo by Yuri CORTEZ / AFP via Getty Images)

On 3 January, the United States attacked Venezuela and kidnapped President Nicolás Maduro Moros and National Assembly deputy Cillia Flores. As 150 US military aircraft sat above Caracas, the United States informed the Venezuelan government that if they did not concede to a list of demands, the US would essentially convert downtown Caracas to Gaza City. The remainder of the government, with no leverage in the conversation, had to effectively make a tactical compromise and accept the US demands. One of these demands was that Venezuela cease to export oil to Cuba. In 2025, Venezuela contributed about 34 percent of Cuba’s total oil demand. With Venezuelan oil out of the picture in the short run, Cuba already anticipated a serious problem.

But this was not all. Mexico supplied 44 percent of Cuba’s imported crude oil in 2025. Pressure now mounted from Washington on Mexico City to cease its oil exports to Cuba, which would then mean that almost 80 percent of Cuba’s oil imports would disappear. In a phone call between Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum and Trump, he claimed that he told her to stop selling oil to Cuba, but she denied that, saying that the two presidents only talked in broad terms about US-Mexico relations. Either way, the pressure on Mexico to stop its oil shipments has been considerable. Sheinbaum has stressed that Mexico must be permitted to make sovereign decisions and that the Mexican people will not buckle under US pressure. Cutting fuel to Cuba would cause a humanitarian crisis, so Sheinbaum said her government would not accept the Trump demand.

Trump’s savage policy has effectively cut off much of Cuba’s oil imports, which has created a major energy crisis on the island of eleven million people. There are rolling blackouts, fuel shortages for hospitals, water systems, and transportation, and rationing of electricity. Due to the lack of aviation fuel, several commercial airlines – such as Air Canada – have stopped their flights to Havana.

The United Nations has warned that the US pressure campaign – especially the policy to target fuel – threatens Cuba’s food and water supplies, hospitals, schools, and basic services. UN officials, including the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Cuba, have condemned the US tightening of the blockade as a measure that directly harms ordinary citizens. They pointed out that restrictions make it harder for hospitals to obtain essential medicines, dialysis clinics to operate, and medical equipment to reach patients, worsening the health crisis on the island. The Special Rapporteur described the policy as “punitive and disproportionate,” emphasizing that it violates international law and deepens socio-economic hardships. The UN has urged the United States to lift sanctions and prioritize humanitarian exemptions, stressing that dialogue and cooperation—not coercive measures—are necessary to protect Cuban lives and human rights.

A group of United Nations human rights experts condemned Trump’s executive order as a “serious violation of international law” and “a grave threat to a democratic and equitable international order.” They argued that Trump’s order seeks to coerce Cuba and third states by threatening trade sanctions, and that such extraterritorial economic measures risk causing severe humanitarian consequences. Their statement made it clear that no right under international law permits a State to impose economic penalties on third States for lawful trade relations, and they called on the Trump administration to rescind the illegal order. The UN General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly against the blockade every year since 1992, often with only the US and Israel opposed.

The Blockade by the US has had a grave impact on Cuba’s development paradigm. Since the start of the Blockade over sixty years ago, the US has cost Cuba $171 billion or if adjusted for the price of gold, $2.10 trillion. Between March 2024 and February 2025, the Cuban government estimates that the Blockade caused about $7.5 billion in damages, a 49 percent increase since the previous period. If you take the $171 billion number, the Cuban people lose $20.7 million per day or $862,568 per hour. These losses are grievous for a small country that attempts to build a rational society rooted in socialist values.

Response from Havana

Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel has strongly condemned the tightened US measures as an ‘economic war’ and has argued that the US policy is designed to weaken Cuba’s sovereignty. The government calls this an “energy blockade” and emphasises that the shortages on the island are a direct result of US coercive policies. In reaction, the Cuban Revolution has implemented emergency plans, including fuel rationing to prioritise essential services such as hospitals, water systems, and public transportation. Cuba has also announced state directives to manage diminished energy supplies, including shifts toward alternative and renewable energy sources where feasible. The Chinese government has donated equipment for large-scale solar parks to be built in Artemisa, Granma, Guantánamo, Holguín, Las Tunas, and Pinar del Río. In the long-term, China will assist Cuba to build 92 solar farms to add 2,000 megawatts of solar capacity. To assist households in remote areas, the Chinese government has sent 5,000 solar kits for rooftop energy harvesting. Fuel from Mexico and Russia, as well as other countries is now on the way to Cuba. Trump’s policy of isolation has not fully succeeded.

The Cuban government said it is in touch with Washington but has not yet held direct high-level talks. President Díaz-Canel has said that his government would speak to the United States but only under three important conditions. First, that the dialogue will be respectful, serious, and without pressure or preconditions. Second, the dialogue must respect Cuba’s sovereignty, independence, and political system. And finally, the Cuban government is unwilling to negotiate the Cuban Constitution (recently revised in 2019) or Cuba’s commitment to socialism. If the United States insists on a discussion on any of these three issues, there will be no dialogue. The Cuban Revolution’s defiance on these issues is rooted in its history, since the Revolution itself was an act of defiance against the US claim to control the Western Hemisphere through the 1823 Monroe Doctrine (now renewed by Trump in 2025 with his Corollary). This defiance has been contagious, building a Latin American resistance to US imperialism from the 1960s to the present – including at the heart of the Bolivarian process in Venezuela.

The Angry Tide

Latin America is going through a rapid and dangerous transformation. Country after country – from Argentina to El Salvador – have elected to power political formations from the Far Right of a Special Type. These are leaders who have committed themselves to strong conservative social values (rooted in the growth of reactionary Evangelical Christianity across the Americas), to a ruthless attack on the poor through a war on crime (shaped by a theory that calls for the arrest of any potential criminals and their incarceration, a policy pioneered by El Salvador’s Nabil Bukele), and by a sharply turn toward Western Civilisation that includes an orientation towards the United States and against China (this sentiment oscillates from a celebration of Western culture to a hatred of communism). The emergence of the Far Right of a Special Type appears as if it will be in charge for a generation if it can erase the left from power in Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (in Brazil, this Right has already taken charge of the legislature).

The parallel attacks on Venezuela and Cuba are part of the United States’s contribution to this rise of the Angry Tide across the Americas. Trump and his cronies would like to install their kind of leaders – such as Javier Milei – across the Americas as part of the Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. It is this that revives the idea of sovereignty in the Americas. When the Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny ended his performance at the US Super Bowl with a celebration of all the countries in the Americas, and when he named each of them, that gesture was itself part of the battle over the idea of sovereignty.

The Cuban Revolution holds out against US imperialism, but under great pressure. Solidarity with Cuba is for the Cuban people, for the Cuban Revolution, for the reality of sovereignty across the Americas, and for the idea of socialism in the world. This is now the frontline of the fight against imperialism.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian and journalist. He is the author of forty books, including Washington Bullets, Red Star Over the Third World, The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World, The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South, and How the International Monetary Fund Suffocates Africa, written with Grieve Chelwa. He is the executive director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, the chief correspondent for Globetrotter, and the chief editor of LeftWord Books (New Delhi). He also appeared in the films Shadow World (2016) and Two Meetings (2017).

SOURCE: Globetrotter

By Dr. Isaac Newton

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Weds. Feb. 18, 2026: I was deeply touched by his incredible capacity to let words and meaning jolt the soul through the rhythm of hope, the call to faith, and his relentless pursuit of freedom, dignity, and justice for all, especially the downtrodden and outcast. Long before I met him, his voice had already crossed oceans and entered the crowded chambers of my own conscience. Then I met him in Jersey City when he attended an African American Interdenominational Convention. His presence was radiant, marked by his moving smile and infectious, confident humility, which drew people to him with a sense of wonder and whispering pride. In that room, I encountered a leader and a living sermon. Before my eyes stood a man whose very cadence carried the heartbeat of generations who had been told to wait their turn in history.

FLASHBACK – The Rev. Jesse Jackson, seated, cheers on Aug. 19, 2024, during the Democratic National Convention at the United Center. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

The man was Jesse Jackson, but the moment belonged to something larger than biography. He rose from the soil of segregation and shaped his public life with the discipline of Christian conviction and the daring imagination of prophetic faith. As a protégé of Martin Luther King Jr., he learned that moral courage must be organized and that faith without public action is only private comfort. His declaration to keep hope alive evolved beyond a slogan into a theology of survival for people battered by exclusion. When he affirmed that he was somebody, he was restoring sacred worth to those who had been measured and dismissed. He taught that dignity is conferred by the Creator, not the powerful, and therefore cannot be revoked by prejudice, poverty, or political neglect.

For Caribbean and African peoples, his words traveled like trade winds across the Atlantic. In Kingston, Port of Spain, Bridgetown, Georgetown, Lagos, Monrovia, Accra, Nairobi, and Gaborone, communities wrestling with the aftershocks of colonialism and economic vulnerability heard in his voice a summons to believe again. Hope, in his lexicon, was nothing short of disciplined resistance. It was the courage to count the cost of freedom and to pay it with patience, organization, and sacrifice. He insisted that faith must move beyond sanctuary walls into voting booths, classrooms, boardrooms, and streets. He spoke to fishermen and factory workers, to teachers and taxi drivers, to students who feared their dreams were too fragile for harsh realities. His mission dignified ordinary labor and reminded entire regions that the foundation of justice is built by hands that history often overlooks.

Yet, his majesty did not depend on perfection. He faced his own foibles in public view, and critics were swift and relentless. What distinguished him was not an absence of flaw but an unwillingness to be imprisoned by it. He understood that moral authority will not share the same room with moral infallibility. His Christian faith compelled confession, correction, and continuation. In this he modeled a rare form of leadership for a skeptical age. He showed that one can stumble and still stand for something larger than the stumble. For communities accustomed to seeing their champions either idolized or discarded, his resilience offered a third path, accountability without annihilation. That lesson is vital for societies struggling to nurture leaders who are human yet heroic in purpose.

As he transitions from the center of public life into the solemn dignity of legacy, his meaning deepens. The majesty of Reverend Jackson lives in the marches he led, the speeches he delivered, and in the moral vocabulary he expanded for the world. He taught that hope is a discipline, that dignity is sacred, that freedom demands cost, and that faith can animate public courage across race, region, and religion. His love for ordinary men and women of all races transcended pedigree and geography because he believed each person bore a divine imprint. For Caribbean and African peoples, and for all who yearn to triumph over despair, his life stands as a testament that history can bend when souls refuse to bow. His legacy lives on, both as memory and as mandate for generations yet unborn to keep hope alive and to rise each morning declaring with conviction that they too are somebody.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Dr. Isaac Newton is a globally experienced thought leader, Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia trained strategist, and advocate for social justice and leadership excellence. With over 30 years of expertise in bridging cultural, economic, and ideological divides, he brings a nuanced perspective to complex issues shaping global and regional landscapes.

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By Keith Bernard

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Thurs. Feb. 12, 2026: The recent report regarding Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s denial of UNC interference in the upcoming Barbados elections is more than a simple political rebuttal; it is a signal of a deepening fracture in our regional diplomatic fabric. The narrative unfolding here suggests a shift from mutual respect to a more interventionist style of Caribbean politics. When allegations arise that a governing party in Trinidad and Tobago is actively backing a specific side in a neighbor’s election – particularly just forty-eight hours before the polls opened on February 11th – it casts a long shadow over the sanctity of sovereignty.

FLASHBACK – Kamla Persad-Bissessar, prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, US, on Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. The United Nations General Assembly, which opened Tuesday, brings more than 150 world leaders and their entourages into Midtown – a convergence that has been compared to hosting the Super Bowl every day for a week, across an entire neighborhood. Photographer: David Dee Delgado/Bloomberg via Getty Images

This pattern of alleged cross-border political interference echoes troubling precedents from other regions that should serve as cautionary tales. Consider Russia’s documented interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election through disinformation campaigns and cyberattacks- operations that fundamentally undermined public trust in American democratic institutions and poisoned relations between Washington and Moscow for years to come. Or examine China’s increasingly assertive influence operations across the Pacific Islands, where Beijing has allegedly used economic leverage and political donations to sway electoral outcomes in nations like the Solomon Islands and Kiribati, effectively reshaping regional alliances and threatening the traditional influence of Australia and the United States.

Even within democratic blocs, such interference creates lasting damage. The European Union has grappled with accusations that Hungary and Poland have attempted to influence each other’s domestic politics through coordinated media campaigns and financial support for allied parties, weakening the union’s cohesion at precisely the moment it needs solidarity to address migration crises and security threats from Russia. In Latin America, Venezuela’s alleged support for sympathetic political movements in Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Ecuador during the height of the “Pink Tide” era created a polarized hemisphere where accusations of foreign meddling became routine, making genuine regional cooperation nearly impossible.

The creation of a dangerous precedent is perhaps the most worrying aspect of this unfolding story, as the lines between national interests and regional “bloc-building” are becoming dangerously blurred. If we allow the perception to take root that political machinery can be exported across waters to sway local outcomes, we risk turning our neighbors into proxies. This doesn’t just threaten the immediate peace between Port of Spain and Bridgetown; it sets a template for a future where the wealthiest or most organized regional parties can dictate the leadership of smaller nations.

The consequences of such precedents extend beyond bilateral tensions to fundamentally destabilize regional security architectures. When Saudi Arabia and Iran engaged in proxy political warfare across the Middle East – supporting opposing factions in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, and Bahrain – the result was not merely diplomatic friction but actual armed conflicts that have cost hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions. The Sahel region of Africa offers another stark example: external powers including France, Russia, Turkey, and Gulf states have all sought to influence the political trajectories of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger through combinations of military support, political backing, and economic inducements, contributing to a cycle of coups and instability that has made the region a breeding ground for extremism.

Furthermore, we must consider the heavy cost of distrust and the resulting erosion of the CARICOM spirit. Integration depends on the firm belief that each nation’s democratic process is its own, yet by the time a Prime Minister has to issue a “categorical denial” of meddling, the seeds of suspicion have already been sown. History demonstrates how quickly such suspicions can unravel decades of cooperation. The African Union’s effectiveness has been repeatedly undermined by accusations that larger powers like Nigeria, South Africa, and Egypt use their economic weight to influence the domestic politics of smaller member states, making collective action on issues like the Libya crisis or conflicts in the Horn of Africa nearly impossible to coordinate. ASEAN’s principle of non-interference has been tested to breaking point by allegations that Thailand and Cambodia, or Vietnam and the Philippines, have supported opposition movements in each other’s territories, paralyzing the organization’s ability to present a united front on critical issues like the South China Sea disputes or the Rohingya crisis.

The economic consequences alone should give us pause. When members of the Gulf Cooperation Council – supposedly one of the world’s most integrated regional blocs – accused Qatar of political interference in their internal affairs in 2017, the resulting diplomatic crisis and blockade cost the regional economy billions of dollars, disrupted trade networks built over decades, and weakened the GCC’s collective bargaining power vis-à-vis Iran and global energy markets at a critical moment.

Our region cannot afford a narrative of interference; we face collective threats – economic volatility and climate change—that require absolute unity. The stakes for the Caribbean are existential in ways that dwarf even these examples. Small island developing states facing rising sea levels, hurricane intensification, and economic marginalization in global trade systems simply cannot afford the luxury of political division that larger regions might weather. When the Pacific Islands Forum nearly collapsed in 2021 over accusations that Australia and New Zealand were manipulating the selection of the Secretary-General to serve their interests rather than those of smaller island states, it paralyzed the organization’s climate advocacy at precisely the moment when COP26 required maximum Pacific unity. The Caribbean cannot repeat such mistakes when our very existence as viable nations may depend on presenting a coordinated front on climate finance, debt relief, and preferential trade access.

To see our leaders embroiled in accusations of electoral tampering suggests we are looking inward and backward, rather than moving forward as a unified community. The lesson from every region that has traveled this path is clear: once the poison of interference takes hold, it requires years or even decades to restore trust – time we simply do not have.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Keith Bernard is a Guyanese-born, NYC-based analyst and a frequent contributor to News Americas.

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NEWS Americas, NY, NY, Tues. Feb. 10, 2026: The legacy of the late Caribbean American trailblazer Shirley Chisholm is taking physical form once again in Brooklyn, as city leaders this week announced the opening of the Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, NY, a historic investment in community wellness, youth development, and public space in the heart of Little Haiti.

FLASHBACK – Then Caribbean American Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, after losing her bid for Democratic presidential nomination, endorses Senator George McGovern as she speaks from podium at Democratic National Convention.

Unveiled by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the new center is the first Parks recreation center built in more than a decade, the first ever in Central Brooklyn, and now the largest recreation center in the borough. City officials estimate it will serve more than 41,000 New Yorkers living within a 15-minute walk or transit ride of the facility.

Named in honor of Chisholm – the first Black and Caribbean American woman elected to the U.S. Congress and the first Black and Caribbean American woman to seek a major party’s presidential nomination – the center stands as a modern tribute to her lifelong commitment to equity, access, and community empowerment. Chisholm, whose parents immigrated from Barbados and Guyana, represented Brooklyn in Congress from 1969 to 1983 and famously ran “Unbought and Unbossed.”

“This center will soon be alive with possibility,” Mayor Mamdani said at the opening. “Shirley Chisholm believed politics should be accountable to everyday people. This space is a living tribute to her legacy — proving that when we invest in affordable, accessible public spaces, we build a city that works for all.”

Spanning approximately 74,000 square feet, the Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center offers far more than traditional gym facilities. It includes a competition-size six-lane swimming pool with full accessibility features, a walking track, a regulation gymnasium for basketball, volleyball and pickleball, cardio and weight rooms, and dedicated spin and exercise studios.

Beyond fitness, the center emphasizes education, creativity, and youth engagement – pillars that echo Chisholm’s own priorities. Amenities include a teaching kitchen, an afterschool program space with an outdoor play area, a supervised teens-only zone, and the Dr. Roy A. Hastick Sr. Media Lab, named after the late Grenadian-born founder of the Caribbean American Chamber of Industry and Commerce, (CAACI), complete with a mixing room for audio-visual production, podcasting, and digital storytelling.

NYC Parks Commissioner Tricia Shimamura called the center a long-overdue investment in Central Brooklyn. “Over 41,000 New Yorkers now have an affordable space to exercise, learn, and connect,” she said. “This is exactly the kind of community infrastructure Shirley Chisholm fought for.”

Membership is free for New Yorkers 24 and under, with discounted rates for all ages. The center officially opens to the public today, Tuesday, February 10, and for its first week, all New Yorkers are invited to enjoy one free day of access to explore the facility before registering for membership. Guided tours, demonstrations, and sign-up events will also be held throughout the opening week.

Local elected officials praised the project as both a practical resource and a symbolic victory. Council Member Farah Louis noted that the center represents years of advocacy and a $141 million investment in a community long underserved by recreational infrastructure. State Senator Kevin Parker called it “a statement about what our communities deserve.”

As Brooklyn marks Black History Month and reflects on a century of Black political progress, the opening of the Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center offers more than brick and mortar. It delivers a tangible reminder that Chisholm’s legacy – rooted in Caribbean migration, courage, and public service — continues to shape the future of the communities she fought to uplift.

In East Flatbush, her name now anchors a space designed not just to serve, but to empower – a living embodiment of “Unbought and Unbossed.”

ABOUT CHISHOLM

Shirley Anita Chisholm (1924–2005) was a groundbreaking U.S. politician who made history in 1968 as the first Black woman elected to Congress, representing Brooklyn for seven terms (1969–1983). Born in New York to Caribbean immigrant parents from Barbados and Guyana, Chisholm spent part of her childhood in Barbados and carried the West Indian heritage throughout her life and public service.

In 1972, she shattered another barrier as the first Black candidate to seek a major-party presidential nomination and the first woman to run for the Democratic nomination, campaigning under her iconic motto, “Unbought and Unbossed.” Known for fearless advocacy, she took resolute stands against economic, social, and political injustice, championing civil rights, women’s rights, education, and anti-poverty programs. In 2015, she was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, cementing her legacy as a Caribbean-rooted American pioneer.

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