Paris, May 28, 2026. The Cuban Ambassador to UNESCO, María del Carmen Herrera Caseiro, strongly denounced the unprecedented escalation of the current US administration's hostile policy against Cuba, based on a brutal intensification of the blockade and preparations for a direct military operation against the country.
Invited as a speaker on the panel organized by the Gabriel Péri Foundation, the Cuban diplomat referred to the recent measures imposed against Cuba by the current US administration through Executive Orders issued on January 29 and May 1 this year, which raised sanctions against the island to extreme levels with the application of a total energy blockade and threats against individuals, companies, and banking institutions from third countries that maintain legitimate economic, commercial, and financial relations with the country. In her presentation, the official traced the origins of this anti-Cuban policy from the time of the Revolution's triumph to the present day, demonstrating its genocidal nature in its attempt to economically strangle the country, causing severe harm to the entire Cuban people.
In this context, she extensively explained the impact of the blockade on all spheres of Cuban life, including highly sensitive sectors such as health and food, as well as those under UNESCO's mandate, such as education, culture, science, and communication. Describing Washington's actions as a "multidimensional aggression," she strongly condemned the collective punishment inflicted upon the Cuban people for choosing to be free and independent, and denounced the US plans for military intervention against the country.
“To the humanitarian repercussions of the genocidal policy that the U.S. government applies against Cuba is added the growing threat of direct military aggression by the United States against our country, under the false pretext that Cuba represents a threat to U.S. national security, or the infamous and arbitrary accusation leveled against the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Raúl Castro Ruz,” stated the representative of the island.
The event had broad participation, including five experts who joined the Cuban Ambassador on the panel dedicated to analyzing the extraterritoriality of U.S. laws, particularly their impact on the case of Cuba.
The Gabriel Péri Foundation was created in 2004 at the initiative of the French Communist Party with the aim of contributing to the understanding, dissemination, and appropriation of the intellectual and practical heritage accumulated in France and throughout the world through social and political struggles, and through the exchange of ideas.
As a space for encounter, exchange, and debate, it contributes to the pluralism of public discourse by providing everyone with tools for analysis and reflection useful in the struggle for emancipation.