A radical examination of the humanitarian crisis in Cuba

Meeting of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development of the Canadian Parliament on February 26, 2026 on the humanitarian crisis in Cuba

Center for a Free Cuba, member of the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance testified on February 26, 2026 before the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development in the Canadian House of Commons on the humanitarian crisis in Cuba

A humanitarian crisis persists in Cuba, predating President Donald Trump’s executive order of January 29, 2026, which imposed tariffs on nations supplying oil to Cuba directly or indirectly.

Yesterday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced the Trump administration’s intention to allow energy companies to sell fuel to private enterprises in Cuba, while maintaining strict sanctions on the Cuban government.

Cuba has endured a permanent humanitarian crisis since 1961, driven by two main factors: the inefficiencies of its communist system and U.S. economic sanctions.

The critical question is which contributes more to the ongoing economic disaster?

Prior to the 1959 communist revolution, from 1952-1958, Cuba’s food supply was highly productive, ranking third in Latin America for daily calorie consumption.

This success stemmed from nationalistic policies promoting agricultural self-sufficiency to meet market demand.

This ended under Fidel Castro’s regime, which seized and collectivized properties, prohibiting farmers from selling crops to non-state entities.

By 1964, the government’s Acopio system controlled all agricultural products, setting production quotas and requiring sales to the state. Cuba’s recent agricultural law (Decreto Ley 358 of 2018) upholds these prohibitions on private sales.

Food rationing began in 1962 as a control mechanism and persists today; items are subsidized but insufficient to sustain individuals.

As Reuters journalist Marc Frank reported in 2010, Cuba’s centralized system forces farmers to sell fixed crops to the state in exchange for supplies, often leading to rotting crops and shortages of inputs like feed, pesticides, and fertilizer. These inefficiencies—unrelated to sanctions—stem from the absence of market mechanisms.

Media outlets like Diario de Cuba (March 18, 2021) and 14ymedio (June 15, 2021) document rotting tomatoes, onions, and vegetables due to Acopio’s delays in collection.

Farmers face fines, detentions, or imprisonment for attempting independent sales.

Consequently, Cuba imports 70 to 80% of its food, even during periods of heavy Soviet subsidies or Venezuelan aid (e.g., 2011-2014, with no fuel shortages). Rationing continued unabated.

Since 2000, much of this food has come from the U.S. In 2025, Cuba imported $810.8 million in U.S. goods. Today, Cuban chicken primarily originates from Alabama and Mississippi.

Per the Observatory of Economic Complexity, in 2024, Cuba’s poultry imports were led by the U.S. ($298M), followed by Brazil ($39M), Netherlands ($21M), Poland ($9.67M), and Paraguay ($510k).

The nation subjected to comprehensive multilateral sanctions by the United States and much of the world was Apartheid South Africa. Experts note that, despite targeting agricultural products, these sanctions had minimal impact on the regime’s food supply, as South Africa, like Cuba, effectively circumvented the restrictions.

The same cannot be said for the devastating effects of communist economic planning on food security.The 20th century’s greatest famines stemmed from communist forced collectivization: in the Soviet Union, Stalin’s policies led to the 1932-1933 Holodomor in Ukraine, where grain seizures for export caused 6 to 10 million deaths; in China, Mao Zedong’s 1959-1961 Great Leap Forward resulted in over 30 million starving, even as China exported food to Cuba. Cuba’s humanitarian crisis arises not from unilateral U.S. sanctions, but from Havana’s adherence to this failed model.

Since 2022, the Center for a Free Cuba has urged the international community to establish a humanitarian corridor delivering aid directly to Cubans in need, bypassing the kleptocratic Havana regime.

In February 2026, the State Department announced an additional $6 million in humanitarian aid to Cuba, building on the $3 million successfully delivered in January to the Catholic Church’s Caritas organization. Testimonies confirm the initial aid reached victims directly, bringing the total U.S. distribution to $9 million.

The Center also endorses the appeal by Human Rights Action Group and Democratic Spaces, both Canadian NGOs, calling on Canada to press Havana to legalize independent civil society for effective aid distribution.