The first ship from the Nuestra América flotilla has arrived in Havana, Cuba. Sailing from Mexico for the last 5 days and bearing much needed aid, including medical supplies and sanitary products, it’s part of the Nuestra América convoy. Hundreds of activists from Europe, South America and the United States have joined that convoy, travelling to Cuba to stand in solidarity with the Cuban people as they endure a prolonged, US-imposed energy blockade. Onboard was Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila, no stranger to such flotillas having travelled to Gaza last year in the Global Sumud flotilla. Their attempt to break the siege on the enclave was thwarted by the Israeli military, with hundreds of people taken into Israeli custody. The flotilla “shows that the people of the world will never leave Cuba alone”, Ávila told Novara Media, “And that we do not fear US imperialism, and we don’t accept to be ruled by big banks, the military-industrial complex or the Epstein syndicate. Never.” Ávila went on: “We are going to mobilise for the just causes in this world - just as Cuba always did.” The siege of Cuba has seen rolling blackouts since January 2026, when US president Donald Trump blocked the shipment of oil from Venezuela to the island while threatening sanctions against any other country that tried to intervene. That culminated in an island-wide blackout last Monday, and another on Saturday. Now, water supplies in some parts of the country have been affected too. Yet the international community has done little to ease the siege of the island. Speaking in Havana over the weekend, former Labour party leader and Your Party MP Jeremy Corbyn had this message for the British government: “Stand up to Donald Trump, stand up to the USA, and say we don’t accept your blockade of Cuba. We recognise and have always traded with Cuba. They should be ensuring that oil gets through to Cuba.” Almost totally reliant on imported oil, the blockade has created an economic and material crisis in Cuba. Food prices have rapidly increased, transport has ground to a halt and tens of thousands of operations have been delayed as Cuba’s hospitals struggle to access medicines and electricity. Meanwhile, Cuba’s deputy foreign minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio has told journalists the country is readying itself for potential US aggression. “Our military is always prepared, and in fact it is preparing these days for the possibility of military aggression,” he said, adding that it would be “naive” not to, given “what’s happening around the world”. Also disembarking the flotilla to cheers and singing from the crowd at Havana Harbour was US activist Olivia DiNuccio. Asked about country’s aggression towards Cuba, she said “My own tax dollars go to this. The US war machine takes all our money, and yet that money should be given to the people and the planet.

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