Statement by Ambassador Rodolfo Benítez Verson, on the Report Presented by the Special Rapporteur on Unilateral Coercive Measures

Statement by Ambassador Rodolfo Benítez Verson, Permanent Representative of Cuba, on the Report Presented by the Special Rapporteur on Unilateral Coercive Measures Following her Visit to Cuba to Assess the Impact of the Blockade Imposed by The United States. 63rd Regular Session of the Human Rights Council. Geneva, September 9, 2026.

Mr. President,

The United States claims that there is neither a blockade nor an energy siege against Cuba. The Special Rapporteur's report exposes the liar.

Based on solid evidence documented during her visit to Cuba, the Special Rapporteur has concluded that they not only exist, but are also steadily intensifying and causing enormous harm.

It also demonstrates that this policy flagrantly, massively, and systematically violates the human rights of Cubans, including the rights to food, health, education, development, and life.

There can be no greater cynicism than suffocating a people and blaming others. The Rapporteur's report proves that the United States is lying when it seeks to hold Cuba responsible for the consequences of its cruel actions.

The Rapporteur found that, despite the sustained efforts of the Cuban Government to protect the population and mitigate their effects, the United States' coercive measures are of such magnitude and persistence that they cause shortages of essential goods and services in Cuban households.

Washington maintains that its policy toward Cuba is lawful and that the blockade is exclusively a bilateral matter. The Rapporteur's thorough legal analysis categorically refutes that claim. It demonstrates that the blockade must be lifted because it violates International Law and infringes upon the sovereignty and jurisdiction of other States.

The Special Rapporteur's report is objective and factual. We support its important recommendations. We will implement those that concern Cuba. The United States Government must implement those that concern it.

The assessment presented by the Special Rapporteur is consistent with what many other Independent Experts, Special Rapporteurs, and Working Groups of the Human Rights Council have denounced. None has defended the United States. All have called for the immediate end to its siege against Cuba.

Mr. President,

The deliberate and malevolent aim of the United States is to inflict extreme hardship and completely suffocate Cuban families. They seek to bring about a humanitarian tragedy in order to destabilize the country and achieve their political objectives.

Since last January, the United States has imposed a brutal energy siege on Cuba, constituting an unprecedented tightening of the blockade. It threatens reprisals against any country that supplies oil to the Island. Fuel shortages have had a devastating impact on almost every area of society.

Due to the lack of electricity and supplies, the national health system is forced to postpone non-urgent surgeries in order to prioritize life-saving ones. More than 100,000 patients are waiting for surgery, including 12,000 children. The survival rate of children with cancer has fallen from 85 percent to 65 percent. The infant mortality rate has risen from 4.4 per thousand live births in 2018 to 9.9 in 2025. Of the 395 medicines Cuba produces as part of its basic health system formulary, 300 are unavailable due to difficulties in accessing raw materials.

Behind these figures are human beings and the immense pain and anguish of Cuban families.

The architects of this policy of genocide and collective punishment celebrate as successes the agony of a Cuban mother who loses a child for lack of medicines. They rejoice when our elderly people have no ambulance available in an emergency. They take pleasure in prolonged power outages, high food prices, and difficulties with water supplies and other basic services.

Washington officials — experts in finding ways to strangle the Cuban people — have also put in place, since May 1, a comprehensive scheme of secondary sanctions against entities and individuals in third countries merely because they have ties with Cuba.

They have gone to unprecedented extremes to amplify the extraterritorial effects of their multidimensional war against our country.

The effects are severe. Suffice it to mention that more than 7,000 containers, most of them carrying food, medicines, and medical devices, remain stranded in different countries and cannot be transported to Cuba because of intimidation against shipping companies.

The sophisticated methods of suffocation against the Cuban population that the United States has developed in recent months far exceed the pressure exerted against the country for decades. Its cruelty knows no bounds.

As a result, the Cuban people have suffered a deterioration in their quality of life and incalculable humanitarian harm.

No people deserve, nor should ever be subjected to, such punishment simply for upholding their right to self‑determination. But they will not break us. They will have to answer to history, and the Cuban people will never forgive them.

Mr. President,

Added to the extensive list of measures aimed at drastically tightening the blockade is the recurrent use of a highly threatening and confrontational narrative against Cuba by the highest echelons of the current U.S. Government.

Cuba is under threat of military aggression. As a pretext, the United States goes so far as to absurdly designate our small island as an alleged threat to the security of that military superpower.

The notion that Cuba could pose a danger defies common sense in light of the disproportionate military might of the country that spends more than any other on war, possesses more than 5,200 nuclear weapons, 13,000 military aircraft, and 1,200 military bases in 80 countries, including the Guantánamo Naval Base, on illegally occupied Cuban territory.

There can be no justification whatsoever for attacking Cuba, nor for imposing inhumane coercive measures whose humanitarian impact is comparable to that of war. Cuba is not a threat; the blockade is!

Our country does not want war, which would cause a bloodbath. On the contrary, we stand for peace. But if there is an aggression—which we hope will never happen—our people will defend their independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity to the very end.

Mr. President,

Remaining silent in the face of what is being done to Cuba today weakens International Law and makes the planet even more insecure.

Let us not forget that much of the world looked the other way when the horrors of the genocide in Gaza were unfolding, and today we all have to bear the terrible consequences. The United States seeks to turn Cuba into a silent Gaza. It must be prevented.

Silence or indifference puts us all at risk. Before, it was Gaza. Today, it is Cuba. Tomorrow, it could be any of the nations represented here.

Cuba will not surrender! Our people will move forward, because their resilience, creativity, and determination cannot be blockaded. We will achieve this through our own efforts and resources, and with the solidarity and support of all those around the world who defend just causes.

As our National Hero José Martí said: “A just principle, from the depths of a cave, can do more than an army.”

We shall prevail, because right and reason are on Cuba’s side.

Thank you.