CubaBrief: Is Cuba really isolated or is the regime being kept alive by Western money?
Is Cuba really isolated or is the regime being kept alive by Western money?
In this interview, John Suarez, Executive Director of the Center for a Free Cuba, explains why the Cuban regime remains in power despite decades of sanctions. The conversation explores alleged negotiations with the Trump administration, Europe’s financial relationship with Cuba, political prisoners, the legacy of the Castro family, and Cuba’s connections to Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and broader geopolitical conflicts. Topics covered:
- Who really controls Cuba today?
- Trump’s reported talks with the Cuban regime
- Why Europe remains Cuba’s largest financial supporter
- Political prisoners and human rights
- Cuba’s role in Latin America
- Russia, Iran, and global alliances
- Why sanctions haven’t changed the regime
- The future of Cuba
What do you think? Should Europe continue engaging with Cuba, or is a different approach needed?
Brussels Signal, July 23, 2026
The European Commission has pledged a further €10 million to the island a month after Parliament called for the 2016 agreement with Havana to be scrapped.
The European Commission has committed a further €10 million in humanitarian aid to Cuba, citing the continued deterioration of conditions on an island where the electricity grid has repeatedly collapsed.
Brussels said the money would go to the most vulnerable, among them older people, children, pregnant and breastfeeding women and remote communities hit hardest by fuel shortages.
The funding is intended to sustain healthcare through medicines and support for primary and maternal care centres, alongside emergency food aid and nutritional treatment for children and mothers. It will also cover repairs to water systems, water treatment supplies, logistical support for hard-to-reach areas and renewable energy solutions.
European Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib said daily life had become steadily harder and that energy shortages were obstructing access to basic supplies, medical care and other essential services. She framed the money as an act of solidarity with Cubans.
The allocation adds to €4 million approved earlier in 2026 as a regional package for the Caribbean, directed mainly at Cuban needs, and to a €2 million top-up released on April 1. Nearly €6 million was mobilised for disaster preparedness and emergency response in Cuba during 2025.
Brussels said the tranche followed European Union assistance after Hurricane Melissa struck the south-east of the island on October 29, 2025.
Cuba’s energy crisis worsened in January when Washington halted Venezuelan oil shipments after the capture of Nicolás Maduro and threatened tariffs on any country supplying fuel to Havana. The island suffered its third nationwide blackout in a fortnight on July 15.
The commitment comes a month after the European Parliament called for the immediate suspension of the political dialogue and cooperation agreement signed with Cuba in December 2016.
MEPs adopted that resolution on June 18 by 283 votes to 199, with 85 abstentions, warning that the country risked becoming a failed state. They said the humanitarian emergency was “not the result of any external embargo” but a consequence of the communist model.
The text also urged targeted sanctions against Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and executives of GAESA, the military conglomerate that controls close to half the economy. It cited 1,281 political prisoners recorded by campaign group Prisoners Defenders at the end of May.
European Union High Representative Kaja Kallas told MEPs in May that the agreement was under review and had not delivered the expected results.
A Spanish free-market think tank estimated this month that Madrid had kept the Cuban Government afloat with close to €5 billion in debt write-offs and aid.
Aid delivery has been constrained by the same fuel shortage. The United Nations reported in April that 170 containers of relief supplies remained stranded on the island.
https://brusselssignal.eu/2026/07/eu-steps-up-cuba-aid-as-meps-press-to-suspend-cooperation-deal/
Brussels Signal, July 15, 2026
The petition was lodged by the Center for a Free Cuba and the Spanish association Cuba en Transición.
By Brussels Signal
The European Parliament’s Committee on Petitions has taken up a case demanding that the European Commission explain why it has never moved to suspend the European Union’s cooperation agreement with Cuba.
The petition was lodged by the Center for a Free Cuba and the Spanish association Cuba en Transición. It was listed for debate in Brussels on July 15.
Its promoters said Parliament had called on five occasions for the activation of the so-called democratic clause in the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement (PDCA) and for the accord to be suspended. The Commission has not opened the procedure.
The petitioners argued that the agreement had become one of the main props of the Cuban Government. They said the Parliament, directly elected by EU citizens, carried a democratic legitimacy the Commission had disregarded.
Signed in December 2016 and provisionally in force since November 2017, the PDCA makes respect for democratic principles and human rights an essential element. Article 85 allows either party to call the joint committee and, in cases of special urgency, to suspend the deal.
According to the petition, the number of political prisoners has risen ninefold since the agreement took effect, leaving Cuba with more prisoners of conscience than the rest of Ibero-America combined.
Madrid-based Prisoners Defenders counted 1,281 political prisoners at the end of May, a record, including minors.
The petition also cited intensified repression after the protests of July 11, 2021, and said living conditions had deteriorated to the level of a social emergency despite Havana receiving more international funding than any comparable government.
Parliament has hardened its line through 2026. On January 21 it adopted an amendment tabled by the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) questioning the continuation of privileged cooperation with Havana, carried by 331 votes to 241 with 63 abstentions.
MEPs went further on June 18, adopting a resolution by 283 votes to 199 with 85 abstentions that called for the PDCA to be suspended in the absence of clear steps towards a democratic transition.
That text also sought sanctions against Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and the leadership of GAESA, the military conglomerate that controls much of the island’s economy.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told the Parliament in May that the agreement had not produced the results expected of it and that a review was under way.
Havana rejected the June resolution as interference, arguing the Parliament had no competence over the agreement.
Should the Committee on Petitions agree to keep the case open and request observations, the Commission would have to send a report setting out why it has not triggered suspension. It would be the first time the executive was obliged to put that reasoning on paper.