International aid flotilla will sail to Cuba in March

Broad support for an embargo-breaking flotilla to oppose collective punishment imposed by Washington. Jeremy Corbyn: ‘People across the world must stand with the Cuban people.’

Cuba must not be left alone. The response of governments to the oil blockade decided by Trump is overall timid and inadequate, and it is time for the people to intervene. 

For this reason, following the example of the Global Sumud Flotilla for Gaza in 2025, the Progressive International – the organization inspired by Bernie Sanders and Yanis Varoufakis and supported by former British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, US Democratic Representative Rashida Tlaib, and U.S. activist David Adler – has announced the launch of a flotilla with the aim of bringing food, medicine, and other essential goods to Cuba in March, symbolically circumventing the blockade imposed by Washington.

“We are sailing to Cuba,” says the website of the Progressive International, presenting the mission – named “Nuestra América” – which held its first meeting of participants on Sunday. 

Their first official statement says: “The Trump administration is strangling the island, cutting off fuel, flights, and critical supplies for survival,” with “lethal” consequences for the population, particularly for “newborns and parents, for the elderly and the sick.” 

Thus, to force the U.S. embargo – which has been the object of 30 separate demands by the United Nations that it be revoked, the most recent one in October – the flotilla will set sail from multiple points in the Caribbean Sea, where the U.S. military is opening fire on the boats of alleged drug traffickers: there have already been around 40 strikes, the latest on Friday, in which three people were killed, bringing the total to 133 victims in five months.

“When governments enforce collective punishment, ordinary people have a responsibility to act: […] break the siege, bring food and medicine, and […] show that solidarity can cross any border or sea,” said David Adler, who also took part in the flotilla to Gaza. 

And ordinary people have answered the call: from Mexico City to Bogotá, Barcelona and Detroit, volunteers are stepping forward to equip the ships, collect supplies, and “open new routes of solidarity.” 

As highlighted by Thiago Avila, coordinator of the Global Sumud Flotilla, they are doing so in the knowledge that this initiative “will carry more than just aid. By breaking the US siege of the island, the mission carries the message that the Cuban people are not alone.”

“People across the world must stand with the Cuban people, oppose these punitive policies, and demand the right of every nation to live, develop, and determine its own future free from intimidation,” said MP Jeremy Corbyn. As he has pointed out, the U.S. has sought for more than 60 years to stifle the example of a country that, despite relentless economic pressure, has built a universal healthcare system and a life expectancy comparable to or even higher than that of the U.S.

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