BY FEMI FALANA SAN
(Speech delivered at the Rally held by the Nigeria Solidarity Movement with Cuba in Lagos on October 24, 2026)
INTRODUCTION
Following the 1959 Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro made solidarity with Africa a corner stone of the foreign policy of Cuba. Hence, the government developed interest in the anticolonial movements and socialist governments in Africa. In 1961, Cuba sent a military mission to the Kwame Nkrumah government in Ghana. And following the independence of Algeria in 1962, Cuba sent military assistance and medical supplies to the Algerian National Liberation Front. The visit of Ernesto Che Guevara to the progressive movements in the Portuguese colonies in 1964 consolidated the involvement of Cuba in African affairs. A year later, Che Guevara was in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to offer his knowledge and experience as a guerrilla fighter.
CUBA’S SUPPORT FOR LIBERATION STRUGGLE IN AFRICA
Cuba became a strong ally of the defunct Organization for African Unity and the African Union in the struggle against colonialism and apartheid. In justifying Cuba’s internationalist foreign policy and deployment of troops to support anti-colonial and anti-apartheid movements across Africa, Fidel Castro famously stated, “African blood flows freely through our veins. Many of our ancestors came as slaves from Africa to this land. As slaves they struggled a great deal. They fought as members of the Liberating Army of Cuba. We’re brothers and sisters of the people of Africa and we’re ready to fight on their behalf.” On another occasion, the Cuban leader said, “We are a Latin-American nation and a Latin-African nation as well.”
In support of the independence movements that engaged in armed struggle against European colonial powers in Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and Angola, Cuba sent military advisers, fighters and equipment. Thousands of Cuban troops were deployed to support the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) against the invading South African apartheid forces and rival local armed groups sided by the United States and other western governments. Not less than 55,000 Cuban troops took part in the historic battle of Cuito Cuanavale in Angola from 1987–1988. Indeed, it was the military setbacks suffered in the battle field by South Africa that compelled the apartheid regime to enter into the political negotiations that culminated in the independence of Namibia in 1990, and South Africa in 1994.
CUBA’S MEDICAL INTERVENTIONS IN AFRICA
Based on its long-standing history of medical internationalism in Africa, Cuba has sent thousands of medical personnel including doctors and nurses to confront dangerous diseases in many African countries.
During the West African Ebola outbreak in 2014-2015, Cuba provided the largest medical personnel consisting of over 460 health workers (including a contingent of 165 through the World Health Organization) to Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. Many world leaders commended Cuba for the success recorded in combating the Ebola Virus disease while the late Pope Francis lauded the “heroic” doctors, nurses, and volunteers from around the world who traveled to West Africa to contain the “implacable illness”.
In 2020, Cuba dispatched hundreds of medical personnel to African countries to help various governments to combat the Covid 19 pandemic. The medical teams provided frontline support in multiple African countries including South Africa, Angola, Cape Verde, and Togo that were facing serious health crisis. Unlike Western countries that usually recommend mosquito nets and insect killers for combating the scourge of malaria fever, Cuba has collaborated with some African countries to work on vector-control programs to eradicate malaria and dengue. In particular, Cuba has helped countries to build biolarvicide factories, trained local community health agents, and set up primary care frameworks in rural municipalities in Africa.
No doubt, the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 had adverse political and economic impact on Cuba. Notwithstanding the economic difficulties experienced by Cuba, compounded by the crippling sanctions imposed by the United States, the Government has continued to offer bilateral scholarships, fellowships, and grants for international students from various African countries to study Medicine, Engineering, Agronomy, Sciences, Humanities and Technology. Apart from Cuba, no country has provided medical, educational and military assistance to African countries without any strings attached.
GENOCIDAL ATTACKS ON CUBA BY THE UNITED STATES
Cuba is being asphyxiated by the US in order to carry out a regime change that cannot be justified under international law. However, since the economic strangulation of Cuba has not materialised in the collapse of the Cuban government, the US government decided to cook up the charges of conspiracy and murder against Raul Castro and five other Cubans. The planned military aggression is also meant to divert attention from the monumental disgrace suffered by the US in the reckless war being waged against Iran by the US and Israel. To that extent, the sole purpose of the indictment of Raul Castro is to justify military aggression against Cuba. It is a shameful replay of the indictment of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro by U.S. courts, which provided a pretext for the large scale military assault in January 2026 resulting in his abduction.
The unilateral United States economic, commercial, and financial blockade against Cuba since 1962, is illegal and a gross violation of the United Nations Charter which promotes international peace and sovereignty of all countries. In a desperate bid to find justification for its imperialist agenda, the United States added Cuba to its list of countries allegedly sponsoring terrorism. But since the baseless and utterly false accusation has never been proven by the United States, we demand the removal of Cuba from the list of terrorist nations.
No doubt, the US government has realised that another invasion of Cuba would be worse than the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1962. Hence, President Trump decided to impose fresh economic sanctions in a desperate bid to carry out regime change in Cuba. In addition to the blockade of over 60 years, President Trump moved to block oil from reaching Cuba, pushing up prices for food, medicine, transportation and prompting severe fuel shortages and hours of blackouts. A few days, the US Secretary of State, Mr. Marco Rubio openly asked the Cuban people on Twitter for ” a discreet partnership with the CIA” to overthrow the government of Cuba
The incitement followed the statement credited to President Trump in Florida that he was going to send Marco Rubio “to end the deal” with Cuba. The incitement of the United States and the genocidal sanctions imposed on Cuba constitute a provocative infringement of the human rights of the Cuban people to self determination guaranteed by the United Nations Charter.
ILLEGALITY OF ECONOMIC SANCTIONS IMPOSED ON CUBA
The harsh economic sanctions imposed on Cuba by President are allegedly based on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). As if that was not enough, the US government threatened to impose tariffs on any country that exports oil to Cuba. However, in the case of Learning Resources Inc et al vTrump, President of the United States et al No 24-1287 of February 20, 2026, the Supreme Court of the United States held that President Trump’s tariffs that are based on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA)—are unconstitutional.
The judges emphatically stated that the statute does not authorize the use of tariffs and that the President does not have authority to tax. The court specifically stated the power to tax, including the imposition of tariffs, lies exclusively with the US Congress, in accordance with the US Constitution. The implication of the historic judgment is that President Donald Trump’s Executive Order imposing tariffs on countries selling oil to Cuba under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act is illegal, null and void having exceeded the President’s constitutional authority.
Since President Trump has absolute contempt for the rule of law, he has recklessly subjected the Justices of the Supreme Court who delivered the epochal judgment to spurious attacks. We are compelled to call on the Congress of the United States to enforce the judgment by lifting the unilateral sanctions imposed on Cuba by Mr. Trump which have caused humanitarian crisis in Cuba. As the Cuban people have the inalienable right to choose their own political system, the threat of President Trump to force them to adopt capitalism cannot be justified under international law.
The US Congress ought to have realised that humanity allies with the Cuban people in their principled stand to live a life of dignity, free from threats and sanctions, and in accordance with the right of all countries to sovereignty. As no nation should be subjected to external interference, coercive measures, or economic blockades that undermine its sovereignty and the welfare of its people, the US embargo and all sanctions imposed on Cuba should be lifted in accordance with standing UN resolutions and, that the world body should sanction the US, if it fails to do so
ON DUTY OF AFRICAN PEOPLE TO SUPPORT CUBA
It is indisputable that Cuba’s historic internationalism and solidarity with Africa contributed to the defeat of colonialism, and minority rule in Africa. Without expecting any material gain, Cuba shed the blood of its youth for Africa. Not less than 4,300 Cubans paid the supreme sacrifice in conflicts in Africa, with half of them in Angola alone. The thousands of Cuban doctors and other medical personnel sent to Africa and the many African students trained in medicine in Cuba have combined to save the lives of millions of African people.
Having regard to the unquantified contribution of Cuba to the independence struggle of the African people, all African countries owe it a duty to assist Cuba to defend its sovereignty under international law. After all, Cuba is the only country whose heroic youths shed their blood for the liberation and development of African nations. In view of the enormous contribution of the Cuban people to the struggle for independence in Africa, the member states of the African Union must rally round Cuba in defending her sovereignty and right to self- determination. Despite the dubious campaign and blackmail of the Trump administration, African countries owe it a duty to vote at the United Nations from October 27-28, 2026 against the sanctions and embargo imposed on Cuba by the United States without any legal justification.
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