In this article, Current Affairs correspondents Alex Skopic and Nathan J. Robinson focus on refuting slanders against the Nuestra América convoy to Cuba in the U.S. media — mostly the conservative press, which “spun the aid mission into a vanity trip, ignoring the issue of the fuel embargo and its effects,” as they note. The authors went to Cuba in March as part of the convoy, which brought tons of humanitarian aid, including medical supplies, food, bicycles, and solar panels, from about 30 countries around the world. This initiative was organized in response to the siege of Cuba by Washington, which at the end of January intensified its decades-long economic war on the country by blockading virtually all fuel oil from entering the island.

April 3, 2026
[an article from Current Affairs with an introduction and photos from World-Outlook]

We have both seen things that will be permanently burned into our minds. People moving around in the shadows like ghosts. Mounds of foul-smelling trash in the street, with sanitation workers in the few running trucks overwhelmed by the task of collecting it — and worse, old men picking through the heaps, looking for anything they can use or sell.

Live fish dying slowly in tanks filled with stagnant green water. Shopkeepers losing all of their refrigerated and frozen food. Taxi drivers calling out desperately for a fare, because tourism to the island has shrunk to a trickle. Restaurants having to close in the middle of a busy dinner service after losing power mid-meal. The look of worry on medical workers’ faces, as they contemplate rationing their remaining antibiotics or painkillers.