"Cuba poses no threat whatsoever to the United States, not to any country, really, in the world," says Netfa Freeman, a longtime solidarity activist. Unlock the full interview video and transcript by clicking the button below.
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FEATURING NETFA FREEMAN - After decades of sanctions on Cuba, the Trump administration has brought the Caribbean island to the brink, isolating it from most of the world. Cuba has been dealing with massive shortages of food, fuel and medicine, that have left Cubans struggling with day-to-day survival.
Meanwhile Politico reports that a U.S. government source claims the Trump administration is on the verge of launching a military strike on Cuba. Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel responded to such rumors warning that it would “cause a bloodbath with incalculable consequences,” and that it had a right to defend itself from American aggression.
Netfa Freeman is an organizer with Pan-African Community Action (PACA) and on the Coordinating Committee of the Black Alliance for Peace. Netfa is also co-host/producer of the WPFW radio show and podcast Voices With Vision. He has been intimately involved in the movement for solidarity with Cuba since the 90s and spoke with Sonali Kolhatkar about the latest news regarding US-Cuba relations.
ROUGH TRANSCRIPT:
Sonali Kolhatkar: Tell me first how serious the situation is in Cuba. We covered it a little bit earlier this year. Obviously, the island has had to deal with many decades of, they've called it an embargo, sanctions, whatever, just policies that have isolated it.
But the Trump administration ramped it up, and we've seen very dire reports of there being no power, completely dwindling oil supplies. What is the latest situation?
Netfa Freeman: Well, yeah, the situation is very serious, and as you said, it's been serious for a long time. But depending on which administration is in power, it's always been a blockade against Cuba. We refer to it as a blockade because ever since it's been implemented, it has been a multifaceted and protracted act of war against the country.
Now, as you said, the Trump administration has ramped it up. A lot of things on the ground in Cuba are very dire. With their major means of tightening the screws has been the denial of oil to the country, which, of course, with any place, it affects everything. From the ability to transfer food and things across the island, to generating power. Things in, for example, equipment in hospitals. There are just so many facets of life that any country that had to deal with the denial of oil and all forms of oil would have to struggle with, on top of the blockade that it's already been having to deal with for decades.
