In this episode of the Cuba Analysis Podcast, Helen Yaffe and Nina Blodau speak to radical journalist and filmmaker Abby Martin from The Empire Files about the intensifying US war on Cuba, the human cost of the decades-long blockade, political consciousness and how Cuba has resisted US imperialism. Abby tells us about her first experience of visiting Cuba and, more recently, of interviewing Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canel for the new documentary Cuba After Castro, which undermines US propaganda aimed at manufacturing consent for an attack. Abby draws the connections between Cuba, Palestine, and Venezuela, and underscores the importance of solidarity for all those struggling against US imperialism, including domestically.
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In the next episode of Cuba’s Analysis podcast, Nina Blodau speaks with US army veteran Zue Jernstedt, who served in Afghanistan before leaving the army and becoming an anti-imperialist activist. Zue has worked as a human rights observer in the West Bank, participated in the Global Sumud Flotilla to Gaza, and organised with anti-ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) groups in the United States. In March 2026, she met the Cuba Analysis team in Havana during the Nuestra América Global Convoy of international activists who came together to oppose US threats of military aggression against Cuba and to demand an end to the US blockade, recently compounded by a genocidal oil siege.

The conversation connects anti-imperialist struggles in Cuba and Palestine to the US domestic front. Zue discusses how the US military exploits poverty as a recruitment tool, the role of the naval base in illegally occupied Guantanamo Bay as a site for torture, US support for the genocidal Israeli state, and the use of starvation as a weapon of war. She reflects on her own political awakening in Afghanistan, where she realised that far from bringing democracy and women’s rights, the US were pursuing its own imperialist interests. This same logic now targets Cuba, she says, not with bombs but with a blockade that starves the population. More recently, Trump has also threatened Cuba with military attack.

Zue contrasts propaganda about Cuba with the reality she experienced on the ground: free universal healthcare, a strong sense of community, and a society which, despite crushing sanctions, still cares for each other.

Her story is ultimately a call to action. She urges international audiences not to remain passive in the face of imperialism: to engage, to challenge, and to disrupt complacency. As she puts it, “We shall overcome – our day will come. It is absolutely inevitable that we rise up.”

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In this episode of Cuba Analysis, Helen Yaffe sits down with Cuban Ambassador Ismara Mercedes Vargas Walter to discuss recent and escalating threats from the US government under President Trump. These include the designation of Cuba as a threat to US national security, the imposition of an oil blockade, and the threat of military aggression to enforce regime change. The conversation explores the human cost of these measures, from energy shortages and blackouts to the damage inflicted on Cuba’s public healthcare and education systems. These coercive measures expose the real strategy behind US policy towards since 1960, as outlined in a secret memo written by US diplomat Lester Mallory advocating economic warfare to provoke “hunger, desperation and overthrow of government”.

The Ambassador explains how the extraterritorial reach of the US blockade obstructs British entities - from individuals to banks - engaging with Cuba. These restrictions disrupt trade, finance, and everyday diplomatic operations; even the daily functioning of the Cuban embassy in London is affected. This is despite more than a century of stable Cuba-UK relations, spanning from diplomacy to co-operation in science and culture. Despite these challenges, Ambassador Vargas Walter emphasises Cuba’s resilience, highlighting a rapid shift towards renewable energies, strong popular unity and an ongoing commitment to sovereignty and self-determination.

The episode closes by highlighting Cuba’s global contributions in healthcare and education and underscoring why international solidarity to defend Cuba is so important right now.

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