In April, Ottawa modestly increased its humanitarian aid to Cuba, a country that has endured rolling blackouts, food shortages and a strained health-care system for months.
Experts say U.S. sanctions have sharply intensified Cuba’s crisis, though decades of mismanagement by Havana are also to blame.
“The American policy has just created a terrible humanitarian crisis for Cuba,” said Archibald Ritter, a professor at Carleton University whose research focuses on Cuba’s economy.
“I cannot forgive the Trump administration for hitting a country that’s already suffering, for hitting it when it’s down.”
At the same time, Ritter argues the crisis has been exacerbated by the “messed-up economic strategy” of the Cuban government.
Michael Bustamante, a University of Miami professor who specializes in Cuban affairs, agrees.
“It’s impossible to isolate the effects of U.S. sanctions entirely from also the cumulative effects of a Cuban economic model that is broken and doesn’t work internally,” said Bustamante.
A country under strain
Cuba’s energy crisis worsened dramatically this year after the Trump administration threatened tariffs and sanctions on any country supplying oil to Cuba. The move is part of a broader campaign to force economic and political change in the communist state.
A Reuters analysis published in April found Cuba’s crude imports had fallen from more than two million barrels a month in early 2025 to almost nothing.
“Since January, the pressure on Cuba’s energy imports has skyrocketed,” said Bustamante.
“Most governments seem to have taken [the U.S. threats] seriously,” he said.
Cuba is particularly vulnerable because a majority of Cuba’s electricity generation relies on imported oil.
“Cutting off … energy supply, which generates electricity, which makes transportation function, which fuels factories, and so on, that has had a disastrous impact on people’s living standards, on economic activity, and on tourism,” said Ritter.
A spokesperson for the Cuban embassy in Ottawa highlighted the severe impacts.
“Hospitals have had to ration energy for critical equipment,” the spokesperson told Canadian Affairs in an emailed statement. “Families struggle with basic cooking and refrigeration, compounding vulnerabilities for the elderly, children, pregnant women, and those with chronic illnesses.”
Cuba also relies on other countries for other essential goods. It imports between 70 and 80 per cent of the food consumed by its population, says Bustamante.
“[Cuba] put investment in tourism disproportionately, incredibly, and not in agriculture where it was needed,” Ritter said.
Canada’s cautious response
On April 17, Global Affairs Canada announced $5.5-million in international assistance for Cuba. The funds will go to the Pan American Health Organization and the World Food Programme.
This funding comes on top of an additional $8-million in aid provided earlier this year through the World Food Programme and UNICEF. On average, Canada has provided $6.8-million in aid a year to Cuba over the last five years.
Organizations such as UNICEF, the World Food Programme and charities are now filling gaps once covered by Cuba’s own social welfare state, says Bustamante.
“ That’s an irony that’s not lost on the Cuban people that were raised — at least if they were around before the 1990s — on a social welfare state that was cradle-to-grave in providing a baseline level of support,” said Bustamante.
Canada’s language around the crisis has been cautious. In its public statements, Ottawa has avoided directly blaming U.S. sanctions for the humanitarian deterioration.
That caution reflects the political sensitivity of the Cuba file, Bustamante says.
“Governments, whether it’s Mexico or Canada or Spain … are going to be treading very, very cautiously,” he said.
The Cuban embassy, by contrast, directly blamed the crisis on what it described as a “genocidal economic, commercial, and financial blockade imposed by the United States government for more than 60 years.”
The embassy spokesperson claimed recent American measures amounted to an “energy warfare strategy” intended to “asphyxiate” Cuba’s economy.
“The Government of Cuba views Canada’s recent humanitarian assistance with gratitude and as an example of principled solidarity between friendly peoples, aligned with our historic fraternal ties,” the embassy spokesperson said.
Global Affairs Canada declined to answer whether Ottawa believes U.S. sanctions are responsible for the crisis. Canada’s longstanding position is that “dialogue, respect for international law, and peaceful engagement are essential to addressing complex situations,” the spokesperson said.
A familiar divide
Unlike the United States, Canada has maintained diplomatic relations with Cuba continuously since the revolution that transformed Cuba from a free-market economy to a communist state in the 1950s.
Ritter argues Canada should maintain its independence on this file.
“I think this is a situation in which the middle powers need to act,” he said. “I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect the rest of the world to knuckle under to a United States policy towards Cuba.”
“ I think we do share the U.S. opinion of Cuba’s political system,” said Ritter. “But it is not reasonable to punish Cuban citizens the way American policy is doing at this time.”
The White House itself appears to be balancing pressure on Cuba against concerns about instability and mass migration from the island, says Bustamante. The federal government is channeling modest humanitarian aid to Cuba, primarily through Catholic charities.
“The United States is walking a very, very delicate line with the degree of economic coercion it’s exercising,” he said.
At the same time, Bustamante cautions against reducing the crisis to a simple morality play.
“I think the United States is weaponizing humanitarian suffering here,” he said. “But I don’t think that gives the Cuban government a pass on its human rights record. It doesn’t give the Cuban government a pass on its disastrous economic mismanagement.”
