Are we witnessing the final hours of the Castro regime, which has been under US embargo since 1962? That is the question. Cuba’s economic crisis has been significantly exacerbated by new US sanctions imposed by Donald Trump and the sudden halt in oil imports from Venezuela since the removal of Nicolás Maduro.

Washington is hoping for a change of regime before the end of the year and is threatening Latin American countries that wish to send oil to Cuba with tariff sanctions. Claudia Sheinbaum’s Mexico has sent humanitarian aid, Lula’s Brazil has denounced a ‘massacre’, but neither dares to defy the US embargo. As for Miguel Díaz-Canel’s Cuban government, which is seeking to maintain dialogue with Washington ‘without pressure or interference’, it is extremely fragile: the Cuban economy, dependent on imports and tourism, is slowing down, the peso is collapsing and the country, already affected by a massive exodus of its inhabitants, is facing a profound social and health crisis.

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