All Out to Defend Revolutionary Cuba!
Hands Off Cuba!

Ottawa, May 1, 2026

The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) vehemently condemns the new sanctions U.S. President Trump ordered against Cuba on May 1. On May 1 the White House issued the new sanctions by Executive Order, using emergency powers of the President. The order imposes new sanctions on entities, persons or affiliates that support Cuba, declaring that "the President is addressing the national security threats posed by communist Cuba." The irrational justification includes that Cuba "aligns itself with countries and malicious actors hostile to the United States." It repeats numerous U.S. imperialist lies that Cuba facilitates military and intelligence operations of "hostile" countries; that "Cuba maintains close ties to other major state sponsors of terrorism, including the Government of Iran, and provides safe haven for transnational terrorist groups, including Hezbollah." It claims that "Cuba provides a permissive environment for hostile foreign intelligence, military, and terrorist operations less than 100 miles from the American homeland." This last point alludes to U.S. claims about China using Cuban territory to spy on the U.S., a claim that is unsubstantiated and denied by both Cuba and China.

Furthermore, the U.S., the country that operates the torture detention centre in Guantanamo, absurdly justifies its illegal sanctions regime by accusing Cuba of persecuting and torturing political opponents and actively spreading communist ideology across the region while repressing its people. As of January 2025, the U.S. had detained at least 780 people from 48 countries at its Guantanamo prison and torture camp, without charge or trial. At least nine detainees have died while in custody, outside the bounds of U.S. laws and beyond the reach of media or rule of law of any kind.

U.S. President Donald Trump, in an attempt to divert from U.S. failure to take over Iran and prevail in the Strait of Hormuz, has also once again threatened military action against Cuba. As the U.S. aircraft carrier the USS Abraham Lincoln, the largest in the world, is limping back from deployment in the Persian Gulf, incapable of carrying out its mission as part of the attempted U.S. naval blockade of Iran, Trump declared it could be redeployed to "taking over [Cuba] almost immediately." Trump made the following absurd statement: "Now Cuba's got problems [...] on the way back from Iran, we'll have one of our big, maybe the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier -- the biggest in the world, will have that come in. Stop about 100 yards offshore, and they'll say, 'thank you very much. We give up.'"

It is a typical Trump statement, as absurd as it is meaningless. The answer to his threat was given over a century ago, in 1885, when Antonio Maceo, the "Bronze Titan" and hero of the Cuban wars of independence, said, "Whoever tries to take power over Cuba will only get the dust of its soil, drenched in blood, if he doesn't perish in the struggle." It has been reiterated time and time again up to today. In a recent interview with NBC News, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel repeated that he won't resign (as demanded by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio). In the face of constant U.S. threats of "taking over" Cuba and forcing the President's resignation, Díaz-Canel said, "I have no fear. I am willing to give my life for the Revolution." He also said that his government is able to resist pressure from the cut-off of oil supplies and to defend Cuba from a U.S. military attack. He reiterated that Cuba wants a dialogue with the United States, peace and an agreement to "move away from confrontation."

As concerns Trump's reference to the USS Abraham Lincoln, it is known that the aircraft carrier had to be withdrawn from the naval blockade of Iran due to operating systems failures. Nonetheless, CPC(M-L) calls on Canadians and Quebeckers to take the U.S. threat of military aggression against Cuba seriously. Besides the lawless actions of the U.S. administration, Marco Rubio himself is driven by a savage spirit of revenge to make Cuba pay for refusing to submit to U.S. dictate. The U.S. continues to escalate its hostile blockade and illegal sanctions regime against Cuba under the most preposterous unsubstantiated claim that Cuba's socialist system is a threat to U.S. national security and it is important to unite Canadians and Quebeckers behind the demand that the government of Canada not conciliate with the sanctions in any way, shape or form or reiterate the U.S. fabricated justifications which it claims warrant the sanctions and aggression against Cuba.

All Out to Defend Revolutionary Cuba!

Hands Off Cuba! End the Blockade Now!

Ottawa, May 1, 2026

(Photos: TML, YDR)

40th Anniversary of the Chernobyl Nuclear Tragedy

Crucial Humanitarian Aid Provided by Cuba
Will Never Be Forgotten

– Diane Johnston –

Fidel receiving children from Chernobyl in 1990

April 26, 2026 marked the 40th anniversary of the April 26, 1986 nuclear tragedy in Chernobyl in Ukraine. Following that tragedy the Cuban government organized a humanitarian program that provided medical care to over 26,000 Ukrainians, most of them children.

On the 35th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster on April 26, 2021, in a statement to the special commemorative meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the Cuban delegation stated that "the terrible nuclear accident at Chernobyl affected the lives of thousands of people, particularly in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia; and for the first time tested the response of the international community to such a catastrophe.

"Chernobyl is a name linked to the tragedy of lives that were lost or changed forever; and is also linked to international cooperation, one of the purposes of the United Nations Charter, in this case to provide humanitarian assistance to those affected by the nuclear disaster.

"Cuba is deeply honored to have been among the first countries to respond to the request for international assistance and to have contributed to the response to the disaster and its aftermath for many years.

"Cuba was the only country to organize a comprehensive health program, massive and free of charge, for the care of children affected by the Chernobyl accident. Of the more than 25,000 people treated in Cuba between 1990 and 2011, 21,340 were children, many of whom had had their hopes dashed, had been denied treatment in other parts of the world, or had come from boarding schools for children without family support."

The delegation also noted that "most of the children with onco-hematological diseases treated in Cuba through this program are in perfect health.

"The program for the treatment of children affected by the Chernobyl catastrophe is one more example of our humanitarian and internationalist policy, which is based on the principle of sharing what we have, not giving what we have to spare.

"This program was sustained, even in the worst years of our economy, in the 1990s, and despite the onslaught of the criminal economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States.

"The children of Tarará, as we affectionately call in Cuba these thousands of boys and girls who were treated in that student summer resort, will always have a friendly people in ours."

This year, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary, UN Secretary General António Guterres addressed the Commemorative Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in Observance of the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl Disaster. After pointing out that some 350,000 people across the region were forced to flee their homes, he said that besides remembering the suffering, trauma and displacement that people endured: "We remember how this tragedy revealed the best of the human spirit."

The Secretary General then spoke of the "first responders, firefighters, liquidators, and medical workers who responded to the emergency" and the "multinational, long-term recovery efforts that followed," the "tireless work of scientists, engineers and academics who collected and analyzed evidence about how this disaster happened -- and how it could be prevented in the future" and "the work of the United Nations that mobilized global partners and donors to support the recovery" by "providing emergency and humanitarian aid."

"Perhaps most of all," he said, "Chernobyl underscores the vital importance of countries working together, and sharing information and experiences."

But not once did he mention all the efforts made by the Cuban government and its people to come to the aid of Ukraine and other countries of the then Soviet Union. As well, in the coverage of that anniversary in Quebec, in three articles printed in Le Devoir on the anniversary, Cuba was also not mentioned, despite all the attacks on that people and nation by the U.S. administration and its accusations that Cuba abuses human rights and the like, about which the Canadian state remains silent despite all evidence to the contrary. Shame on the Secretary General of the United Nations and the media in Canada! Despite their silence, Cuba's record of humanitarian aid will not be forgotten by the thousands of oppressed peoples it has helped.