A newly renovated turquoise house stands out in tired Havana. Two fruit trees shade its patio; a swing stands on the artificial grass and the front windows are tinted for privacy. An elderly woman sitting by the entrance in a wheelchair was talking to herself. She’s a resident of TaTamanía, Cuba’s first private care home, which opened this spring in the capital’s Vedado district. This type of business was long prohibited under the revolution, but in recent years, a lack of resources has left public care facilities in a critical state.

A former paediatrician, Yadira Álvarez, and her husband, Rolando Pérez, an IT specialist, set up this ‘mipyme’ – the Cuban term for the small and medium enterprises which have sprung up in their thousands since they were authorised in 2021. After the pandemic, Havana liberalised the economy, hoping to prevent its collapse under the combined weight of the US embargo in force since 1962; the ‘maximum pressure’ policy of Donald Trump’s first term, which brought in 243 coercive measures; and the health crisis and a currency reform that caused soaring inflation. This first major change was introduced as the largest anti-government protest movement seen here since 1959 shook the regime, which responded by cracking down harshly on demonstrations.

Havana has been in Washington’s sights even more in Trump’s second term, with the president making repeated threats to ‘take’ the island. On 29 January 2026, three weeks after successfully demanding that the Venezuelan authorities left in place after President Nicolás Maduro’s abduction cease all oil deliveries to Cuba, he declared that the island constitutes ‘an unusual and extraordinary threat … to the national security and foreign policy of the United States’. Any country that supplies hydrocarbons to Cuba now faces US tariffs.

The economic, commercial and financial vice is tightening as Washington expands the scope of its sanctions: since 1 May these have (…)

Full article: 3 567 words.

(2) See Christophe Ventura, ‘Cuba, out in the cold’, Le Monde diplomatique, English edition, March 2026.

(7) First names have been changed.

(8) Ronald Suárez Rivas, ‘¿Qué perspectivas tiene la producción de arroz en Cuba?’ (What’s the outlook for Cuban rice production?) and Freddy Pérez Cabrera, ‘¿Hay manera de recuperar la producción porcina? (I)’ (Is there a way to revive pork production?), Granma, Havana, 2 March and 9 April 2025.

(9) See Maïlys Khider and Jésus Lopes, ‘Far right exploit Cuba’s crisis’, Le Monde diplomatique, English edition, September 2025.