Ben Rhodes

And the theme is places that are on the verge of collapse here.

In Latin America, we should note, you know, this is kind of clearly where post the Maduro ouster, Trump and Marco Rubio focused on Cuba.

and really have cracked down on, it's already a decades long embargo on Cuba, briefly interrupted by me in the Obama years for a couple of years when we normalize things and open things up a bit.

But Cubans are suffering immensely.

And I just want to spotlight

much cubans are suffering from this kind of blockade that has now spread very much to cutting off any oil getting in gas and fuel supplies have been cut off that's causing long blackouts that's leading to fuel shortages havana's airport is out of jet fuel um there's a recent op-ed from two friends of mine emily mandrala and maria jose espinoza and el pais that was published today they kind of go through this humanitarian crisis they analyze satellite imagery

And they found, for instance, that light levels, so the ability of electricity, fell by 50% in January, right?

So people don't have electricity.

That has impacts on hospitals.

That has impacts on people's ability to have basic needs met.

You've had this kind of collapse in Cuba's GDP.

You've had Cubans protesting, but, you know,

As in Iran, like the government still has the guns.

Right.

And so you're seeing more and more people criticizing this international community.

The U.N.

human rights chief Volker Turk has criticized the sanctions and asked the countries not hold back oil deliveries to Cuba in line with Trump's demands.

Mexico is providing some humanitarian aid.

Claudia Sheinbaum's been outspoken about this.

Pedro Sanchez in Spain, I saw, is going to start to provide some assistance.