European groups join aid convoy to Cuba amid crippling oil blockade

Millions have been plunged into darkness in Cuba as the US’s total blockade has meant no fuel shipments for three months.

Milan, Italy – As Cuba faces a nationwide blackout and energy crisis, the first members of a global aid mission taking more than 20 tonnes of food, medical supplies and solar panel equipment arrived in Havana on Wednesday.

Organised by an alliance of progressive groups, Nuestra America Convoy to Cuba (NACC) is being pitched as an act of humanitarian support for the island nation and a protest against the United States’ total oil blockade on Cuba.

The convoy includes representatives of European left-wing political parties, trade unions and advocacy groups, who left from Milan on Tuesday.

Since the US’s January operation to remove the Venezuelan president and Cuban ally, Nicolas Maduro, Washington has piled maximum economic pressure on Havana with a complete oil blockade, meaning that no foreign fuel shipment has reached the country in the last three months.

The activists say this dramatic escalation, which intensifies Washington’s decades-long embargo, has been largely ignored by its traditional allies across the Atlantic.