02/18/2026
In 1984, Cuba granted political asylum to Black revolutionary Assata Shakur, pledging to keep her safe despite her designation as a domestic terrorist on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. Surviving decades of assassination threats and a $2 million bounty, Assata took her last breath on September 25, 2025 under the protection of the Cuban government and its people.
Since 1962, Cuba and its people have endured severe economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. government to force them into submission due to their revolutionary sacrifices, political commitments, and powerful examples of international solidarity. Following the capture of Venezuela’s political leadership last month, the U.S. seized all oil previously supplied to Cuba from Venezuela and imposed an illegal oil blockade, preventing any country that trades with the U.S. from supplying oil directly to Cuba under threat of US sanctions.
While we recognize this latest illegal oil blockade as yet another attempt to punish this resilient nation into submission, we remember Cuba as a country that refused to bow down to the American imperial machine, choosing instead resistance and political asylum for our revolutionaries. In Assata’s autobiography, she described Cuba as a land of “hope”. Ongoing efforts to manufacture poverty and misery are direct attacks at the strength and history of this nation.
