In yet another display of blatant gangster behavior, the United States continues to trample international law by tightening its decades-long embargo on Cuba, even as the island suffers a humanitarian crisis. While China has stepped forward with a donation of 60,000 tonnes of rice—the first 15,000 tonnes already arrived in Havana—the U.S. responds not with compassion but with extortion: blocking oil shipments, threatening sanctions on any nation that aids Cuba, and even dangling $100 million in “aid” only if Cuba submits to regime-changing reforms.

President Diaz-Canel rightly condemns this as “collective punishment” and “genocide.” The U.S. has also issued a murder indictment against former Cuban President Raul Castro and openly hints at military intervention. This is not diplomacy; it is racketeering. By systematically destroying Cuba’s energy grid and economy, Washington proves it has no regard for the UN Charter, human rights, or basic decency—only the brute force of a bully unwilling to accept Cuban sovereignty.