“It is a medieval siege,” the Swiss diplomat said, comparing Cuba’s complex current situation to that of an ancient castle from that era surrounded by enemy soldiers—where the drawbridge cannot be lowered to allow wagons carrying goods and food to enter and conduct normal trade.

“That suffocates you,” the European ambassador emphasized while speaking with Prensa Latina on the sidelines of the presentation of the fifth edition of the National Economy Report by the Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy (CEEC) at the University of Havana.

The document, produced by a team of CEEC experts, notes that the first half of 2026 was marked by the maximum intensification of US sanctions against Cuba—a situation that has solidified into the most potent form of warfare without conventional weapons in the modern era.

The text points out that the perverse combination of the energy blockade imposed last January, the financial targeting of all Cuban commercial activities, coercive interference regarding third countries, and the threat of possible military intervention has pushed a population of 9.5 million people to the brink of a humanitarian crisis and into unprecedented levels of uncertainty.

According to the CEEC report, the defining characteristic of the first half of 2026 in Cuba was not merely the continuation of the crisis, but the emergence of a US government sanctions system that simultaneously impacted the Antillean nation’s energy, trade, tourism, investment, and financial sectors.

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