Cuba

[A video about Cuba, hosted on the PeerTube server CuddlyTube, from the news/video collective Belly Of The Beast]

Hurricane Melissa tore through Santiago de Cuba with winds over 120 mph — uprooting trees and flooding neighborhood.

Despite the destruction, no lives were lost thanks in part to Cuba’s Civil Defense system, which evacuated hundreds of thousands before landfall.

Now, as the city begins to clean up, people are helping each other rebuild — even as the country faces deep economic challenges.

🎥 Reported on the ground by Liz Oliva Fernández for Belly of the Beast, in collaboration with #BreakThroughNews

[In Spanish, with English subtitles]

[A video about Cuba, hosted on the PeerTube server CuddlyTube, from the news/video collective Belly Of The Beast]

They lost everything to Hurricane Melissa — but not their strength. This is how Cubans in Guamá are rebuilding, together.

Reported on the ground by Liz Oliva Fernández for Belly of the Beast, in collaboration with Breakthrough News

[In Spanish, with English subtitles]

November 5, 2025 [from the Belly Of The Beast news/video collective]

Also:

• Our documentary video Health Under Sanction is now online! [for more info, see https://expressional.social/@Peter_Link/115469942650100842]
• US offers aid to Cuba but obstructs relief efforts
• Analysis: Why 7 countries voted against Cuba's #UN resolution
• Cuba's former ally Ukraine downgrades diplomatic relations
• Former Cuban minister charged with espionage

Melissa struck with fury. We respond with solidarity.

At the end of October, Hurricane Melissa tore through eastern Cuba as a Category 4 storm with winds reaching 135 mph. Entire provinces ...are devastated. Families are displaced, homes destroyed, clinics are overwhelmed. But not a single life was lost due to Cuba's evacuation of 700,000.

The storm has passed, but the emergency to supply housing reconstruction, materials, potable water, essential food and medicine has only begun.

... Cuba’s hospitals were already short on sutures, antibiotics and basic wound care. Now, they face a surge of trauma patients with no supplies to treat them.

By Salim Lamrani
November 1, 2025

Unanimously condemned by the international community every year since 1992, this state of siege seriously affects the well-being of the entire Cuban population—particularly the most vulnerable—and remains the main obstacle to the country's development. From March 2024 to February 2025, US economic sanctions cost Cuba $7.55 billion—a 50 percent increase compared to the previous year—representing more than $20 million per day and nearly $15,000 per minute.

That amount is equivalent to the electricity consumption of Cuba's 10 million inhabitants for six years. With the same sum, Cuba could fill every household's grocery basket for six years, cover the nation's medical needs for 22 years, or guarantee public transportation for the next six decades.