Why Cuba is collapsing under Trump’s blockade
This Is Why
Sky News
4.0 • 552 Ratings
🗓️ 20 April 2026
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
First it was Venezuela, then Iran. Is Cuba next on Donald Trump's hit list?
The US navy has been anchored off the Caribbean coast since the start of the year, preventing supplies of oil and food from the outside world.
As a consequence, the island has been brought to its knees - with electrical blackouts, food rationing and fears for the future.
Sky News chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay joins Niall to discuss life under the blockade in Havana and what fate awaits the nation, as President Trump threatens military intervention.
Have you got a question for Niall? Email the show: why@sky.uk
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Sky News, the full story first. |
| 0:10.0 | Donald Trump's oil blockade has brought a country to its knees, but we're not talking about Iran, instead Cuba. |
| 0:19.0 | And this is why. |
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| 1:09.5 | Because have you heard about the United States blockade of Cuba? |
| 1:13.5 | Donald Trump's navy has been anchored off its coast since the beginning of the year, |
| 1:17.3 | and it's choking the life out of this communist Caribbean island. |
| 1:22.8 | Before the Trump administration, we had problems, he says. |
| 1:26.4 | But this has been worse, much worse. |
| 1:29.6 | Indeed, oil, food, medicine, almost everything is running out. This is a country where the lights |
| 1:35.8 | are off as often as they're on. Now, if that sounds dramatic, it's because it is. And it's complicated |
| 1:41.7 | by the fact this was no communist utopia to begin with. |
| 1:45.5 | They aren't happy with their lives, but they don't see Donald Trump as their savior. |
| 1:49.3 | They prefer Cuba to do better, and the American blockade is making things worse. |
| 1:54.6 | So what happens when you take a country already on the edge and give it a shove, and why is |
| 2:00.2 | hardly anyone talking about it? |
| 2:02.7 | Our chief correspondent, Stuart Ramsey, has just got back from Cuba. |
| 2:07.2 | Stuart, great to see you again. |
| 2:08.9 | Cuba is not something that we talk about in the way in which we perhaps did 40, 50, 60 years ago. |
... |
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