Aletho News

The U.S. Sanctions Cuban Journalist For Reporting On The U.S. Blockade

The Dissident | February 17, 2026

The U.S. has recently cut off Cuba’s source of oil from Venezuela and Mexico, with the intention, as Trump recently admitted , of creating a “humanitarian threat” in hopes it will lead to regime change, boasting that because of the blockade, “There’s no oil. There’s no money. There’s no anything.”

As Cuban-based journalist Marc Frank reported , due to the blockade, “Prices are soaring, power outages are increasing, and gas lines are growing. Public and private transportation are disappearing. Produce at markets is dwindling, and all but emergency surgeries have been canceled. The fear that the quality of life will quickly deteriorate is palpable”.

The U.S. is now taking this a step further and placing targeted sanctions on Cuban journalists doing critical reporting on the blockade.

A Miami-based pro-regime change outlet called CiberCuba reports that the U.S. has “imposed visa restrictions” on Cuban journalist Pedro Jorge Velázquez, known as El Necio, accusing him of “involvement in harassment campaigns against American diplomats in Cuba”.

In response, El Necio wrote , “I am an ordinary young Cuban. Five years ago, I began doing my work through social media and collaborating with press outlets. I have no employment ties whatsoever to the Cuban government: currently, I do not work in press media or state institutions.”

He noted that the accusation of “harassment” is in reference to his “ latest journalistic investigation” where he uncovered, “ the purchase of fuel (gasoline) by US diplomats in Havana: the very same fuel that they block from Cuba, only to consume it themselves afterward.”

He noted that while the “sanction is irrelevant to me” noting that, “I have never had, nor have I ever requested, a visa to enter the US” he added that, “we do need to denounce this serious violation of press freedom” adding, “this is not a personal attack, but a precedent for censorship and coercion against every young Cuban who speaks out against the blockade on Cuba or who practices journalism that does not please the Trump administration.”

The U.S. sanctions against El Necio for reporting on the U.S. blockade on Cuba mirror U.S. sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur for Palestine, in retribution for a report she published exposing U.S. corporations’ complicity in the Gaza genocide.

Similarly, to justify the sanctions, the U.S. accused Albanese of “writing threatening letters to dozens of entities worldwide, including major American companies across finance, technology, defense, energy, and hospitality”, in reference to her writing letters to companies fueling the genocide in Gaza, informing them of their violation of international law and participation in war crimes.

The sanctions also mirror the EU sanctions placed on the former Swiss army colonel Jacques Baud, in retribution for his criticism of the proxy war in Ukraine.

From Cuba to Palestine to Ukraine, sanctions are more often being used as a tool to silence and intimidate those exposing and critiquing Western foreign policy.

February 17, 2026 - Posted by aletho | Full Spectrum Dominance | Cuba, Human rights, United States