San Francisco Frontiers - Aid flotilla arrives in Cuba as US oil blockade bites

The Maguro shrimp fishing boat docked in Havana three days later than hoped after battling strong winds, currents and a pesky battery during its journey from Mexico.

As they approached Havana's colonial-era fortification, the international activists stood on the cabin roof of the boat -- symbolically renamed "Granma 2.0" as a tribute to the yacht used by Fidel Castro's guerrilla fighters to launch their revolution in 1956.

They held a sign reading "Let Cuba live" while others waiting for them on the dock chanted "Cuba yes! Blockade no!"

"I wish everyone would unite, even Cubans abroad, and come and do the same because it is the people who are suffering," said Amado Rodriguez, a 59-year-old driver walking near Havana Bay.

The first shipments arrived by plane from Europe, Latin America and the United States last week as part of an air and sea mission, dubbed Our America Convoy, to bring some 50 tonnes of aid to Cuba.

Two more ships are due to arrive Tuesday or Wednesday.

Activists say the mission, which had the support of the government, aims to bring relief to Cubans amid a de facto US oil blockade that President Donald Trump launched in January.

Critics have slammed the effort as benefiting the communist government more than ordinary people.

Convoy organizer David Adler, a US citizen, told AFP the mission brought urgently needed aid directly to Cubans and showed the world "the human costs of Trump's siege on Cuba."

"It demonstrated that international solidarity can triumph over forced isolation," said Adler, coordinator of global left-wing group Progressive International.

The country has suffered seven nationwide blackouts since 2024 -- two of them this past week -- due to aging thermoelectric plants and oil shortages.

The situation has deteriorated since Trump ordered a military operation to capture Cuba's chief regional ally, Venezuelan socialist leader Nicolas Maduro, in January -- depriving the island of its main oil supplier.

Trump subsequently threatened to slap tariffs on any country shipping oil to Cuba.

- Trump's 'greed' -

The Maguro left from Mexico's Yucatan peninsula Friday carrying 32 people, including activists from Australia, Brazil, Ecuador, Italy, Mexico and the United States, and AFP journalists.

As the boat motored across the sea, Brazilian activist Thiago Avila said other nations should come to Cuba's aid.

"We cannot allow the world and international law to be buried under the greed of Donald Trump," Avila told AFP.

"That's why we are here, that's why people decided to mobilize for this and decided to donate."

Avila was among the organizers of a flotilla that had tried to bring aid to Gaza last year despite a naval blockade. That effort was intercepted by Israeli forces.

Fellow Brazilian activist Lisi Proenca said the group was applying the experience it gained from the Gaza flotilla to bring aid to Cuba.

"The interesting thing is that we're able to carry much larger items, like solar panels," she told AFP.

- 'Political sideshow' -

In addition to daily outages, fuel prices have soared, public transport has become rare and trash is piling up as garbage trucks are no longer running.

Cuba has blamed Washington for the country's hardship, pointing to the fuel blockade and a decades-old trade embargo.

Cuban exiles and other critics, who say the communist government is to blame for the economic crisis, said the convoy is giving political support to Havana.

"The electricity crisis in Cuba does not stem from the oil embargo imposed by (Trump). It dates back to long before that," Zuniga said.

M.Powell--SFF