Panel organized by Bruno Kreisky Forum in cooperation with Research Group Latin America, University of Vienna and Österreichisches Lateinamerika Institut (LAI).

Following its military operation on Venezuela on 3rd January, the United States have imposed a blockade on virtually all oil shipments bound for Cuba, plunging the island into the darkest period in its history since the revolution in 1959 – pushing the country toward a humanitarian crisis and its government to the edge of collapse. Since nearly all Cuban energy production depends on oil and petroleum products, citizens are struggling with prolonged blackouts, shortages of gasoline, cooking gas, and dwindling supplies of diesel needed to power the nation’s water pumps. Production facilities are closing, trash is piling up, food prices are soaring, transportation is failing, schools and hospitals are suspending services. For now, simmering discontent and social unrest have been suppressed through strict police control. However, estimates indicate that the country’s fuel reserves could be exhausted by mid-March with so far unknown humanitarian and political consequences.

What is the goal of Trump’s policy of starving the country? What kind of “deal” does he hope to achieve with a country that has limited resources? How are Cubans coping with this crisis? What has been the response of the Cuban government, and what options lie ahead? What are the reactions of the international community?

Aracely Rodriguez Malagón, is a Cuban lawyer and activist, Ph.D in political Science and researcher specializing in gender, race, and decolonial feminism. She has extensive experience in participatory action research and has published numerous essays, interviews, and scholarly articles on gender and raciality, black feminisms, disability among others. Online

Christopher Sabatini is senior fellow for Latin America at Chatham House and author of many articles and briefings on Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela. He was formerly a lecturer in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He is also on the Advisory Committee for Human Rights Watch’s Americas Division and of the Inter-American Foundation.

Michael Zeuske is principal Research Professor at the Center for Studies on Dependency and Slavery at the University of Bonn and Professor Emeritus of Iberian and Latin American History at the University of Cologne. He is a leading expert in Atlantic and Caribbean history, particularly of Cuba and Venezuela, publishing numerous articles and books, among other “A Short history of Cuba” (2016). He returns from a longer stay in Cuba at the beginning of March.

Moderator: Irene Horejs, former EU Ambassador, curator at the Bruno Kreisky Forum specialized on Africa and Latinamerica as well as development and humanitarian policy

Please register: www.kreisky-forum.org