On August 15, 2025, two major stories out of Cuba converged to illustrate the island nation’s ongoing struggle for resilience amid economic hardship and international pressures. As new U.S. sanctions threatened to disrupt Cuba’s signature medical diplomacy, a private Vietnamese company was breaking ground—literally—by harvesting rice on Cuban soil, a first in the nation’s history. These parallel developments underscore both the challenges and adaptability of a country navigating acute shortages and the shifting tides of global politics.
The Cuban government, led by Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, delivered a clear message in response to the latest round of U.S. sanctions: its overseas medical missions would continue, undeterred. Rodríguez took to his official X account to state that Cuba "will continue providing services" and described these missions as "legitimate cooperation initiatives." He didn’t mince words, characterizing the U.S. measures as evidence that "imposition and aggression are the new doctrine of foreign policy" under President Donald Trump’s administration, according to reporting by AFP.
Cuba’s medical cooperation programs are nothing short of legendary. With over 24,000 health professionals currently working in nearly 60 countries, these missions have become a cornerstone of Cuban foreign policy since the revolution. For decades, Cuba has sent more doctors abroad than the World Health Organization, providing vital aid—often free of charge—to low-income nations. In wealthier countries, Cuba receives economic compensation for its services, and participating doctors earn stipends higher than their island salaries while still maintaining their Cuban wages. Participation is voluntary, and part of the payment from host countries goes directly into Cuba’s public health system, a lifeline in the face of the U.S. embargo.
The latest sanctions, announced by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, targeted officials from African countries, Brazil, and Grenada accused of facilitating contracts with Cuban medical services. The measures also extended to former Pan American Health Organization staff and Brazilian officials involved in a federal program that brought thousands of Cuban doctors to remote and underserved areas. In a statement, Rubio asserted that the State Department was acting against "officials complicit with the Cuban regime" who help organize and sustain the brigades.
Brazil’s response was swift and unequivocal. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, speaking at an event in Goiana, Pernambuco, condemned the U.S. blockade and defended the medical partnership. "It is important to know that our relationship with Cuba is one of respect for a people who have been victims of a blockade for 70 years," Lula declared. He continued, "Today they are facing hardship under a blockade with no justification. The United States fought a war, lost. Accept that you lost and let Cubans live in peace. Don’t keep trying to control the world." Brazil’s Health Minister Alexandre Padilha echoed these sentiments, describing the sanctions as an “unjustifiable attack” on a program that “saves lives.” Padilha highlighted the fact that Cuban doctors have long served in Brazilian regions where local physicians often refuse to go due to challenging conditions and limited infrastructure. On X, he wrote that Brazil would not bow to "those who persecute vaccines, researchers, science and now two of the key people behind the program during my first term as Health Minister: Mozart Sales and Alberto Kleiman."
Cuba’s medical diplomacy is more than just a headline; it’s a symbol of international cooperation. Over 73,000 foreign students have graduated from the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM), returning to their communities as doctors. Cuban medical brigades have played pivotal roles in building healthcare systems in countries like Algeria, Haiti, and Venezuela. In Haiti alone, more than 6,000 Cuban doctors have provided 36 million consultations and saved an estimated 429,000 lives since 1998. The Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade, established in 2005, has responded to disasters and epidemics worldwide, including Ebola in West Africa and COVID-19 in over 20 countries. Operation Miracle, another flagship program, has restored vision to over 4 million people in 34 countries, free of charge.
While Havana was reaffirming its commitment to medical solidarity, another groundbreaking development was unfolding in the fields of Los Palacios, 118 kilometers west of Havana. For the first time, a private foreign company—Vietnam’s Agri VAM, a subsidiary of the Fujinuco Group—was directly farming Cuban land. This bold move came in response to Cuba’s acute food shortages, which have only worsened in recent years. According to the Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy at the University of Havana, Cuba’s overall agricultural production plummeted by 52 percent between 2018 and 2023. Rice, a staple of the Cuban diet with an average consumption of 60 kilos (132 pounds) per person per year, has been hit especially hard, with production dropping from 300,000 tons in 2018 to just 55,000 tons in 2021 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Authorities report that numbers are slowly recovering, but the need remains urgent.
During a media visit in May, Agri VAM reported a harvest yield of seven tons per hectare—an impressive figure compared to the 1.5 tons per hectare typically achieved by Cuban growers. The company’s representative noted, "The climate and the temperature are very good for agriculture," but pointed out that Cuban farmers lack essential inputs like fertilizers. While Agri VAM can import some materials, it faces persistent challenges: fuel shortages, transportation problems, and frozen assets due to Cuba’s ongoing economic crisis. Economist Omar Everleny Perez told AFP that while foreign firms like Agri VAM may be making profits, "they cannot transfer them abroad because the banks have no liquidity, no foreign currency." In May, Agri VAM asked the Cuban government to unfreeze $300,000 in its account at the state-owned International Financing Bank. Vietnam’s deputy agriculture minister Nguyen Quoc Tri publicly called on Havana to "eliminate investment barriers that Vietnamese companies encounter."
Cuba’s acute economic crisis has made foreign investment not just desirable, but necessary. In July, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz announced new measures to "energize foreign investment," including authorizing wholly foreign-owned companies in the hotel sector. Russia, too, has shown interest. In May, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko announced that Russian businesses are prepared to invest $1 billion in Cuba, with preferential financing rates. Still, he cautioned, "there is still hard work to be done" and achieving results "is impossible to achieve things immediately, as if by magic."
For Cuba, these intertwined stories—of medical missions facing political headwinds and of foreign-led rice harvests promising relief—are emblematic of a nation both battered and resourceful. The island’s ability to adapt, whether by exporting its doctors or opening its fields to new partners, remains central to its survival and identity in a world that often seems determined to test its limits.