Human rights chief Turk said Trump’s pressure campaign against the island has crippled medical services, sparking a jump in infant mortality rate
2-MIN READ2-MINBloombergPublished: 7:20pm, 9 Jun 2026Tighter US sanctions on Cuba have led to a spike in infant mortality and plummeting survival rates for child cancer patients, the UN warned in one of its strongest rebukes of Washington’s pressure campaign against the island.
US President Donald Trump’s push to force change in Cuba by cutting off almost all fuel shipments to the government is depriving the nation of 10 million people of access to water, food and healthcare, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said on Monday in a statement.
Those and other restrictions “are directly harming Cubans, especially the most vulnerable”, Turk said. “Children are dying because doctors lack access to essential medical supplies and medicines. This is unacceptable. These sanctions must be lifted immediately.”
Asked about the UN criticism, the State Department said US sanctions do not “prohibit legitimate humanitarian assistance delivered through appropriate channels, as long as it directly benefits the Cuban people rather than the illegitimate regime”. Food and medical goods are generally excluded from the US embargo, the State Department added in an emailed response.
Washington is squeezing Cuba’s economy as part of a broader campaign to dislodge the communist government that has run the island for 67 years. In early January, the US captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and cut off that nation’s oil exports to Cuba.
Trump then threatened any country that provided fuel with punitive tariffs. While the private sector can import its own petrol and diesel, the island has only received a single tanker of Russian crude since the de facto blockade was imposed.
