Hands off Cuba protests spread across U.S. as leftists oppose oil restrictions

Left organizers staged a coordinated set of “Hands off Cuba!” demonstrations in multiple U.S. cities during the week of Feb 17–20, 2026, mobilizing under the banner after President Donald Trump’s Jan 29 executive order that declared Cuba an “unusual and extraordinary threat” and authorised sweeping measures against any country that sells or provides oil to the island. Local organisers named in an initial report included chapters of the Socialist Workers Party and Democratic Socialists of America’s Cuba Solidarity Wor.

The Cuba Solidarity Campaign in the UK put its response on record on Jan 30, calling Trump’s move “a direct assault on the livelihoods and wellbeing of the Cuban people” and warning it “threatens to plunge Cuba into a deep humanitarian crisis.” The CSC reiterated the executive order language that declared Cuba an “unusual and extraordinary threat” and advertised an earlier Hands Off Cuba online rally scheduled for Feb 3 at 7pm, while listing UK events such as a Scottish CSC vigil in Glasgow on Feb 28 and a Derbyshire Walk for Cuba in Matlock on Mar 1.

Reports from solidarity outlets and Cuba-linked voices tied the measures to immediate shortages on the island. The Militant noted that “no oil shipments arriving since Jan. 9” and that Cubans now face “longer daily blackouts, water shortages, scarcities and increased prices for food and transportation.” Yuri Gala López, Cuba’s ambassador to the United Nations, told a webinar tied to the coalition organizing the Action Conference for US-Cuba Normalization that “the economic suffocation of Cuba has been a central component of U.S. policy toward Cuba, with the aim of limiting the Cuban people’s right to exercise their sovereignty.” Farmer Yasmani Toirac Laffita of the Waldo Díaz Agricultural Production Cooperative in Güira de Melena, Artemisa province, was quoted saying, “It bothers them that they can’t bring us down. They can’t forgive us for our defiance just 90 miles away from their coast,” and “They are haters, but we are people who extend solidarity to others. We send doctors, not bombs to other countries.”

Solidarity actions spread beyond the U.S. Peoples Dispatch reported that hundreds demonstrated in Brussels over the weekend in support of Cuba, demanding “an end to the illegal blockade, the delivery of humanitarian aid and oil, and the continued operation of Belgium’s embassy in Cuba.” In Italy, mobilisation culminated in a national assembly on Feb 8, with the left party Potere al Popolo calling the blockade and threats against Mexico for supplying oil “a true act of ‘economic terrorism’ by Trump” and announcing further demonstrations next month.

Organisers and campaign groups are lining up follow-up actions. The Militant highlighted an Action Conference for US-Cuba Normalization scheduled for Mar 14–15 in New York City. The Cuba Solidarity Campaign urged supporters to “lobby MPs, mobilise trade unions and community organisations, strengthen humanitarian aid efforts, and build the widest possible movement to defend Cuba and demand an end to the US blockade,” noting more than 3,000 signatories and “more than 120 MPs, trade union leaders and public figures” associated with its urgent call.

The week of Feb 17–20 demonstrated a coordinated transatlantic push to translate diplomatic pressure and an executive order into visible street mobilization, and organisers are using the March events and UK diaries to sustain pressure as debates over oil access, humanitarian effects, and extraterritorial sanctions deepen.