Cuba on the Brink with Peter Kornbluh

Cuba is at a breaking point. An escalating U.S. pressure campaign has cut off critical oil supplies, deepening an already fragile economic crisis. Blackouts stretch for days. Food shortages intensify. Hospitals struggle to function. What is unfolding on the island is an humanitarian emergency, driven by both internal failures and external pressure. In Episode 11 of The Transponder, host Samuel George speaks with Peter Kornbluh, Senior Analyst at the National Security Archive, about the rapidly deteriorating situation in Cuba and the strategy driving U.S. policy. Drawing on decades of research into U.S.-Latin American relations, Kornbluh argues that Washington is pursuing a deliberate strategy of economic strangulation, aimed at forcing political capitulation. He examines how sanctions, energy restrictions, and diplomatic pressure have combined to isolate Cuba from the global economy, while also assessing the role of long-term mismanagement within the Cuban system itself.