Bishops Warn Cuba Risks Social Chaos If Urgent Changes Not Made

By Eduardo Berdejo

The Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba (COCC, by its Spanish acronym) warned that the country risks descending into social chaos and violence if increasingly urgent structural changes are not implemented.

The Catholic Church’s warning came in a message released on Jan. 31, two days after U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to impose extraordinary tariffs on countries that send oil to Cuba.

Venezuela had stopped exporting oil to Cuba in November 2025, and with the capture of President Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces in January and the pressure on the socialist regime that is still in place, a resumption of these exports is unlikely.

Russia and Algeria stopped sending fuel to the Cuban regime in October and February 2025, respectively, leaving Mexico as the only remaining supplier, with its last shipment arriving in early January.

The fuel shortage is stifling the already struggling Cuban economy, and according to statements reported by the Financial Times, Victoria Grabenwöger, an analyst at the market research firm Kpler, stated late last week that Cuba’s remaining reserves “could last 15 to 20 days.”

The bishops recalled that in their June 15, 2025, message they had already called for “the structural, social, economic, and political changes that Cuba needs” to save it from the dire situation it has been facing for several years.

The prelates noted at the time that they did not imagine “that things could get any worse,” yet, “the situation has deteriorated, and anguish and despair have intensified.”

Furthermore, “recent news, which announces, among other things, the elimination of any possibility of oil entering the country, is raising alarms, especially for the least fortunate. The risk of social chaos and violence among the sons and daughters of the same nation is real. No Cuban of goodwill would rejoice at this,” the bishops said.

The COCC stated that “Cuba needs changes, and they are becoming increasingly urgent, but it certainly doesn’t need any more anguish or suffering” for its people. The conference therefore expressed gratitude for the aid that arrived from the U.S. government and was distributed through the Catholic Church to those affected by Hurricane Melissa.

On Jan. 30, the president of the COCC, Bishop Arturo Gonzalez Amador, and Cardinal Juan de la Caridad García met with the head of mission at the U.S. Embassy, ​​Mike Hammer, who wrote on X that “if everything goes well and the aid is reaching those most in need, the Trump administration is ready to send more assistance.”

In their message, the bishops also addressed relations between states. “The unwavering position of the pope and the Holy See, consistent with international law, is that governments should be able to resolve their disagreements and conflicts through dialogue and diplomacy, not coercion or war,” they stated.

However, they also said that “respect for the dignity and exercise of freedom of every human being within their own nation cannot be subject to or conditioned by the variables of external conflicts.”

The bishops urged that “the good of Cuba be placed above partisan interests” and assured that the Catholic Church will continue to accompany the people, especially the most vulnerable, also offering “its willingness, if requested, to help de-escalate hostilities between the parties and create spaces for fruitful collaboration for the common good.”

Pope Leo XIV addressed the rising tensions between Cuba and the United States at the end of the Feb. 1 Angelus, expressing his concern and echoing the bishops’ message he invited “all responsible parties to promote a sincere and effective dialogue, in order to avoid violence and every action that could increase the suffering of the dear Cuban people.”

A situation more serious than during the ‘Special Period’

Osvaldo Gallardo, a Cuban writer and analyst residing in the United States, stated that during the 40 years he lived on the island, he never experienced a crisis “like the one being experienced now,” with prolonged power outages, food shortages, the collapse of basic services, and a greater lack of freedom.

He said that this social and economic situation can be considered worse than the one that occurred during the so-called “Special Period” of 1991–1994, which followed the collapse of the Soviet Union — which economically supported the island — and the fall of communism in Eastern Europe.

“During the Special Period, it was difficult, but there was more of a sense of transiency. It was very difficult, but there was still a structure that responded to a reality that had been more stable; not better, but more stable,” he explained to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News.

However, he noted that now the anthropological damage in Cuba “is real and evident,” and “all the human capital has been dissolved.” Furthermore, “this period is already lasting longer, from 2020 to 2026, since the pandemic,” and the country is not recovering.

“That suffering did not begin with sanctions; it began with an exhausted model and a power structure that refuses to relinquish control,” Gallardo added in a post on Facebook.

In this regard, he said that the bishops’ message “is a moral warning issued when the deterioration is reaching dangerous levels and the risk of social chaos ceases to be a hypothesis.”

However, he noted that the communist regime “is not going to engage in dialogue,” just as it “hasn’t done so in more than six decades.” He pointed out that for the dictatorship, dialogue “has always been a strategy to buy time, not to change the country.”

“It must be said unequivocally: The dictatorship has to go,” Gallardo stated. “Cuba needs urgent changes. It doesn’t need more useless sacrifices or a false peace bought at the price of resignation. True peace is not the absence of conflict: It is justice. And when injustice is prolonged in the name of order, what is being protected is not peace, but abuse,” he said.

• This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.