The US has become a power that knows only how to destroy. In the Ramón González Coro maternity hospital in Havana, Cuba, I saw what that looks like in human terms.

Maria lies on a hospital bed, wrapped in a dark blue blanket, two friends at her side. She is 50, with terminal cervical cancer, and nothing but praise for her doctors. But she is also a victim of a decades-long US siege, drastically intensified by Donald Trump’s decision earlier this year to threaten tariffs against countries that deliver fuel to Cuba. The result has been no fuel imports for three months, meaning the island is running out of diesel and fuel reserves. The electricity grid is collapsing and life is grinding to a halt.

Even getting to hospital became a struggle as fuel prices soared. “In the hospital itself, sometimes they don’t have all the facilities for the doctor to do their job properly,” she tells me. “No matter how much they want to help you, there are things beyond their control.”

The hospital cannot carry out crucial tests. It has no tranexamic acid, a basic drug used to prevent bleeding. Maria is bleeding so heavily that she has developed anaemia. When I tell her that Trump claims sanctions are designed to help the Cuban people, she calls it “outrageous”.

Dr Lilian Peruyera describes the wider consequences. Medical staff cannot........

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