US intentionally pushing Cubans into hunger – professor to Rick Sanchez (VIDEO)
Analysis Summary
The article presents a professor's claim that U.S. sanctions are intentionally causing hunger and suffering in Cuba, describing severe shortages of food and water during his visit. It frames U.S. policy as the primary cause of Cuba's hardship, dismissing other factors like internal economic problems or the impact of the pandemic. The piece relies on emotional language and personal testimony while not addressing Cuba’s domestic policies or other contributors to its economic challenges.
Cross-Outlet PSYOP Detected
This article is part of a narrative being pushed across multiple outlets:
FATE Analysis
Four dimensions of psychological manipulation: how content captures Focus, exploits Authority, triggers Tribal identity, and engineers Emotion.
Focus signals
"The US is deliberately causing hunger in Cuba as part of its economic strangulation of the island"
The headline-style framing uses strong moral and causal language ('deliberately causing hunger') to capture attention by emphasizing intent and severity. While the claim is serious and repeated in diplomatic discourse, the phrasing amplifies novelty through moral accusation rather than neutral description, though it stops short of 'breaking' or 'never before seen' framing.
Authority signals
"City University of New York professor Danny Shaw has said"
The article identifies Shaw by institutional affiliation and academic title, which lends credibility. However, it reports his views as part of an interview, not as a substitute for evidence or to shut down debate. This is standard journalistic sourcing of an expert perspective, not an overuse of authority to override scrutiny.
"Shaw, an ethnography scholar, discussed his recent visit to Cuba"
Describing Shaw as an 'ethnography scholar' contextualizes his observational claims as grounded in research methodology. This is informative rather than manipulative, as it clarifies the basis of his analysis without overstating institutional endorsement.
Tribe signals
"the United States has destroyed Cuba, not incompetent communists"
This quote creates a sharp dichotomy between the US and Cuba, positioning the former as the sole destructive force while dismissing internal factors through a politically charged label ('incompetent communists'). The framing converts political alignment into a tribal marker, suggesting that blaming domestic policy is ideologically suspect.
"Sanchez, who was born in Cuba and raised in Miami, said the issue was personal to him"
While biographical context is relevant, highlighting Sanchez’s Cuban origin and Miami upbringing—two symbolic poles in the Cuban-American political divide—frames his perspective as identity-based. This implicitly positions disagreement as disloyalty to a diaspora identity, weaponizing personal background to strengthen tribal alignment.
Emotion signals
"I witnessed an incredible amount of hunger, of despair, of deprivation, of thirst, lack of water"
The vivid, emotionally charged description of suffering uses cumulative, sensory language to evoke moral outrage. While conditions in Cuba are documented to be difficult, the phrasing exaggerates the immediacy and totality of crisis ('incredible amount') without proportional context, engineering emotional response beyond measured reporting.
"The State Department, all these different agencies, the CIA, they know exactly how many calories Cubans have access to, and every day it’s less"
This statement frames US agencies as cold, calculating, and fully aware of their role in starving a population, invoking fear of intentional harm by a powerful state. The attribution of granular knowledge ('exactly how many calories') introduces a conspiratorial tone that intensifies emotional dread beyond what public evidence supports.
"the United States has destroyed Cuba, not incompetent communists"
By absolving the Cuban government of responsibility and placing sole blame on the US, the statement fosters a sense of moral clarity and superiority in rejecting mainstream narratives. This positions the reader as enlightened for rejecting 'official' explanations, reinforcing emotional allegiance to a counter-narrative.
Narrative Analysis (PCP)
How the article reshapes thinking: Perception (what beliefs are targeted), Context (what information is shifted or omitted), and Permission (what behavior is being encouraged).
The article is designed to produce the belief that the United States is intentionally inflicting hunger and economic suffering on Cuba as a deliberate act of policy, rather than a byproduct of broader sanctions. It targets the reader’s perception of U.S. foreign policy as scientifically precise and morally culpable in causing human deprivation.
The article establishes a context in which U.S. foreign policy is the central explanatory framework for life conditions in Cuba, making it seem natural to attribute everyday deprivation—like lack of food or water—directly to American actions. It normalizes the idea that state policies can be engineered to control caloric intake in a foreign population, positioning this as an expected function of intelligence agencies.
The article omits discussion of Cuba’s internal economic policies, long-standing state controls, agricultural inefficiencies, and other domestic factors that independent economists and international observers (e.g., UN, ECLAC) have cited as contributors to scarcity. It also does not reference the impact of Cuba’s dual currency system prior to reform, or tourism sector collapse during the pandemic—context whose inclusion would complicate the singular attribution of blame to U.S. policy.
The reader is nudged toward viewing U.S. sanctions as a form of state-perpetrated harm or slow violence, fostering moral condemnation of U.S. policy and potentially encouraging support for sanction relief, anti-interventionist positions, or solidarity movements with Cuba.
SMRP Pattern
Four manipulation maintenance tactics: Socializing the idea as normal, Minimizing concerns, Rationalizing with logic, and Projecting blame.
"‘the United States has destroyed Cuba, not incompetent communists.’"
Red Flags
High-severity indicators: silencing dissent, coordinated messaging, or weaponizing identity to shut down debate.
"‘The State Department, all these different agencies, the CIA, they know exactly how many calories Cubans have access to, and every day it’s less.’"
"‘the United States has destroyed Cuba, not incompetent communists.’"
Techniques Found(3)
Specific propaganda techniques identified using the SemEval-2023 academic taxonomy of 23 techniques across 6 categories.
"the United States has destroyed Cuba, not incompetent communists."
The statement appeals to anti-imperialist and anti-interventionist values by framing US policy as the sole destructive force, positioning the Cuban government as a victim and implicitly invoking solidarity with a nation resisting powerful external oppression, thereby justifying criticism of the US through moral and political values rather than engaging with internal Cuban governance issues.
"US is deliberately causing hunger in Cuba as part of its economic strangulation of the island"
The phrase 'deliberately causing hunger' and 'economic strangulation' uses emotionally charged language to characterize US policy in the most condemnatory terms. While the sanctions have documented economic impacts, describing them as a deliberate campaign to inflict hunger goes beyond established policy intent and frames the action as intentionally cruel, which constitutes loaded language.
"The US is the main cause of the instability."
This statement reduces the complex socioeconomic and political challenges in Cuba—shaped by internal governance, structural economic limitations, and external factors—to a single cause: US foreign policy. By identifying the US as the 'main cause,' it oversimplifies a multifaceted reality, ignoring potential contributions from domestic policy decisions.