Source: Radio New Zealand
The Cuba-flagged LPG/chemical tanker Pastorita leaves Havana Harbour on February 26, 2026. YAMIL LAGE / AFP
Cuba has been under US trade sanctions since 1962 and the past few months have further challenged the Caribbean nation, with tightened economic blockades by America.
University of Canterbury lecturer Josephine Varghese and Ambassador Luis Morejon Rodriguez talk to Kadambari Raghukumar in this Here Now episode.
Last December Josephine Vargehese found herself in the rare position of a being a speaker at a conference in Cuba. It was a chance she’d long been waiting for.
Indian-born, Christchurch based, Josephine Varghese is a lecturer at University of Canterbury, with a focus on analysing geopolitics through a post-colonial lens. She’s always felt drawn to Cuba.
“It’s a nation state that resisted imperialism, just 90 miles away from the United States coast. People are very fascinated by that in Kerala” said Varghese who was born in the south Indian state.
“Kerala has a a revolutionary history itself.”
Kerala occupies a long, narrow strip on the southwest coast of India. Since its formation in 1956, the people of Kerala have often elected the Communist Party of India to lead their legislative assembly.
The state has achieved the highest literacy rate in India and a consistently high GDP, while making huge investments in health and education. And over the years, it has built ties with the communist government and people of Cuba involving ideology, medical research, sport and literature.
“When I was in Cuba, just walking through the streets and having the interest that I have, I invariably talked to people about politics and people are well aware of international politics. When I’m in the West, it’s more around ‘oh India’s poor or backward and you’re running away from there’ – a very narrow understanding of India’s history, whereas in Cuba I felt that the awareness about India was rooted in India’s anti-colonial past.”
Varghese was a speaker at the Tricontinental Conference. The first Tricontinental Conference took place in Havana in 1966. This 60th anniversary event saw over 500 delegates from anticolonial movements across 82 countries from the Global South.
“I saw this as the pinnacle of my career and my life so far,” Varghese said.
She was visiting at a tough time for the Caribbean nation. Cuba’s in the midst of an economic and humanitarian crisis. Its economic struggles date back to the collapse of the Soviet Union and Cuba’s critics point to the communist government’s failure to adapt to the post-Soviet era.
But much of the current pressure stems from America escalating its embargo on Cuba this year – blocking Venezuelan oil and President Donald Trump threatening to “take” the country
Josephine arrived in Cuba in late 2025, before the escalation, but she was already seeing the pressures Cubans were facing.
“I went there in December 2025, actually the last shipment of oil to that country before this recent Russian oil tanker which broke you know USA’s blockade reached there. The last one was December 2025, just before we arrived there. And so it was a very critical time in Cuba.”
Back in New Zealand, Josephine was invited to share her experiences at a talk in Auckland a few weeks ago -where the Cuban ambassador to New Zealand, Luis Morejon Rodriguez was also present.
“We live under sanctions for more than 60 years and we continue trying to do our best. In the current context, diplomacy becomes more of an important. My role is to provide accurate informal information about Cuba, strengthen bilateral relations and promote cooperation between our people. It’s also important to explain the real impact of the blockade and the consequences of that policy to attempt to isolate Cuba. Many people here understand the differences between countries should be resolved through dialogue and mutual respect, not through economic coercion that ultimately affects ordinary people,” Luis Morejon told Here Now.
Some critics point out, however, that many ordinary Cubans have been pressured into silence by their government. Here Now tried to contact people within the Cuban community in New Zealand, but none of the persons contacted wanted to be interviewed.
In response, Luis Morejon responded “Here in New Zealand we have a very small Cuban community and they are spread out for the whole country. It is natural that there are different perspectives regarding Cuba this diversity of view exists in many societies, not only in Cuba. What is important is that discussions are based on respect, facts and understanding and complex reality faced by Cuban people we are consistently emphasize is that political differences should never justify policy that harm the entire population. The Cuban people deserve the opportunity to develop without external pressure or economic strangulation,” Morejon said.
Here Now’s Kadambari Raghukumar asked Varghese if global issues like the embargo on Cuba connect back to New Zealand at all. She said “communities in New Zealand have in the past spoken out vociferously against imperialism, for example, when it came to the anti-apartheid struggle, New Zealand took a leading role among the West, for example, in opposing apartheid, um, but also the anti-nuclear movement over here. We understand that the Pacific is one of the contested spheres of influence. I think that our interest in Aotearoa New Zealand is to have an independent foreign policy that protects us and also protects the Pacific from imperial wars”.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
