When Hurricane Melissa tore through the Caribbean in late October 2025, it exposed the full force of the climate crisis. The storm ripped apart western Jamaica before sweeping into eastern Cuba as one of the strongest hurricanes in recent Caribbean history. While under capitalism fossil fuels are burned unsustain-ably, entire regions are deforested and oceans poisoned for profit, it is the people of the global south who face the consequences.
Cuba, a socialist island underdeveloped by centuries of colonialism and strangled by the genocidal US blockade, accounts for just 0.07% of global CO2 emissions. Amid the widespread destruction, Cuba’s organisation and preparedness shone through. Cuba recorded no deaths, a testament to the strength of its socialist planning and revolutionary discipline.
Capitalism creates catastrophe
Hurricane Melissa first made landfall in Jamaica as a Category 5 hurricane, with winds of over 290km/h, killing 67 people and obliterating 90% of homes in parishes such as St Elizabeth and Manchester. Jamaican agricultural and fishing sectors suffered over $124.5m in losses, with crops, livestock and coastal infrastructure being destroyed. It then tore across Haiti and the Dominican Republic, where intense rains and winds caused floods, killing over 40 people and displacing thousands.
When Melissa reached eastern Cuba, it had weakened to 195km/h sustained wind speeds (Category 3) but still unleashed torrential rainfall, flooding and landslides. The World Weather Attribution network found that rainfall in eastern Cuba was 50% more intense than it would have been in a pre-industrial climate. Melissa ripped through the island, disrupting basic services and causing widespread power outages and loss of communication for more than three million people. Current estimates indicate more than 60,000 homes sustained total or partial damage.
72 hours after Melissa passed, thousands of people remained isolated due to collapsed bridges, blocked roads and extreme flooding caused by rainfall reaching up to 400mm in several areas. Less than a year after Hurricane Oscar and two significant earthquakes, Melissa hit the same territories, compounding the challenges of recon-struction, further straining communities that are still rebuilding.
Yet imperialist media insist on calling Melissa a ‘natural disaster’, ignoring the reality that these storms are intensified by a capitalist system that has poured carbon into the atmosphere to enrich a minority, while exposing the global south to climate extremes. Across the Caribbean, warming seas are causing intensified hurricanes. This is not abstract climate change; it is an international emergency created by a system that values profit over the planet and life itself.
Economic devastation under the blockade
Melissa struck an economy already paralysed by the US blockade. Cuba’s baseless designation on the State Sponsors of Terrorism List leaves it without a lender of last resort in a crisis and blocks access to insurance-based recovery aid, forcing the island to rely solely on domestic mobilisation and bilateral support. The hurricane destroyed tens of thousands of hectares of crops, disrupting the work of small farmers and cooperatives. This has placed household incomes and national food supply under acute pressure, while dependence on imports grows amid restricted access to foreign currency, compounding the impact of imperialist sanctions.
Socialist planning saves lives
Despite widespread destruction, Cuba recorded no deaths during Hurricane Melissa. Cuba’s ability to protect the population was built on decades of collective organisation. The entire state apparatus mobilised in support of the people. The armed forces worked alongside the Committees for the Defence of the Revolution, the Federation of Cuban Women, and the Union of Young Communists to safeguard lives. Over 735,000 people were evacuated from vulnerable areas, the state transformed schools and hospitals into safe spaces and thousands of shelters were opened across the region. Livestock, machinery and food supplies were relocated in advance, to protect human and material resources from the destruction.
Across the eastern region, neighbours carried the elderly to higher ground, students distributed food and doctors worked through the night to ensure no one was left behind. In a society built on collective power, lives depend on solidarity; while under capitalism, disaster response depends on wealth – the rich flee while the poor are left behind.
Tarea Vida: socialist ecology in action
Cuba’s response was guided by Tarea Vida, the Life Task, a 100-year national plan that combines scientific research, community participation, and socialist state planning to defend the island and its population from the climate crisis. The plan has been integrated into every sector, housing, agriculture, coastal management and energy, to protect vulnerable populations and safeguard vital resources.
Within this framework, the ‘Mi Costa’ (My Coast) project, coordinated by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment and co-funded by the Green Climate Fund, is restoring over 1,300km of wave-buffering mangrove forests and coral reefs along Cuba’s southern coast. Scientists, local authorities and communities use this project to strengthen natural defences against rising sea levels and hurricanes, a measure that was crucial in reducing the damage from Melissa.
Internationalism in practice
Solidarity from other countries in the Americas flowed in immediately. Venezuela sent 46 tons of food, water and medical supplies to both Cuba and Jamaica; despite being subjected to increasing US aggression, a concrete example of how a revolutionary state stands with its neighbours even under siege. Colombia followed with 240 tons of humanitarian aid, while the National Union of Employees of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund issued a fraternal call for support to Cuba, condemning the US blockade as a barrier to recovery from Melissa. This is real solidarity, not the empty words of imperialist powers who speak of ‘humanitarian aid’ while actively enforcing a criminal blockade designed to choke Cuba’s recovery and punish its socialist sovereignty.
Despite facing the ruin of Hurricane Melissa at home and the ongoing pressures of the asphyxiating US blockade, Cuba’s medical internationalism played a crucial role in Jamaica. After the hurricane hit, 89 Cuban doctors travelled to Jamaica to work in emergency hospital services, and 78 were deployed to the hardest-hit areas. This unwavering commitment highlights the revolutionary principle of internationalist solidarity. Cuba’s medical mission in Jamaica will mark 50 years of continuous presence in 2026, a testament to a socialist state that puts human life above profit.
Socialism or extinction
Hurricane Melissa struck on the same day the United Nations General Assembly debated Cuba’s annual resolution calling for an end to the US blockade. For the 33rd consecutive vote, the overwhelming majority of countries – 165 member states – supported the motion, showing the world’s rejection of imperialist barbarism. Only the US, Israel, Argentina, Hungary, Paraguay, North Macedonia, and Ukraine voted against the motion.
Melissa laid bare the choice facing humanity: socialism or climate collapse. Cuba’s example proves that it is possible to defend life even amid the climate crisis intensified by capitalist destruction. Centralised planning and a culture of solidarity ensure that communities are prepared, and that people, not profit, are the priority. The imperialist powers offer no plan for the future – only more exploitation, more pollution and more death. Cuba shows that the fight against the climate crisis is inseparable from the struggle against capitalism. To survive on this planet, humanity must abolish capitalism and fight for socialism.
Viva Cuba! End the US blockade!
Destinie Sanchez
