Representatives Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, Teresa Leger-Fernández of New Mexico, Maxine Dexter of Oregon and Delia Catalina Ramírez of Illinois traveled to Cuba last week for meetings with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, government ministers, medical professionals and business leaders during a visit that concluded on Monday.

The lawmakers said the U.S. energy embargo, introduced in January after the capture of then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, had intensified an economic crisis that Cuba has faced for the past five years. The measures included restrictions on fuel supplies to the island and threats of tariffs against countries exporting fuel to Cuba.

According to the delegation, the sanctions have compounded longstanding domestic economic problems, including the effects of monetary reforms and previous U.S. restrictions.

Speaking to reporters in Havana, the lawmakers said there were currently no formal negotiations underway between Washington and Havana aimed at lifting the energy embargo, despite contacts that both governments have previously acknowledged between their officials.

Pocan criticized Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s approach toward Cuba, suggesting policy decisions had become personal rather than professional. Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, began his political career in Miami with support from anti-Castro exile groups.

The lawmakers pointed to the effects of the embargo on daily life across Cuba, including prolonged electricity outages, disruptions to public transportation, flight cancellations, declining tourism, shorter working hours and broader economic paralysis.

Pocan said a Cuban resident had described the situation as a “silent Gaza,” a characterization he said reflected the hardships created by the prolonged shortages. He said that while Cuba was not experiencing active bombardment, many residents struggled to work, preserve food, obtain medicines and maintain normal daily life because of the energy crisis.

Leger-Fernández said she saw no justification for policies that imposed widespread hardship on the Cuban population.

Dexter, a physician, and Ramírez said they would seek legislative amendments in Congress aimed at reducing the humanitarian impact of the sanctions and limiting the executive branch’s ability to take additional unilateral measures affecting Cuba without congressional approval.

The Trump administration and Rubio have argued that economic pressure is intended to weaken Cuba’s communist government, which they accuse of mismanagement and inefficiency. Cuban authorities have consistently condemned the embargo, describing it as collective punishment against the country’s population.

The congressional delegation’s visit marked the second trip by U.S. lawmakers to Cuba in three months, as discussions over the future of U.S.-Cuba relations continue despite the absence of formal bilateral negotiations.

Speaking at a press conference, Rodríguez said thousands of people remain missing following the June 24 earthquakes but stressed that authorities had no plans to establish mass graves. She said 189 buildings were completely destroyed, with the coastal state of La Guaira bearing the brunt of the devastation, while more than 11,000 people were injured.

The government said reconstruction efforts were gathering pace as international financial institutions pledged support. Rodríguez announced that the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank had offered financial assistance and credit to aid recovery, including the establishment of a $200 million reconstruction fund with the IMF to finance the rebuilding of homes destroyed in the disaster.

She also said revenue from Venezuela’s oil production, currently administered under U.S. Treasury oversight following the removal of former President Nicolás Maduro, would be allocated to reconstruction projects and humanitarian assistance.

The United States has committed more than $300 million in relief assistance and deployed approximately 900 military personnel to support search-and-rescue operations and humanitarian relief. U.S. Chargé d’Affaires John M. Barrett said the funding would support emergency shelter, sanitation, healthcare services and electricity generation.

In the hardest-hit communities of La Guaira, hopes of finding additional survivors continued to diminish. Rescue teams worked through collapsed buildings in response to reports of possible signs of life, while officials transported body bags and prepared caskets in the port city of Catia La Mar.

A rare rescue offered a brief moment of optimism when 43-year-old security guard Hernán Alberto Gil Flores was pulled alive from the ruins of a collapsed shopping mall after surviving nearly eight days beneath the debris. Rescue workers said he endured by remaining inside an air pocket and receiving food and water passed through narrow openings in the wreckage.

Elsewhere, recovery teams continued retrieving bodies as decomposition complicated rescue operations. Health authorities warned that overcrowded temporary shelters and untreated injuries could increase the risk of infectious disease outbreaks in a healthcare system already under significant pressure.

Rodríguez rejected criticism that her administration had responded too slowly during the initial hours after the earthquakes. She said emergency services had been activated immediately and acknowledged that relatives, neighbors and local residents were often the first to reach collapsed buildings before official rescue teams arrived.

“We did not wait one day, two days or three days. We activated immediately,” Rodríguez said, accusing critics of attempting to politicize the humanitarian emergency.

The disaster also claimed the lives of Venezuelan nationals deported from the United States shortly before the earthquakes. Daniel Alejandro Núñez Ramírez, 28, was among more than 100 deportees who returned to Venezuela hours before the disaster. According to relatives, many of the 146 deportees housed in a hotel serving as a temporary holding facility in La Guaira were trapped when the building collapsed.

“My son was not a criminal,” his mother, Oswadeliz Nuñez, said after collecting his ashes. “I don’t want this death to go unpunished.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said responsibility for the deportees transferred to Venezuelan authorities after their arrival.

Questions also remain over Rodríguez’s political future, with her 180-day mandate as interim president due to expire on Friday. Under Venezuela’s constitution, the National Assembly could either extend the interim administration or call a snap presidential election if the office is formally declared vacant.

Human rights organizations have meanwhile called for transparency in the management of reconstruction funds. Laura Cristina Dib, Venezuela program director at the Washington Office on Latin America, said effective oversight would be essential to ensure financial assistance reaches communities affected by the country’s deadliest natural disaster in decades.

Speaking in Panama City alongside fellow Venezuelan opposition figures, Machado said the opposition remained focused on securing free and fair elections in which Venezuelans both inside and outside the country could participate.

Her comments come more than four months after a major shift in United States policy toward Venezuela, when the administration of Donald Trump moved away from supporting Machado and instead engaged with figures linked to Venezuela’s ruling establishment following the capture of then-president Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces, according to the source material.

Machado has lived in exile since December after emerging from nearly a year in hiding inside Venezuela and traveling to Norway, where she received the Nobel Peace Prize. She said she hopes to return to her country before the end of next year.

The opposition leader stressed that any credible presidential election would require significant institutional reforms, including the appointment of politically neutral electoral authorities, updated voter registration systems and guarantees allowing opposition candidates to compete without state interference.

According to Machado, organizing a democratic presidential election under such conditions would require between seven and nine months of preparation.

The political timetable remains unclear. Venezuela’s constitution requires a presidential election within 30 days if a president becomes permanently unable to serve, but U.S. officials have recently downplayed expectations for an imminent vote while expressing support for acting president Delcy Rodríguez, whose government has expanded access for American investment in Venezuela’s oil sector amid elevated global energy prices.

Machado emerged as Maduro’s most prominent challenger in recent years but was barred by authorities from contesting the 2024 presidential election. In response, she endorsed former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia as the opposition’s candidate.

Following that election, authorities aligned with the ruling party declared Maduro the winner shortly after polls closed. However, Machado’s campaign maintained that collected voting records showed González had won by a margin exceeding two-to-one.

Asked about a future presidential contest, Machado said she welcomed competition within the opposition and would be prepared to face any rival in what she described as a transparent and legitimate election.

“I will be a candidate, but there may be others, of course,” Machado told reporters. “I would love to compete with everyone, with anyone who wants to be a candidate.”

Speaking at the White House, Trump said previous administrations had considered action against Cuba for decades and suggested he could be the president to pursue it. While he did not outline specific plans, his remarks marked the latest escalation in Washington’s rhetoric toward the communist-run island.

Rubio, speaking separately in Miami before departing for meetings in Europe and India, said the administration’s preferred outcome remained a negotiated settlement but acknowledged doubts that meaningful progress could be achieved with Cuba’s current leadership.

“The president’s preference is always a negotiated agreement that’s peaceful,” Rubio said, adding that prospects for such an outcome were limited given the current political environment in Havana.

The comments came one day after U.S. federal prosecutors announced an indictment accusing Castro of ordering the 1996 shootdown of civilian aircraft operated by Cuban exiles based in Miami. The charges include murder and destruction of an aircraft. Cuban authorities have rejected the case, with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel describing it as a political maneuver intended to justify potential aggression against the island.

The indictment has fueled speculation that the Trump administration may be considering a more confrontational approach toward Cuba. Analysts have drawn comparisons to Washington’s earlier operation against Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, who was captured by U.S. forces earlier this year and faces federal criminal charges in the United States.

Senior U.S. officials, including Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, have held discussions with Cuban representatives in recent months aimed at improving relations. Rubio said those contacts failed to produce meaningful results and contributed to the administration’s decision to impose additional sanctions on Havana.

Among the latest measures are sanctions targeting Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A., a business conglomerate controlled by Cuba’s armed forces. Rubio also announced that a relative of the group’s executive president had been detained by U.S. immigration authorities after her legal residency status was revoked.

The administration argues that Cuba presents a national security challenge because of its security and intelligence ties with China and Russia, as well as its relationships with governments viewed as adversarial by Washington.

China rejected the U.S. position on Thursday. Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said Beijing supports Cuba’s sovereignty and opposes external interference and sanctions.

The heightened tensions come as the U.S. military conducts exercises in the Caribbean involving the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and accompanying vessels. U.S. Southern Command said the deployments are part of previously scheduled maritime operations with regional partners.

Trump has increasingly linked future relations with Cuba to demands that Havana expand economic openness and reduce ties with U.S. geopolitical rivals, while continuing to tighten sanctions pressure on the island’s government.

Venezuelan-Canadian director Jorge Thielen Armand and Italian actor Asia Argento are using surrealist psychological thriller Death Has No Master to examine questions of ownership, historical violence and inherited trauma against the backdrop of contemporary Venezuela.

Premiering in the Directors’ Fortnight section at Cannes, the film follows Caro, an Italian-Venezuelan woman played by Argento, who returns to Venezuela to reclaim a plantation inherited from her late father. The property remains occupied by caretakers who have continued living on the land, setting up a broader conflict over legitimacy, colonial legacy and power.

“The film has multiple layers of meaning,” Armand said ahead of the premiere. “Recent events only make those multitudes greater.”Armand said the project has taken on additional political resonance following recent developments in Venezuela and increased international involvement in the country.

The director referenced the deployment of US warships near Venezuela in August last year, officially linked by Washington to anti-narcotics operations, as filming began on the project.

He also referred to the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by US authorities earlier this year amid longstanding allegations of corruption and human rights abuses against his administration.

“It’s very worrisome, what’s happening,” Armand said. “I think that the movie can speak to the collective darkness that Venezuelans feel, and the betrayal of domestic and international systems.”

The film revisits themes Armand previously explored in La Soledad, his 2016 feature debut set during Venezuela’s economic collapse. That earlier project blurred documentary and fiction while focusing on residents occupying a deteriorating mansion formerly owned by Armand’s family.

In Death Has No Master, Armand shifts perspective toward the descendants of property owners returning to spaces shaped by abandonment, displacement and class divisions. The story was partly inspired by recurring dreams the director experienced involving dark buildings, fragmented memories and disorientation.

“When I wake up, I think of home and everything I left behind,” Armand said. “So the film is that nightmare of going back, finding that the people and things you left behind are no longer there.”

The film places colonial imagery alongside modern industrial symbols. Cacao plantations and oil refineries operate as recurring visual motifs, linking Venezuela’s colonial history with contemporary struggles over resources and political control.

Argento described the filming process as emotionally consuming, saying she isolated herself in shooting locations to better inhabit the character’s psychological state.

“I drove myself pretty much insane,” she said. “And I had a lot of fear; something primal; something unspeakable that I think my character felt in going back there.”Argento said Caro’s memories of her abusive father intersected with aspects of her own personal history.

She is the daughter of Italian filmmaker Dario Argento and actor-screenwriter Daria Nicolodi, collaborators behind the influential horror film Suspiria.While Argento declined to detail specific parallels, she said the project resonated with her understanding of family inheritance and emotional trauma.

“It’s dealing with my own nightmares, and my own childhood, and the way I was brought up, and my own blood, and my inheritance,” she said.Argento also noted stylistic similarities between Death Has No Master and the Italian psychological thrillers associated with her parents’ generation of cinema, particularly the visual techniques of 1970s giallo films.

“This is like a serious Italian psychological thriller from the 70s, with the zooms and the way it’s shot,” she said after watching the completed film.

The central conflict of the story unfolds between Caro and Sonia, an Afro-Venezuelan caretaker played by Dogreika Tovar, who lives on the plantation with her son and asserts her own claim to the land.

A third figure, Johnny, an Indigenous associate connected to Caro’s father, further complicates the question of legitimacy.Armand said the film intentionally avoids presenting a clear moral hierarchy among its characters.

“I wanted to make something where nobody is a victim, per se,” he said.

According to the director, the conflict reflects overlapping systems of legality, morality and historical entitlement shaped by colonialism and economic power.

“There’s a legal, moral and historical conflict,” Armand said. “But these are notions that we’ve conceived as a society. In the end, land isn’t owned, ever. It’s just controlled by the use of force. It’s occupied until it’s not.”