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Reps. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Jonathan Jackson, D-Ill., said after a congressional delegation returned from Cuba that U.S. economic restrictions on the island represented an “illegal fuel blockade by the United States” and “effectively an economic bombing of the country’s infrastructure.”
The parliamentarians, following their five-day delegation to Cuba, spoke out against what they described as a humanitarian crisis on the island that they claim is linked to the US embargo.
“The illegal US fuel blockade of Cuba (90 miles south of the United States) adds to the longest embargo in the history of the world and is causing untold suffering to the Cuban people,” the journalists said in a statement on Sunday. “The United States prevented a single drop of oil from entering Cuba for more than three months. This is cruel collective punishment, in effect an economic bombing of the country’s infrastructure, which has caused permanent damage. It must stop immediately.”
US ALLOWS RUSSIAN OIL TANKER TO ARRIVE CUBA AMID BLOCKADE WHILE TRUMP SAYS THE ISLAND ‘HAS TO SURVIVE’
Representatives Pramila Jayapal and Jonathan Jackson said after a delegation to Cuba that there was a humanitarian crisis on the island. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“We witnessed firsthand premature babies in incubators, weighing only two pounds, who are at tremendous risk because their fans and incubators cannot operate without electricity,” they continued. “Children cannot attend school because there is no fuel for them or their teachers to travel. Cancer patients cannot receive life-saving treatments due to lack of medicine. There is a water shortage because there is little electricity to pump water. Businesses have closed. Families cannot keep food refrigerated, and food production on the island has been reduced to only 10 percent of the population’s needs.”
This comes as US President Donald Trump has stepped up his pressure campaign on Cuba in recent weeks, calling the island a “failed nation” and suggesting that “Cuba is next” following recent US military actions in Venezuela and Iran.
The trip came after Jayapal and Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., introduced legislation to block federal funds for military action against Cuba without congressional approval.
The two politicians spoke out against what they described as an “illegal fuel blockade by the United States” and “in practice, an economic bombing of the country’s infrastructure.” (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Jayapal and Jackson said they spoke with families, religious leaders, businesspeople, civil society organizations, the Cuban government, Latin American and African ambassadors, humanitarian aid organizations and Cubans from across the political spectrum, including dissidents.
“There is agreement across sectors: this illegal blockade must end immediately. We do not believe that the majority of Americans want this type of cruelty and inhumanity to continue in our name,” the lawmakers said.
Both added that the Cuban government “has sent many signals that this is a new moment for the country.”
“While we were there, President Díaz-Canel released more than 2,000 prisoners. The Cuban government has begun to liberalize its economy with significant reforms, including allowing Cuban-American entrepreneurs to invest in private companies in Cuba. Entrepreneurship has grown substantially, and small and medium-sized private businesses now comprise much of the economy,” the statement said.
CUBA RELEASES 2,000 PRISONERS AMID PRESSURE FROM TRUMP AND ENERGY CRISIS
US President Donald Trump has intensified his pressure campaign on Cuba in recent weeks. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
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“It is significant that the Cuban government has invited the FBI to conduct an independent investigation into a deadly speedboat shooting,” he continued. “The remaining obstacles to progress in Cuba now lie in the United States changing our antiquated Cold War-era policy of coercive economic measures and military pressure against Cuba.”
Jayapal and Jackson went on to say that “true reform will only come if a new course is charted.”
“The United States and Cuba must immediately engage in real negotiations that guarantee the dignity and freedom of the Cuban people and the enormous benefits for the American people that will flow from real cooperation between our two countries,” they concluded.