At the end of their April 1-6 visit to Cuba, House members Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Jonathan Jackson (D-ILL) issued a statement demanding that Donald Trump end the “cruel collective punishment” of the Cuban people through the energy blockade he imposed via Executive Order on Jan. 29. During their stay, the two met with President Miguel Diaz-Canel, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, members of Parliament, and an array of organizations representing civil society, humanitarian groups, entrepreneurs, religious groups, and dissidents, as well as with foreign ambassadors. Jalapal and Jackson reported that in all their meetings “there is agreement: this illegal blockade must end immediately. We do not believe that the majority of Americans would want this kind of cruelty and inhumanity to continue in our name.”
The legislators warn that the U.S.’s inhumane measures are “effectively an economic bombing of the infrastructure of the country—that has produced permanent damage. It must stop immediately.” They document the devastating effects of the blockade on healthcare, the inability of hospitals to care for newborn babies and children, due to the life-threatening lack of electricity, the paralysis in education as children and teachers have no transportation to get to school, the shortage of medications, water, and food due to lack of electricity and fuel.
