U.S. Representatives Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), and Jonathan Jackson (IL-01) released a statement upon the conclusion of their five-day Congressional delegation to Cuba, calling for an end to the fuel blockade which they said was bringin untold suffering to the citizens. They also pointed to the opening up of the Cuban economy, and urged Washington to enter into “real” negotiations with the small communist-ruled island nation.
“The illegal U.S. blockade of fuel to Cuba—90 miles south of the United States—adds to the longest embargo in world history and is causing untold suffering to the Cuban people,” the US lawmakers said. “The United States prevented a single drop of oil from entering Cuba for over three months,” which has resulted in an “economic bombing” of the infrastructure of the country, and caused a crisis in healthcare as well as for schoolgoing children.
“We witnessed firsthand premature babies in incubators, weighing just two pounds, who are at tremendous risk because their ventilators and incubators cannot function without electricity,” Jayapal and Jackson said. Children cannot attend school, cancer patients cannot receive lifesaving treatments, water shortage is being experienced, businesses have closed, families cannot keep food refrigerated, and food production on the island has dropped to just 10 percent of the people’s needs, they said.
Jayapal and Jackson spoke to many representatives of various sectors and religious leaders, and Cubans across the political spectrum, and, “Across all sectors, 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.”
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They cite examples of liberalization and release of prisoners to strengthen the case for ending the “Cold War-era policy of coercive economic measures and military pressures against Cuba.”
“True reform will only come from charting a new course. The United States and Cuba must immediately enter into real negotiations that provide for the dignity and freedom of the Cuban people and the tremendous benefits to the American people that will accrue from a real collaboration between our two countries,” Jayapal and Jackson maintained.