AOC On Cuba: ‘The U.S. Embargo Is Absurdly Cruel’
New York Democrat blames the United States for protests in Cuba
An outspoken progressive in the House of Representatives has come out to criticize the ongoing embargo against Cuba, during the same week that unprecedented protests broke out in the streets of Havana and other cities on the island nation some 90 miles from Florida.
Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) also condemned US foreign policy towards Cuba for helping to create the circumstances that sparked the street demonstrations in Cuba.
Cubans began pouring into the streets of Cuban cities nearly a week ago, angry over disrupted electricity service in the midst of sweltering heat, food shortages and ongoing threat of infection by the coronavirus.
“Last month, once again, the U.N. voted overwhelmingly to call on the United States to lift its embargo on Cuba, and the United States was one of the only countries that voted no,” said Ocasio-Cortez. “The embargo, the U.S. embargo is absurdly cruel, and like other U.S. policies, particularly other U.S. policies targeting Latin Americans and Latinos, the cruelty is the point.
“And I outright reject the Biden administration’s defense of the embargo where they say, or they have said that they wanted to maintain the embargo, as it is a source of leverage and pressure,” she added. “There is no way where it is acceptable for us to use cruelty as a point of leverage against everyday people, period, whether it’s our border or whether it’s the U.S. embargo on Cuba. The cruelty is the point.”
The United States has imposed a strict economic embargo on Cuba for some 60 years, since the government of Fidel Castro came to power. It's the only nation to maintain such an embargo, as even US allies have allowed free travel and business, to and from the island, for decades.
The danger Cuba poses to US national security today is negligible, given that it's sponsor nation — the Soviet Union — disintegrated 30 years ago.
President Barack Obama liberalized trade with Cuba in 2016, allowing for travel between the nations, as well as remittances of funds from those in the United States back to Cuba. However, less than a year later, Donald Trump unwound those policy changes and returned Cuba to the list of nations which sponsor terrorism.
US foreign policy is directly contributing to the suffering of the Cuban people, Ocasio-Cortez said.
“One of the things we want to make sure that we communicate is our solidarity with the Cuban people. And what’s extraordinarily important for us to communicate as well is the actions and U.S. contributions to the suffering of Cubans on the island as well,” she said. “And that is directly related to the embargo, the U.S. embargo. Like other U.S. policies, particularly other U.S. policies targeting Latin Americans and Latinos, the cruelty is the point. And I outright reject the Biden administration’s defense of the embargo.”
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