Democratic Congresswoman Barbara Lee called the US blockade against Cuba obsolete and harmful and said she will work for a smarter and more humane policy towards the Caribbean country.
A member of the House of Representatives from California since 1998, Lee recalled that she has worked on US policy towards the Antillean nation for four decades, and that she is committed to lifting the «failed embargo (blockade) of Cuba».
«The United States must support the efforts of the Cuban people to build a peaceful and prosperous society that can meet the hopes and needs of the Cuban people. And we see the Cuban people organising to achieve this,» the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus (2009-2011) stressed in a statement.
«But US policy is still based on the idea that punishing the Cubans is somehow helping them,» she warned, recalling that during the administration of Barack Obama (2009-2017) some important steps were taken «to rethink our strategy towards Cuba,» she said.
However, the government of Donald Trump (2017-2021) «not only undid those measures, but expanded the embargo, accusing Cuba of being a state sponsor of terrorism», Lee added when expressing his appreciation for participating in an event on Washington’s policy towards the Antillean nation.
He commented that President Joe Biden has taken «a number of small, important, positive steps». «We have begun talking again with the Cuban government on issues of mutual interest, such as migration and law enforcement. We have increased our diplomatic and consular presence, and we have taken steps to encourage travel and trade.»
For the legislator, «these steps remain only symbolic changes in a policy that continues to isolate and punish the Cuban people. After six decades of failure, it is time for the United States to try something different», because in the end it is «the Cuban people who are paying the price».
Representative Lee stressed that she will work «to create a smarter and more humane US policy towards Cuba».
The lifting of the economic, commercial and financial blockade of Cuba is a demand still unheeded by both the Democratic and Republican administrations in the White House.
To this policy of suffocation was added, in 2021, the reinclusion of Cuba on the arbitrary list of State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT), a decision taken by the then Republican President Donald Trump days before the end of his term in office.
Despite the promise to make changes in Cuba policy, the current Democratic president, Joe Biden, some five months before the end of his term in the Oval Office, not only continues to follow the line of the reinforced blockade but also maintains the SSOT designation.
