A important message from Claudia De la Cruz / Executive Director of IFCO
The economic siege against Cuba is a cruel and illegal act of war. A brutal and slow act of collective punishment. We condemn these cruel acts and are committed to fighting against them in defense of life.
“I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life!”
(Deuteronomy 30:19)
The U.S. blockade on Cuba is death. Let us choose life.
In the course of three months, the Trump administration has imposed a fuel blockade that has produced a deadly energy and healthcare crisis, launched an attack on medical brigades serving poor communities in the continent through coercion of hosting nation states, and has most recently, escalated by threatening sanctions on any foreign company or bank working with Cuba. The goal is to completely isolate and keep Cuba from the international banking system.
Inside Cuba, the U.S. imposed blockade is designed to create civil unrest at all cost, to cause misery and death amongst the people that leads to regime change. This has been proven to be a failed strategy of U.S. government administrations. The Cuban people have continuously withstood all pressures in defense of their socialist project. The Cuban people will not, and should not surrender their dignity. We, the people of the U.S., will not surrender our solidarity.
According to official data, currently, the surgical waiting list stands at 96,387 patients—including 11,193 children—figures that are rising due to the need to postpone non-urgent surgeries in order to prioritize oncological procedures and other life-saving interventions. The Maternal and Child Care Program faces the challenge of ensuring diagnostic ultrasounds for 32,000 pregnant women, while fuel shortages have hindered refrigerated transport, thereby complicating the timely vaccination of more than 30,000 children. The blockade targets medical supplies, oxygen tubing, dialysis filters, and vaccines. Women face life threatening pregnancies without basic obstetric equipment. The elderly, already fragile, do not have access to palliative care and insulin.
The Trump administration’s harshening of the blockade on Cuba is being carried out in the name of “freedom” and “security.” But Cuba is a sovereign nation, already free and independent; and it has never been a threat to the people of the U.S.
The blockade against Cuba is part of a long U.S. history and present reality of genocidal policies: the systematic denial of healthcare to black, brown and poor communities at home, the destruction of public education, the criminalization of poverty, and endless war budgets that leave our own homeless, hungry and our own infrastructure crumbling. The same government that blocks medicine for Cuban children also cut life saving programs for our children here. The pattern is consistent for U.S. government administrations: prioritize war and punishment over life.
We must not normalize the slow genocide of an entire nation. We will not stand silent.
We demand a fundamental shift. Respect for Cuba’s sovereignty and right to self determination. Diplomatic relations, not hostility. Collaboration, and an end to economic strangulation. End the U.S. blockade on Cuba! Let Cuba Live!
A Call to Action
Educate your congregation, classroom and community. The U.S. blockade on Cuba is a crime against humanity.
Demand your representative in Congress co sponsor the legislation aimed at ending the U.S. blockade on Cuba. Flood them with calls and visits today!
Organize and connect struggles. Fight for immigrant rights, universal healthcare, free education, dignified wages, student debt cancellation and all our communities deserve, while fighting against all forms of endless wars abroad.
Join and support organizations sending humanitarian aid to Cuba, defying the blockade, as an act of solidarity.
Claudia De la Cruz / Executive Director of IFCO
FOR MORE INFORMATION: www.ifconews.org
