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To the editor,
Cuba is the next nation in the crosshairs of the lawless Trump administration. In January, it effectively created a fuel blockade of the island.
This has increased the suffering of the Cuban people, who also have endured for over six decades Washington’s trade embargo. As The New York Times reported on April 3rd, “Cubans are struggling to navigate the most basic aspects of daily life, from community, to work, to receiving medical care.”
UN human rights experts issued a formal statement. It called the U.S. fuel blockade, “a serious violation of international law [and]… an extreme form of unilateral economic coercion incompatible with international law.”
UN human rights experts have also repeatedly called the decades long U.S. trade embargo, “a serious violation of international law [and]… a violation of sovereign equality, non-intervention, and self-determination.” The unhinged President Trump sees things differently. He said, “I do believe I’ll be having the honor of taking Cuba… in some form… I think I can do anything I want with it.”
Cuba is a case study of the lengths that U.S. foreign policy will go to undermine or overthrow governments in the Western hemisphere that are left-wing: whether socialist, democratic, authoritarian or a combination of the above.
By contrast, during and after the Cold War, Washington has helped to install and protect brutal, right-wing authoritarian governments. These have included Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile.
Major contentious issues between the U.S. and Cuba happened long ago: the Bay of Pigs invasion; the Cuban missile crisis; the attempts by the CIA, the national crime syndicate and anti-Castro Cubans to assassinate Fidel Castro and overthrow his government; the possible role pro-Castro Cubans or anti-Castro Cubans played in the Kennedy assassination; Cuba’s support for African liberation movements; and the Cold War that ended in 1991.
In 2026, Americans should ask, what forces are preventing better relations between the U.S. and Cuba?
Howard Elterman
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wpeakes
I'm at a loss trying to understand the ongoing, unnecessary, and inhumane way Cuba continues to be treated. At the end of the day, they're entitled to whatever political or cultural system the people want. It's in our best interests to see them succeed and perhaps become reliable partners in trade and security. We'll never get there as long as we let those in positions of political authority, like Marco Rubio, nurse old grievances.
Monday, April 13 Report this