Cuba energy embargo: US Democrats say Trump curbs are deepening blackouts

Four Democratic members of the US Congress who visited Cuba over the weekend criticised the energy embargo imposed by US President Donald Trump, with one lawmaker saying the curbs had turned the island into a “silent Gaza”. The delegation said the restrictions were deepening hardship in Cuba and affecting daily life across the country.

The US imposed the energy embargo in January after the capture of Venezuela’s then-President Nicols Maduro and also threatened tariffs on other countries that sell fuel to Cuba. The report said the measures have worsened a five-year crisis caused by earlier sanctions and failed domestic policies, including monetary unification.

Representatives Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, Teresa Leger-Fernndez of New Mexico, Maxine Dexter of Oregon and Delia Catalina Ramrez of Illinois arrived on Thursday and stayed until Monday. During the visit, they met Cuban President Miguel Daz-Canel, ministers, medical professionals and business leaders, and also toured the streets of Havana. This was the second visit by US representatives to Cuba in three months.

Asked whether there had been any progress in talks between Washington and Havana on lifting the energy embargo, the lawmakers said there were currently no such discussions. “I think (Secretary of State) Marco Rubio is making this personal and not professional,” Pocan said. Rubio is the son of Cuban immigrants and grew up in Miami, where he began his political career under the strong influence of anti-Castro exile groups.

Both governments have said on several occasions that their officials have been in contact, but it is unclear when they last met and neither side has shared details. Recently, Col. Ral Guillermo Rodrguez Castro, the grandson of 95-year-old socialist leader Ral Castro, offered himself as an intermediary with Trump. He secretly met Rubio on the sidelines of a Caribbean Community summit in St Kitts in February.

Trump and Rubio have said they hope the embargo will strangle Cuba’s government, which they accuse of being inefficient. Cuban authorities have described the move as collective punishment. The effects are being felt across the island, with blackouts lasting more than 20 hours a day, limited public transport, flight cancellations, a fall in tourism, reduced working hours and a wider paralysis of domestic life.

The lawmakers strongly criticised the impact of the blockade. Pocan said a person he met in Cuba described the current situation as a “silent Gaza”, which he called an “apt description”. “There may not be bombings, but there are certainly conditions that prevent people from going about their daily lives. They can’t go to work, they can’t preserve their food, they can’t access medical supplies, or live as they did before,” he said. Leger-Fernndez said it “doesn’t make any sense at all to force a country to suffer”.

Dexter, who is also a trained physician, and Ramrez said they would try to push amendments in Congress to reduce the health impact of the measures and to prevent Trump from taking further action without legislative authorisation, including the armed operations he repeatedly threatened. The visit underlined the lawmakers’ criticism of the embargo and the wider strain it has placed on life in Cuba.

With PTI Inputs

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