I present the account of two Democratic representatives from the United States who recently visited Havana. Interesting, of course, because of the authors' backgrounds. Published in The New York Times on May 11 (available in its entirety to subscribers only) and on May 12 in Spanish, from which I offer an automatic translation using Microsoft Word and the few available comments.

Jacques-François Bonaldi

GUSNOTE: TRANSLATION FROM FRENCH BY JULES LETAMBOUR

May 12, 2026 (original English: May 11, 2026)

By Pramila Jayapal and Jonathan L. Jackson. Jayapal, of Washington's 7th Congressional District, and Jackson, of Illinois' 1st Congressional District, are Democratic members of the House of Representatives.

Alejandro, a premature baby born at the Eusébio Hernández Pérez Maternity Hospital in Havana, weighed only one kilogram when we met him in April. We observed him in an incubator, one of the few in the building whose delicate electronics hadn't been damaged by the voltage fluctuations that follow nationwide blackouts. Severe U.S. sanctions make it nearly impossible to import spare parts for the other malfunctioning incubators.

During our visit to the hospital, we saw women in the final days of their pregnancies climbing stairs because the elevators don't work without electricity. Hospital staff struggle to get to work without fuel in their cars. During blackouts, doctors sometimes have to manually pump ventilators to keep babies alive. They say the hospital has managed to avoid an increase in infant mortality in recent months, but other centers across the country haven't been so lucky. From 2018 to 2025, as U.S. sanctions intensified, Cuba’s previously relatively low infant mortality rate surged by 148 percent. 

As members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, we spent five days in Cuba in April to better understand the humanitarian impact of the month-long U.S. energy blockade against the island. We were shocked by the inhumane effects of this policy, which appears designed to strangle the economy until it drives the Cuban people to ruin and leave the country, as President Donald Trump put it, ready for a “takeover.”

With the exception of a Russian tanker carrying oil for 10 to 14 days, fuel supplies to Cuba have been blocked for more than four months, as other countries fear their tankers will be seized in open waters by U.S. warships. The resulting daily humiliations have permeated all of Cuban society. We returned from our trip certain that if the American people knew the full extent of what is really happening in Cuba, they would demand an immediate end to the blockade.

The U.S. fuel blockade against Cuba, in addition to the longest embargo in modern U.S. history, defies the norms of international law that establish state sovereignty, non-interference in internal affairs, and the right of countries to trade freely. It amounts to an economic attack on Cuba’s basic infrastructure, designed to inflict collective punishment on civilians by manufacturing a humanitarian crisis in which healthcare, running water, agriculture, and transportation are no longer available.

During our visit, we met with a wide range of Cuban citizens: political dissidents, religious leaders, businesspeople, as well as members of civil society and humanitarian organizations. We also met with relatives of Cuban political prisoners. Everywhere, there was one agreement: the American blockade had to end, and there should be no invasion by the United States.

We were able to see firsthand how the Americans could benefit from the normalization of relations with Cuba in key ways. Under other circumstances, Cuba would be a natural trading partner for the United States. Several secretaries of agriculture from both Republican and Democratic states visited the island to explore opportunities for exporting American agricultural products to Cuba, opportunities hampered only by the American financial restrictions related to the embargo.

The Cuban healthcare system, for decades a global model of public health, has produced major advances that could extend to Americans, including promising treatments for Alzheimer’s and lung cancer. And Cuba, like the United States, could benefit from a tourism boom. When President Barack Obama took steps to normalize relations with Cuba, hotels, restaurants, and shops flourished across the island, spurring the liberalization of the Cuban economy and the emergence of an independent civil society.

The Cuban government can and should act internally to improve political and civil rights, including ending arbitrary detentions and the mistreatment of political prisoners, a point we raised during our meeting with President Miguel Díaz-Canel. But it has taken significant steps, such as announcing the release of prisoners in 2010 in what the country’s state newspaper called a “humanitarian and sovereign” gesture. Cuba’s decision to allow an FBI investigation into a recent deadly maritime shooting involving Cuban-Americans was another important sign of transparency and goodwill.

Many of the economic changes the Trump administration said it wanted during the lockdown are already underway. Recently, the government has allowed Cuban-American businesspeople to invest in private companies. Small and medium-sized enterprises now constitute a large part of the economy and the workforce.

But liberalizing reforms cannot counter a deliberate U.S. campaign to destroy the Cuban economy. In recent weeks, Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced new, sweeping sanctions against the Cuban economy, claiming that the island poses a threat to U.S. national security.

These measures have reaffirmed that the greatest obstacle to improving the daily lives of Cubans remains the outdated U.S. policy of economic coercion and military pressure from the Cold War era, the only result of which has been the isolation and suffering of the Cuban people. Further destruction of Cuba, including military action, would only lead to further economic collapse and more Cubans fleeing the island.

The United States and Cuba can turn the page and engage in genuine negotiations if they are based on mutual respect and aim to benefit the people of both countries. This is what we believe is within reach: a real opportunity for children like Alejandro and for the next generation of Cubans who deserve to experience the generosity of the American people and to live with hope for the future.

Pramila Jayapal and Jonathan L. Jackson

New York Times Reader Comments

Alvaro Abff

Spain · 10 hours ago

The situation on the island is utterly inhumane, created slowly over years, and accelerated by a mentally unstable President Trump who is completely devoid of empathy for those who are suffering.

Adolfo

Anaheim · May 14

And because instead of lifting what is called the blockade, why would it be better for the 60-year dictatorship to end and for the people to elect their leaders, for what?

Aram Joao

Cuba · May 15

@Adolfo The most important thing is to remove the blockade.

Carlos

Florida · May 14

For nine years, from 1999 to 2008, I was the director of medical supplies in Havana, and the hospitals lacked everything. This isn't new; the country doesn't have a productive system that generates money because of government mismanagement.

Aram Joao

Cuba · May 14

I think the way Donald Trump speaks about my country is disrespectful. The way he threatens us with an invasion only makes him a terrorist. He is not a respectable president. I dream of the day they lift the economic blockade and my land can prosper, but I know it won't be during his term.

Mia

South America · May 14

The analysis clearly shows that the Trump administration is ready to finish off, and is doing so with, the Cuban people. It is preparing to stay with Cuba and perhaps transform this beautiful island into the brothel it was in Batista's time, but more sophisticated and modern, and which would be declared without any shame, as is currently happening with Venezuela. According to Trump, the 51st state, Cuba would be the 52nd state of the United States.

RAUL GARCIA

CARACAS, VENEZUELA · May 14

The people are cannon fodder — Chavez, Fidel Raul, the managers of his revolution, never went hungry — 7 million left because of hunger — The revolutionaries, who all came from poor workers — stole more than the traditional oligarchs — without moral control, decency, or civility because they don't know it — they were never middle class — they come from the same pool as the criminals who are in the Prisons — Statistics — How many middle-class criminals are in prison? — They liked it + nothing

https://www.nytimes.com/es/2026/05/12/espanol/opinion/embargo-cuba.html

https://www.legrandsoir.info/ce-que-nous-avons-vu-a-cuba-nous-a-impressionnes.html

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