Jim Winkler, former president and former general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States, stated, “Trump’s oil blockade, like the entire US blockade of more than 60 years, is unnecessary and immoral.”

Winkler led the country’s largest ecumenical organization, including 37 Christian faith groups, from 2013 to 2022, which together encompassed more than 100,000 local congregations and some 35 million followers.

The New York-based International December 12 Movement said, “Cuba does not represent a threat to black, poor, or working-class people in the United States. The danger we face comes from the government itself, which is attempting regime change.”

The real “threat” that Cuba represents to the United States, it emphasized, is the example it has set through its existence: free healthcare and education, as well as affordable, subsidized housing.

The group affirmed that Trump has increased his aggressive rhetoric against Cuba internationally, and domestically, he is imposing “a police state due to his inability to solve the economic problems of a decaying capitalism.”

The January 29 decree declares a national emergency regarding Cuba, under which Trump deemed it necessary to impose a regime of unilateral coercive tariffs on countries that sell or supply oil directly or indirectly to Cuba.

The Jose Marti US Cultural Association also condemned, in a press release, Trump’s decision and warned that the current administration seeks to “increase its criminal actions against Cuba, its government, and its sovereignty disproportionately.”

jdt/iff/mem/mem