“The U.S. oil blockade against Cuba is cruel and despotic,” wrote the Democratic representative from Minnesota, stating that “this is an economic war designed to suffocate an island, where innocent civilians will pay with their lives to force regime change.”

“We must lift the blockade NOW,” stressed Omar, one of the voices of the more progressive wing of the Democratic Party in the U.S. Congress.

Her social media post on Thursday was accompanied by an article published in The Wall Street Journal about the situation in Cuba following Trump’s executive order of January 29.

The Republican president declared a national emergency regarding the island and, to address it, designed a series of coercive tariffs to be applied extraterritorially to countries that attempt to supply oil to Cuba, directly or indirectly.

“Daily life in Cuba is grinding to a halt due to the U.S. campaign to block oil imports to the island, which has generated international criticism,” the newspaper reported.

Another statement made the previous day at the Capitol came from Jim McGovern, Ranking Member of the House Rules Committee, who introduced a new bill to lift the embargo against the Caribbean nation.

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