Both members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee published their reflections in The New York Times (NYT) on a five-day visit to the island, where they witnessed the impact of the United States’ extensive unilateral coercive measures on various sectors of society, especially public health.

Jayapal, representative for Washington’s 7th Congressional District, and Jackson, for Illinois’ 1st District, argued that “between 2018 and 2025, as U.S. sanctions became more punitive, Cuba’s once impressive infant mortality rate skyrocketed by 148 percent.”

They described their visit to a maternity hospital in Havana, where the U.S. embargo makes importing spare parts for equipment like “broken incubators nearly impossible,” and emphasized that their time in Cuba allowed them to better understand the humanitarian impacts of the U.S. energy blockade of the island, which has been in place for months.

“We returned shaken by the inhumane effects of this policy, whose objective appears to be to strangle the economy,” they stressed, explaining that with the exception of a Russian tanker that transported enough fuel for 10 to 14 days, crude oil shipments to Cuba “have been blocked for more than four months.”

The US restriction on fuel supplies to Cuba—which adds to the longest-running embargo in modern US history—defies international law norms that enshrine state sovereignty, non-intervention in internal affairs, and the right of nations to trade freely, Jayapal and Jackson warned.

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