America is not the world’s arbiter of morality or good government. For decades, U.S. sanctions on Cuba have imposed excessive hardship on ordinary people and violated every norm of a civilized society. These measures have not brought freedom or prosperity. They have brought shortages, blackouts, hunger, and desperation.
Today, Cuban families are forced to cook with charcoal and firewood because cooking gas is unavailable and electricity repeatedly fails. Elderly people stand for hours in lines for basic supplies that never arrive. Hospitals struggle, food spoils without refrigeration, and daily life becomes a battle for survival.
The United States conveniently forgets its own history in Cuba. Washington long supported the corrupt and brutal dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, whose regime enriched elites while repressing ordinary Cubans. Many Cubans supported revolution because they were tired of foreign domination, inequality, and state violence backed by outside power.
America also continues to occupy Guantánamo Bay — Cuban territory held against Cuba’s wishes — where, during the darkest years of President George W. Bush’s “war on terror,” innocent detainees were imprisoned, abused, and denied justice. Guantánamo became a symbol not of democracy, but of indefinite detention, torture allegations, and moral hypocrisy, while costing American taxpayers billions of dollars.
No nation is perfect, including Cuba. But collective punishment of an entire population is neither moral nor humane. The Cuban people deserve engagement, dignity, trade, and humanitarian relief — not endless suffering imposed in the name of politics.
History will not judge kindly those who used sanctions and deprivation as weapons against civilians.
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