Yvette Clarke is urging the United States government to immediately end its oil blockade and economic sanctions against Cuba, warning that the measures are deepening a humanitarian crisis that is devastating ordinary Cuban families.
In a forceful letter sent to President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Jamaican-American congresswoman said the administration’s policies are contributing to worsening food shortages, prolonged blackouts, rising infant mortality rates, and growing hardship across the island.
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Clarke, who serves as chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and represents Brooklyn’s heavily Caribbean-American 9th Congressional District, said the humanitarian consequences of the sanctions can no longer be ignored.
“Under the administration’s oil blockade and tightening of sanctions, Cubans are dying,” Clarke stated, citing reports that Cuba’s infant mortality rate has more than doubled since 2018 as access to food, fuel, and medical resources continues to decline.
She warned that shortages affecting pregnant mothers and newborns are becoming increasingly severe.
“With food shortages leading to more underweight pregnant mothers and their newborns, too many Cuban children are unable to make it out of the hospital and home to their families,” the congresswoman wrote.
Clarke said the Congressional Black Caucus has long championed peace, justice, and humanitarian responsibility in U.S. foreign policy, adding that the current approach toward Cuba contradicts those principles.
“Enough is enough,” she declared. “The Congressional Black Caucus will not stand by and allow this administration to continue this barbaric policy that generates unimaginable human suffering in Cuba.”
The congresswoman called on the Trump administration to lift sanctions and allow the Cuban people access to essential resources needed to sustain daily life and stabilize the country’s worsening humanitarian conditions.
Her appeal comes amid escalating tensions between Washington and Havana. Earlier this week, the Trump administration deployed the USS Nimitz and three accompanying warships to the Caribbean Sea, further intensifying pressure on the Cuban government.
The deployment coincided with the United States Department of Justice unsealing an indictment against former Cuban President Raúl Castro and several co-defendants over the 1996 shoot-down of aircraft operated by the Miami-based exile organization Brothers to the Rescue in international waters.
