Ten progressive lawmakers, led by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-5), released a joint statement on Friday condemning the Department of State’s 100-page report titled “Cuba: Capital of 21st-Century Communism.” The statement admonished White House policy by highlighting how President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are “intensifying decades of economic war against the very people they say they want to help—all while attacking Americans who oppose the policy.”
But the State Department report does much more than just focus on Cuba. It not only minimized the struggle for Civil Rights and equality and the Black leaders who fought for them throughout history, but it also targeted everyone from that era to many of today’s anti-war, anti-imperialist, and civil rights voices. The work of fiction from the State Department did this by associating many major voices in social justice movements since the abolition of slavery with a fictional tale of Cuba manipulating the entire country using a fantastical clandestine operation.
“Trump appears hellbent on taking America back 70 years to the height of Cold War McCarthyism, when hawkish foreign policy was paired with unsubstantiated accusations of communist subversion and political repression against dissidents at home,” the joint statement reads. “Trump has repeatedly threatened to take over Cuba and has deployed U.S. military ships to seize fuel vessels attempting to arrive on the island. And yet, in an Orwellian move, this administration now claims it is Cuba carrying out the ‘assault’ against the United States, by turning ‘Americans into instruments of their own nation’s undoing.’
Several members of Congress who recently traveled to Cuba in the last year were signatories on the joint statement rebuking the State Department report. Their rebuttal goes on to address the weaponization of the U.S. government against anyone speaking out against the Trump administration’s policies, whether about Cuba, Gaza, immigration, or otherwise. Meanwhile, the targeting of so-called “leftists” has been met by broader silence among members of Congress on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers
“We condemn this report’s attack on Americans’ constitutional rights to free speech and assembly,” the joint statement reads. “We denounce this administration’s irresponsible attacks against civil society organizations, activists, journalists, labor leaders, Members of Congress, elected officials, and private individuals based on their advocacy for peaceful foreign policy and social justice at home.”
The joint statement then touches on the sanctions and the oil embargo against Cuba and the harm that they’re causing.
“Trump and Secretary Rubio are intensifying decades of economic war against the very people they say they want to help—all while attacking Americans who oppose the policy,” the joint statement reads. “The U.S. blockade deliberately deprives the entire island’s population of adequate food, fuel, and medicine. It is past time for Trump to obey the Constitution and end the dangerous, cruel, and illegal naval blockade causing collective punishment against Cuba.”
In addition to Omar, the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) Peace and Security Taskforce Chair, ten other CPC members signed the statement: Reps. Greg Casar (D-TX-35), Maxine Dexter (D-OR-03), Jesús “Chuy” García (D-IL-4), Jonathan Jackson (D-IL-01), Jim McGovern (D-MA-02), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY-14), Mark Pocan (D-WI-02), Delia Ramirez (D-IL-03), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-12), and Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY-07).
Out of the 212 House Democrats and the 45 Democrats in the Senate, about 17 have been leading the charge against Trump’s actions on Cuba. About 60 have signed joint letters and resolutions, I have found. These are paltry numbers. The question many are asking now is why Democrats have been silent. Sadly, the answer is likely more uncomfortable than they’d like: the suffering imposed on Cuba is largely bipartisan, and regardless of how much many hate Trump, if starving millions helps Democrats achieve their political aims, like Republicans, they’ll support it.
The world has seen it time and again, resulting in the U.S. killing more than 500,000 people a year globally, utilizing brutal economic sanctions. Voters in the U.S. are also keenly aware of this but either look away or fail to look deeper into why the U.S. does what it does. Some are also aware that it’s rarely ever about “freedom” or “democracy,” and almost always about taking control of a country’s natural resources and stealing its wealth. But voters in the U.S. are too often focused on improving their own lives as it becomes harder to get by every day.
What many don’t see is how U.S. foreign and domestic policy are intricately connected and driven by the same motivations: white nationalism hidden behind a false, bigoted, and racist interpretation of Christianity. Going back to McCarthyism, as many have suggested we have done, includes going back to Klan-like ideas and provocations, because one couldn’t exist without the other. The attacks on Black civil rights leaders, associating them with Cuba, and associating the Black liberation struggle with communism speak for themselves, highlighting how foreign and domestic policy intersect and the bipartisan nature of it all.
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