Washington
\nTwo Democrats from the US House of Representatives visited Cuba last week, the first such delegation to go to the island this year since US president Donald Trump imposed a de facto oil blockade in a bid to bring Cuba\u2019s communist-run government to its knees.
\nCongressional representatives Pramila Jayapal, a leading member of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, and Jonathan Jackson, a Democrat with a long interest in Cuba, said they had come to \u201csee the suffering that is happening on the ground\u201d as a result of Trump\u2019s fuel embargo, which they called \u201can illegal blockade of energy supplies.\u201d
\nThe lawmakers\u2019 visit comes at a time of unprecedented tension in the decades-long frosty relationship between the US and Cuba. The Trump administration has closed the tap on remittances to Cuba, threatened to slap tariffs on countries that provide oil to the island and placed it on a list of nations that sponsor terrorism.
\n\u201cThis is the most sanctioned part of Planet Earth right now, just 90 miles off our shores,\u201d Jackson told a small group of reporters at a privately-owned hostel near Havana\u2019s waterfront. \u201cLet\u00b4s bring the rhetoric down. People are suffering. And they are suffering for no good reason.\u201d
\nThe lawmakers said their five day trip, which ended on Sunday, included meetings with President Miguel Diaz-Canel, Cuban lawmakers and top officials at Cuba\u2019s foreign ministry.
\nBoth nations have acknowledged they have begun talking, though few details of those discussions have been made public.
\n\u201cThere has been dialogue\u2013the beginnings of dialogue,\u201d Jayapal said following meetings with top Cuban officials. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s reached the state of negotiation that we were told. But I think there is a desire to ensure that there is a real negotiation…about what needs to happen in order for the situation to change.\u201d
\nThe lawmakers said they were saddened after visiting an oncology unit and a maternity ward in Havana hospitals that have been deteriorating for decades but have been particularly hard hit by Trump\u2019s fuel blockade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington Two Democrats from the US House of Representatives visited Cuba last week, the first such delegation to go to the island this year since US president Donald Trump imposed a de facto oil blockade in a bid to bring Cuba\u2019s communist-run government to its knees. Congressional representatives Pramila Jayapal, a leading member of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540413,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-540399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n