The New York Post:
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called on the US to lift what she called its “absurdly cruel” embargo of Cuba Thursday in her first formal statement responding to the ongoing protests that have rocked Havana’s Communist regime.
“We are seeing Cubans rise up and protest for their rights like never before,” Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) began. “We stand in solidarity with them, and we condemn the anti-democratic actions led by [Cuban] President [Miguel] Diaz-Canel. The suppression of the media, speech and protest are all gross violations of civil rights.”
The “Squad” member went on to call the embargo “the US contribution to Cuban suffering,” adding that it “is absurdly cruel and, like too many other US policies targeting Latin Americans, the cruelty is the point.
I outright reject the Biden administration’s defense of the embargo. It is never acceptable for us to use cruelty as a point of leverage against every day [sic] people.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s call to lift the embargo, which has been in place since 1962, echoed that of socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who tweeted earlier this week that the embargo had “only hurt, not helped, the Cuban people.”
AOC’s statement came less than a day after Black Lives Matter issued an almost identical statement.
The Black Lives Matter group denounced the embargo Wednesday as a “cruel and inhumane policy” that was “instituted with the explicit intention of destabilizing the country and undermining Cubans’ right to choose their own government.”
