1. United States
2. N.J.
3. Letter

The long history of intervention by United States in Cuba has inflicted needless hardship on generations of innocent civilians. For more than six decades, economic sanctions and political hostility have strangled Cuba’s economy, not as a measured diplomatic tool but as a blunt instrument whose primary victims are ordinary people. Families struggle to obtain medicine, basic food supplies, and essential materials—not because of their own actions, but because geopolitical disputes have turned daily survival into a political battleground. While Cuba’s government bears responsibility for many internal failures, it is dishonest to ignore how U.S. policy has worsened suffering. Restrictions on trade, banking, and international commerce isolate Cuba and make recovery nearly impossible. The result is predictable: crumbling infrastructure, shortages of lifesaving drugs, failing power systems, and an exodus of desperate residents forced to abandon their homes in search of stability. Punishing civilians to influence political outcomes is neither moral nor effective. The Cuban people are not adversaries; they are human beings entitled to dignity, opportunity, and the basic necessities of life. Decades of pressure have not delivered democracy, but they have delivered poverty and instability. It is time for the United States to acknowledge the human cost of its policies and pursue a course grounded in cooperation and humanitarian responsibility. Ending punitive measures that harm ordinary Cubans would not represent weakness—it would represent decency. A nation that claims to stand for freedom and human rights must ensure that its foreign policy does not continue to destroy the lives of innocent people just 90 miles from its shores.