The United States embargo and the web of extraterritorial sanctions imposed on Cuba must end immediately

For more than six decades, economic pressure has been imposed by the United States on Cuba as a lever for democracy when, in reality, it functions as collective punishment. Shortages of fuel, food and medicine are not abstractions in policy papers – they are daily realities for ordinary people. Sanctions do not isolate governments; they isolate families. They do not weaken elites; they weaken hospitals, schools and workers trying to live with dignity.

An economic siege is not diplomacy. It is coercion by other means. No people’s right to sovereignty can be defended by strangling their economy until they submit. The claim that hardship imposed from abroad will produce freedom has repeatedly failed across the world. What it produces instead is scarcity, suffering and the closing of political space – the very opposite of democratic flourishing.

Meaningful change cannot be imposed through deprivation. Reform born out of desperation and external pressure is neither stable nor democratic. Real transformation requires social participation, security and the freedom to debate without the shadow of economic warfare.

Cuba’s future must therefore be shaped by Cubans themselves – not by sanctions regimes, financial blacklists or threats issued from Washington or anywhere else. Ending the embargo would not resolve every challenge facing Cuban society, but it would remove the structural barrier that distorts every internal political and economic choice.

We call for the immediate lifting of the embargo and all extraterritorial sanctions, and for a return to relations based on dialogue, cooperation and international law.

Solidarity means supporting people, not punishing them.

Do you want to be informed of DiEM25's actions? Sign up here