8:30 pm EST/5:30 pm PST
Cuba was plunged into darkness Friday due to an aging electric system and shortages of fuel. Authorities struggled for 3 days to get the system back up, and today, Monday, it is only partially restored. Additionally the eastern end of the island was struck Sunday by a category 1 hurricane.
As power comes and goes, so also does the water supply.
Act now. Join us Tuesday evening.
While Cuba is currently experiencing economic and infrastructure hardships, the ongoing punishing economic sanctions and financial structures of the US government make recovery and full function of Cuba’s electric grid increasingly difficult, and at times impossible. Reliant on imported fuel and spare machinery parts, hammered by US restrictions on tourism that could bring in hard currency for such purchases, turned away by international banks because of the constraints of Cuba’s placement by the US on the list of so-called State Sponsors of Terrorism, Cuba has very few places to turn for relief in its crushing economic and energy situation. Daily they must choose between importing fuel or importing food. This is not fair. And it is our government that is standing over Cuba with its boot on Cuba’s neck.
In this current crisis, we ask you to make our government accountable, and to change the U.S. economic and political policies against the Cuban people.
- Join the Emergency Summit Tuesday evening, Oct 22 at 8:30 pm EST/ 5:30 pm PST where we will hear an update from the Cuban Embassy, and you will help us launch both a stepped up advocacy campaign and a humanitarian fundraising campaign. Register here. Bring your ideas.
- Write immediately to your Congressional representatives – here. Write to the White House – here. Demand that Cuba be removed now from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism and that the Trump/Biden sanctions hampering movement of goods and services into and out of Cuba be lifted now.
- Join local actions of protest of US policy and support for the Cuban people. Find out more information about these through the National Network on Cuba chapter organizations here.
Congressman Jim McGovern, 10/20/2024:
U.S. Policy has directly contributed to Cuba’s energy problems by sanctioning ships carrying oil to Cuba and starving the country of foreign exchange earnings it needs to import fuel & spare parts….Now is the time for the U.S. to offer humanitarian assistance to help Cuba restore its electrical grid & deal with shortages of food & medicine that are impoverishing the Cuban people and driving unprecedented migration to the United States.
The best help the U.S. government can give to the Cuban people is to remove Cuba from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism and lift the 243 Trump/Biden sanctions.
WE can help the Cuban people by insisting in the streets and with our letters, newspaper ads, and phone calls that the U.S. government take its boot off Cuba’s neck. We can provide immediate assistance ourselves with humanitarian donations.
Please join us Tuesday night:
Tony Van Der Meer & Merriam Ansara, Mass Peace Action
Bob Schwartz, Global Health Partners
Cheryl LaBash, National Network on Cuba
Vicki Gass, Latin America Working Group
Wisconsin Bail Out the People Movement 
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