We believe that current U.S. policy toward Cuba is counterproductive and warrants significant change. For decades, the dominant approach has been one of isolation and pressure — a strategy premised on the idea that tightening the screws on the Cuban economy would force political change. The evidence does not support this premise. After more than sixty years, the Cuban government remains in place, while the Cuban people bear the heaviest burden of the sanctions designed to pressure their rulers.
History shows that policies of isolation and sanctions rarely achieve democratic transitions; instead, they disproportionately hurt the Cuban people and provide the government with a convenient scapegoat for its own failed economic system. When a family cannot access medicine because of financial restrictions, when a small business owner cannot receive a wire transfer from a relative abroad, when a student cannot access educational resources because of digital restrictions — these are not abstract policy consequences. They are human costs, borne by real people who did not choose the government under which they live.
Furthermore, such policies undermine international cooperation, preventing a multilateral approach to Cuba’s challenges. The United States’ ability to build effective international coalitions on Cuba is severely limited by a unilateral approach that most of the world’s democracies do not share. A smarter U.S. policy would leverage multilateral frameworks, engage regional partners, and build the kind of broad international consensus that is far more likely to produce meaningful and lasting change.
Economic sanctions can also have the unintended effect of delaying necessary reforms by denying Cuba access to global financial institutions and the resources essential for macroeconomic stability. When the Cuban government attempts market-oriented reforms — however timid — the absence of access to international finance makes those reforms harder to implement and sustain. Paradoxically, a policy designed to weaken the Cuban government may also be weakening the very economic reform process that could ultimately transform it.
We also firmly reject travel restrictions and policies of isolation that fracture families and hinder the reconciliation process. The ability of Cuban-Americans to visit their families, send remittances, and maintain cultural and personal ties to the island is not a political concession — it is a human right. And beyond its humanitarian dimension, people-to-people engagement is one of the most powerful forces for democratic change available. Every Cuban who returns from a visit abroad carrying new ideas, experiences, and networks is a vector of transformation.
We believe that people are the most effective messengers of ideas and values; therefore, open engagement is not only more ethical but a far more powerful catalyst for meaningful change. A U.S. policy toward Cuba that prioritizes people over politics, engagement over isolation, and pragmatism over ideology would not only better serve the Cuban people — it would better serve the long-term interests of the United States. That is the policy we advocate for, and we will continue to make that case to every administration and every Congress until it becomes reality.