End the suffering: Lift the sanctions on Cuba now

When Volker Türk, high commissioner for human rights at the United Nations, speaks in such stark moral terms—“children are dying”—the world should listen. His recent call for the United States to lift its sanctions on Cuba is not ideological. It is humanitarian.

This is no longer a debate about geopolitics. It is about whether policies enacted in Washington are contributing to preventable deaths just 90 miles from U.S. shores.

The latest round of measures under Donald Trump has gone far beyond targeted sanctions. By cutting off fuel supplies and expanding extraterritorial penalties, these policies have effectively paralyzed an entire society. Hospitals cannot operate reliably without electricity. Food cannot be transported efficiently. Medicines cannot be produced or imported on a large scale. The result is predictable—and devastating.

Infant mortality has doubled. Childhood cancer survival rates have dropped sharply. Thousands of patients, including children, are waiting for surgeries that cannot happen. These are not just statistics; they are broken families, grieving parents, and lives cut short.

Supporters of sanctions argue they target government repression, including actions connected to Miguel Díaz-Canel and state security forces. However, even United Nations officials recognize Cuba’s internal human rights issues while still calling for an immediate end to broad economic sanctions. Why? Because sanctions of this size do not stay confined to political elites. They spread, indiscriminately, throughout the entire population.

And for Cuban Americans, this isn’t just a policy debate—it’s a deeply personal issue.

Families are being torn apart not only by migration but also by deprivation. Relatives in the United States send money, medicine, and supplies to loved ones on the island, only to find those efforts blocked or made pointless by systemic shortages. Flights are fewer. Financial transactions are more difficult. Communication itself becomes strained under economic collapse. Sanctions, in practice, are breaking family ties just as effectively as any physical barrier.

There’s a bitter irony here. A policy often justified in the name of freedom is actually limiting the most basic human rights: the ability to care for one’s family, access healthcare, and live with dignity.

None of this absolves the Cuban government of responsibility. But collective punishment is not the solution. Decades of embargo have not achieved what the US demands for Cuba. What the U.S. has consistently brought is hardship for ordinary people.

The present moment is especially perilous. With fuel shortages causing blackouts up to 20 hours a day, and hurricane season approaching, the humanitarian dangers are rapidly increasing. Add rising temperatures and the spread of disease, and the situation starts to look like what Türk described as a “perfect storm.”

The United States faces a choice.

It can continue down a path that further isolates Cuba, increases suffering, and fractures families across the Florida Straits. Or it can adjust course—lifting broad sanctions that hurt civilians while adopting more targeted, humane, and effective approaches to engagement.

Lifting these sanctions is not a concession. It is a correction.

It is an acknowledgment that human rights are universal—that a child in Havana deserves the same opportunity at life as a child in Miami. That family bonds should not be collateral damage of foreign policy. And that moral leadership requires the courage to change course when policies fail.

The call from the United Nations is clear. The evidence is overwhelming. The human cost is undeniable.

It is time to lift the sanctions—immediately.