Tell Florida media: Stop ignoring the truth about Cuba! Act Now!

Dear John,

I just returned from Cuba, and what I saw there shocked me. Probably like you, I’d heard plenty about the amazing achievements Cuba’s made in healthcare, education, gender equality, and so many other sectors, but I didn’t understand the tireless labor that went into those achievements every single day. I also knew the U.S. blockade has strangled Cuba for over 60 years. I understood this had horrific impacts, but I didn’t realize how bad it had gotten. Cuba is living through its worst crisis since the revolution — rolling blackouts, mass emigration, and shortages in everything from food to medicine.

Even in the face of this U.S.-imposed catastrophe, Cubans care for each other in ways I’d never seen before. From the women I met who look after elderly and disabled people with dignity and pride to the doctors taking every measure possible to tend to expecting mothers — all completely supported by the government — Cuba showed me firsthand what a loving society can look like.

Tell Florida media: Stop ignoring the truth about Cuba!

In the U.S., the media hardly talks about Cuba, and when Cuba is covered, it’s rarely based in reality. Democracy becomes dictatorship. Doctors become slaves. Peace talks become terrorism. Armed with these all too pervasive lies, U.S. officials implement more and more aggressive measures to collectively punish the Cuban people.

In July, Trump and Rubio announced a slew of new sanctions on Cuba, and this month, they’ve started sanctioning health officials in other countries which receive Cuban medical missions. They say measures like these only hurt  “the regime” — they’re lying. Everyday Cubans bear the brunt of this hybrid warfare. People’s lives are completely upended by a blockade that most people in the U.S. don’t even know is still in place. Schools, stores, restaurants, clinics; every sector of society is hurt in some way.

Beyond Cuba, millions of people around the world have received medical care from Cuban doctors. There are indigenous, rural, and working people who would never have had access to healthcare if it weren't for Cuba’s medical missions. As Trump & Rubio spin more and more lies about the program, they’re threatening to cut off many vulnerable communities’ only access to healthcare.

Add your name and send the letter to Florida editors now: Tell the media to report the truth about Cuba

While I was in Cuba, a friend I made explained to me how her grandfather was hospitalized for months because he couldn’t get a pacemaker. Few companies dare to do business with Cuba for fear of retaliation from the U.S. government. On top of this, because many pacemaker parts are made in the U.S., they’re subject to ridiculous restrictions on exports to Cuba no matter where they come from. This means that hospitals have a chronic shortage of pacemakers, and when a pacemaker finally became available, my friend’s family watched it go to another patient who needed it more. When her grandfather was finally able to receive a recycled pacemaker, it was from another patient who’d passed away.

In the U.S., we’re price gouged to access medicines and medical equipment that are sitting in warehouses.  The Cuban healthcare system, with extremely limited resources, is constantly working to distribute everything they have on the basis of need — for free.

It’s the official policy of our government to deny Cubans lifesaving medical equipment like this. The people I met in Cuba told me countless other stories about so many other essential goods they struggle to access under the blockade. The ingenuity and perseverance we see in Cuba can be as inspiring as it is heart wrenching. Even in the worst economic crisis of their lifetime, Cubans work hard to care for each other and distribute their extremely limited supplies fairly — but they shouldn’t have to. 

Help us send more pacemakers to Cuba

While Trump tries to push Cuba’s economy to complete collapse, he’s gutting our schools, our healthcare system, and whatever else remains of the U.S. social safety net, too. Both efforts are desperate measures to maximize him and his friends’ exploitation of the people and planet. But even after over 60 years of U.S. aggression, Cuba continues to show us that another world is possible. Shouldn’t we help them build it?

In radical solidarity,
Tim, Medea, Michelle, Teri and the whole CODEPINK team