Cubanews, 13 April 2020. The Cuban-American teacher Carlos Lazo, a veteran of the Iraq war, has addressed President Donald Trump directly to ask him to “extend a hand of solidarity” to the people of Cuba and lift the sanctions against the island at this time of crisis in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lazo, a resident of Seattle, Washington state, cites in his letter the endorsement of a petition on this issue by more than 12,000 signatures already obtained from the platform change.org. His main argument for asking the President of the United States to lift sanctions against Cuba are the effects that these imply for the Cuban people directly.
“The embargo of the United States against Cuba is not a weapon with millimeter accuracy, it is not an intelligent and surgical bomb that hits the target of a government that needs to be shoot down in the island. The one affected by this set of sanctions is the Cuban people.”
The embargo/blockade is codified as law and its revision or lifting would depend on the United States Congress, not on the executive branch. But the Trump administration could indeed modify additional actions within its isolation policy against Cuba, which has practically intensified since arriving at the White House in 2017.
Some of these actions have involved reversing practically all the advances in bilateral relations begun during the Barack Obama administration.