During the Parliamentary Public Hearing "Cuba Wants Peace," convened by the National Assembly of People's Power, Cuban women deputies addressed a letter to the women members of the United States Congress and to the women of the United States. Read the full text of the letter below:
Honorable Members of Congress, women of the United States of America:
We write to you from Cuba, in our capacity as female deputies of the National Assembly of People’s Power. We are women, mothers, grandmothers, daughters, and citizens deeply committed to the defense of human rights, equality, and the dignity of all people.
We are addressing you because we firmly believe in women’s capacity for dialogue, for understanding human suffering when it affects entire families, and for raising our voices when justice and humanity demand it, beyond political differences.
Since late January of this year, President Donald Trump has issued two executive orders that intensify the economic, commercial, and financial sanctions the Cuban people have endured for more than six decades, stating that Cuba poses an extraordinary and unusual threat to U.S. national security. A total oil embargo has been imposed, and pressure has been ramped up on countries or companies that dare to trade, invest, or facilitate financial transactions with Cuba. This serves the interests of a tiny anti-Cuban minority who care nothing for the severe consequences for the population.
Our noble country poses no danger to any nation, and these measures are creating a humanitarian catastrophe; they are suffocating our people, causing anguish and deep suffering among those of us who live the daily reality in our communities.
The consequences of these policies do not fall onto abstract structures; they fall on specific people, on the human beings who inhabit this nation. Those of us who work for women’s rights know that crises are never neutral. Women are always the first to bear their most severe impact. They are the ones who sustain daily life, develop survival strategies, and provide care when there is a shortage of electricity, food, drinking water, transportation, fuel, medicine, sanitation services, and more. It is devastating that a power shortage brings neonatal and intensive care units to a standstill; it is heartbreaking that we are deprived of the possibility of purchasing essential parts and supplies for treatments or the operation of medical equipment, or buying the medications needed to cure or prolong the lives of patients with serious illnesses. All of this causes unnecessary suffering and can even become an inevitable cause of death. We are talking about lives: there are 96,387 patients awaiting surgery, of whom more than 11,000 are children; 16,000 patients undergoing radiation therapy; 2,888 who depend on hemodialysis treatments; and 32,000 pregnant women who require ultrasounds—services that demand energy stability currently very difficult to guarantee; the infant mortality rate has risen from 4.0 to 9.2 per thousand live births, and life expectancy for children with cancer has dropped from 85% to 65%; to name just a few examples. That is why we are writing to you today. As legislators, you understand the value of democratic institutions and of solutions built through dialogue rather than confrontation.
You also know that conflicts, sanctions, and economic pressure tactics primarily affect those least able to protect themselves from their consequences.
We ask you to examine, with human sensitivity, the real impact that the maximum pressure measures imposed by your government are having on the daily lives of millions of Cubans, measures which are disproportionately affecting their right to access health, food, education, development, and a dignified life—measures whith the sole purpose of using the humanitarian crisis they cause as a pretext for military aggression.
We ask you to use the moral, political, and legislative authority you possess to promote paths of dialogue, understanding, and cooperation; that you reject this escalation, which could lead to greater tensions and a military confrontation that will only bring suffering to our peoples. You have the capacity to promote legal actions both to lift the sanctions that are suffocating us and to prevent war.
Cuba is a country of peace, but it has the right to defend itself if attacked. We do not want Cubans or Americans to die, but behind every political decision, human lives are at risk.
We, women, are not merely those who bear the consequences of wars and crises: we are also peacemakers, mediators, leaders, and decision-makers. May history remember that, when the danger of confrontation seemed to prevail, the female legislators of the United States had the courage to defend dialogue, cooperation, humanism, and peace.
With respect, hope, and confidence in the transformative power of women’s leadership, we send you this heartfelt appeal.
Female deputies of the National Assembly of People’s Power Republic of Cuba.