Organizaciones religiosas estadounidenses de distintas denominaciones, con vínculos históricos con el pueblo cubano enviaron recientemente una carta al Congreso para expresar su profunda preocupación ante las dificultades que enfrenta la población de la Isla, como resultado del reforzamiento de las restricciones y las sanciones estadounidenses. Asimismo, denunciaron que la situación afecta especialmente a niños, pacientes con cáncer y personas vulnerables, en medio de apagones prolongados, hospitales con servicios limitados y dificultades para acceder a tratamientos médicos esenciales.
Iglesias y organizaciones humanitarias destacaron el papel de las congregaciones cubanas en la distribución de alimentos, el cuidado de personas vulnerables y la asistencia a las comunidades, pero advirtieron que sus recursos son insuficientes frente a la magnitud de las necesidades, por ello instaron al Congreso de Estados Unidos a levantar el bloqueo, evitar cualquier escalada militar, facilitar el envío de ayuda humanitaria y a eliminar los obstáculos financieros y legales que dificultan el trabajo de las organizaciones religiosas. Asimismo, propusieron retomar una política de acercamiento que amplíe los intercambios diplomáticos, los viajes, las remesas y los vínculos comerciales.
El mensaje central de la misiva fue que la protección de la vida y la dignidad humana debe estar por encima de las diferencias políticas, y que el diálogo y la cooperación deben prevalecer sobre el aislamiento y la confrontación.
A continuación, texto relacionado:
October 26, 2026
Dear Members of Congress,
As faith communities from across the United States with deep connections to the Cuban people, we write with a deep sense of urgency about the humanitarian crisis facing the island. Our churches have partnered with Cuban congregations for generations, and our partners describe conditions most Cubans have never seen: nearly nine in ten families now living in extreme poverty, and more than a million people who have left the island since 2021 in the largest exodus in the country's history. U.S. policy, particularly the ongoing embargo and the growing risk of military conflict, is choking off access to the medicine, fuel, and food families need to survive. As people of faith committed to the protection of life, we urge Congress to prevent military conflict with Cuba, end the embargo, and return to a policy of engagement rather than isolation.
Children are dying in Cuba because doctors cannot get the medicines they need to save them. Cuba built a health care system once regarded as a model for the developing world, with infant mortality and life expectancy rates that rivaled wealthy nations. That system is now collapsing. A June 2026 report from the United Nations found that fuel restrictions and sanctions imposed this year are directly harming Cubans, especially the most vulnerable, and the numbers behind that finding are staggering. Infant mortality has doubled, childhood cancer survival has fallen from 85 percent to 65 percent, and essential medicines are available at only about 30 percent of normal supply. Daily blackouts have stretched past 20 hours as fuel shortages have driven food production down 60 percent. Hospitals are suspending surgeries, and families are going without clean water. No family should have to bury a child because medicine could not reach them in time.
Cuban churches are meeting this moment, but the need has outgrown what they can carry alone. Congregations share what little food they have, care for elders and children, and serve as trusted centers of refuge. U.S. faith-based organizations trying to send aid routinely face frozen bank transfers, added licensing requirements, and shipping delays, obstacles that slow help reaching people who cannot afford to wait. A recent $100 million U.S. aid package delivered through Caritas Cuba illustrates the scale of the gap: even with that support, Caritas has said plainly that the program cannot reach everyone in need. Our partners tell us they need resources to keep their neighbors alive.
While Cuba's own governance bears some responsibility, U.S. policy bears much of the responsibility for this current crisis. Longstanding structural weaknesses, poor economic policy, and governance decisions inside Cuba have contributed to the hardship Cubans face today. But the acute crisis now unfolding has a more immediate cause. The oil embargo imposed this year and the sanctions layered on top of it have cut off fuel, medicine, and financing more severely than any prior restrictions. Decades of U.S. embargo and sweeping sanctions policy have caused significant human suffering. We believe no policy should increase the suffering of innocent people.
The 2014 opening with Cuba shows what engagement can accomplish, including on human rights. As part of the 2014 agreement to restore diplomatic relations, the Cuban government released dozens of political prisoners and committed to allow visits by international human rights monitors, concessions that had not come from decades of isolation. Restored diplomatic relations reopened an embassy in Havana and created a direct channel for U.S. officials to engage openly with Cuban civil society. Expanded travel and remittances put resources directly into Cuban families' hands rather than the state's. Much work remained to be done on human rights in Cuba, and engagement was never a finished project. But it demonstrated that it can open doors that isolation keeps closed, and it did so without the United States compromising its concern for human rights.
As a matter of faith, we do not believe indifference to hunger, illness, and fear among the Cuban people is an option.
We respectfully urge you to:
- End the embargo. Sixty years of isolation have not achieved their stated goals and have deepened civilian hardship. Congress should lift the embargo and remove the statutory barriers that block normal trade, travel, and financial relations with Cuba.
- Reject military escalation. Congress holds constitutional authority over war and peace. Diplomacy, not military intervention, should guide U.S. policy toward Cuba.
- Expand humanitarian access now. Even short of a full end to the embargo, unnecessary barriers to food, medicine, medical equipment, and humanitarian fuel should be removed.
- Remove obstacles for faith-based and humanitarian organizations. Churches and relief agencies should be able to deliver aid and maintain partnerships without unnecessary legal or financial obstacles.
- Return to a policy of engagement. Expand travel, remittances, commercial ties, and direct diplomatic relations.
- Clarify permissible transactions for the private sector. Overcompliance by financial institutions and shippers is preventing delivery of permissible and licensed humanitarian aid.
This appeal is rooted in our shared commitment to the sacred worth of every human life. No foreign policy objective justifies leaving families hungry, sick, or without the basic means to survive. The measure of any policy is whether it protects human life, upholds human dignity, and opens a path to just and lasting peace. We urge you to help lead our nation toward a path of compassion rather than coercion, dialogue rather than isolation, and peace rather than conflict.
Alliance of Baptists
American Baptist Home Mission Societies
American Friends Service Committee
Church World Service
Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, U.S. Region
Cuba Partners Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA)
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Florida Council of Churches
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Friends United Meeting
Latin America Working Group
Mennonite Central Committee U.S.
National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
New England Yearly Meeting of Friends (Quakers)
Presbyterian Church (USA)
United Church of Christ
The United Methodist Church-General Board of Church and Society