House Democrats return from Cuba visit, decry Trump's sanctions on the communist island

the embargo is the problem. Not the one-party state. Not the secret police. Not the fact that Cuban doctors are essentially rented out to foreign governments while their own hospitals lack aspirin. The sanctions.

It's worth asking who these lawmakers actually spoke to. Trips like this tend to run through government minders, state-approved itineraries, and carefully curated "ordinary Cubans" who happen to say exactly what the Ministry of Tourism wants foreign officials to hear. That's not a conspiracy theory, it's how Havana has managed visiting delegations for generations. If the suffering is as severe as they say, it's strange that the description of its cause lines up so neatly with the regime's own talking points.

Nobody credible thinks the embargo has produced a thriving Cuba. But blaming Washington lets the actual authors of that misery off the hook entirely. The Castro-Diaz-Canel government nationalized private property, crushed independent business, jailed dissidents, and mismanaged an economy that could otherwise feed itself. Sanctions didn't do that. Six decades of central planning and repression did.

If these members of Congress want to help the Cuban people, there are better asks than lifting pressure on the men keeping them poor. Push for free elections. Push for release of political prisoners. Push for an economy where Cubans can open a business without a government permit and a bribe. Asking Trump to ease up on Havana while the regime stays exactly as it is isn't compassion. It's giving the jailer credit for the prisoner's hunger.