February 18, 2021

US policy towards Cuba for some 60 years has been done in the name of our people but largely without our  knowledge; it has been inhumane as well as illegal under international law.  

Since April 1960, US policy, adopted in secret at the time, assessed that because the Cuban revolution was  clearly supported by the majority of the Cuban people, the only way to dislodge it was to adopt measures “to  bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government“ in Cuba. (April 6, 1960 State Dept. memo by  Lester D. Mallory, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, approved; designated & kept  “secret” for decades, available here: https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v06/d499) According to a 2007 study done by the US government at the request of  Congress, the measures which followed were the most comprehensive set of U.S. sanctions imposed on any  nation (GAO, Nov. 2007, available here.) Many additional restrictions have been added or tightened since then,  making it even more difficult for our people to interact with people in Cuba.  

It is important to understand that this includes not merely an embargo, by which our country would not buy or  sell goods or services from or to Cuba, but is also extraterritorial, meaning that it actively prevents trade  between many other countries and Cuba. As such, it violates international law, and has been repeatedly  condemned by almost unanimous votes, including almost all of our allies as well as the rest of the world in the  United Nations general assembly for over 20 years. (https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/11/1050891)  

The severity of this US policy has waxed and waned depending on the president in office, but it has never been  abandoned. Hopefully that will change now.  

Here are a few examples, only in the field of food and medicine, although this affects virtually all attempts of  Cuba to trade with the world:  

● US fined company over $160,000 for supplying vaccines to infants in Cuba (2005 OFAC announcement)  In 2020 US extracted fine against US company because its foreign subsidiary provided non-US agricultural  commodities to Cuba ($257K OFAC fine for selling food to Cuba produced overseas; vs. BIOMIN America,  Inc. https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USTREAS/bulletins/28a31b6)  

● US sanctions caused foreign shipper to refuse to send medical supplies to Cuba The supplies were donated by the founder of Alibaba of China to most of the nations of the world to fight COVID-19.  (https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/cuba-pandemics-coronavirus-embargo200610120322400.html)  

Our people can benefit from normal relations and exchanges with our Cuban counterparts.  

Cuba has developed an effective medicine to prevent the growth of stage III lung cancer. A factory owner from  West Bend WI traveled to Cuba illegally to be treated and his Appleton oncologist said it showed remarkable  success. PBS’ Nova featured a one- hour documentary on this medicine in 2020, at https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/cubas-cancer-hope/

Another Cuban medicine has helped prevent up to 70% of foot amputations in people suffering from diabetes,  used in many countries of the world, but US restrictions on trade with Cuba make it unavailable here (see  Heberprot-P: a novel product for treating advanced diabetic foot ulcer, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23396236/).  

Cuba’s leading role in assisting over 40 nations in fighting COVID-19, on almost every continent, can be seen in this one page summary, http://us-cubanormalization.org/savinglives.uscubanormalization.org/docs/one-pager-cubas-health-achievements.pdf, and in this detailed document,  http://us-cubanormalization.org/savinglives.us-cubanormalization.org/docs/FactSheet-Cubas-HealthAchievements.pdf.

The BBC reported recently on Cuba’s COVID-19 vaccine development, and its hopes to share a successful low  cost vaccine with much of Latin America, “Optimism as Cuba set to test its own COVID vaccine,”  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-56069577 

As was shared with the staff at a predominantly Spanish-speaking MPS school, as well as with Laubach Literacy  Center, Cuba has developed a program to combat illiteracy that has been used very effectively worldwide,  including with indigenous people in Australia. This followed its iconic mobilization of tens of thousands of its  educated youth virtually eliminating adult illiteracy in Cuba in one year, which simultaneously empowered  especially the female student teachers to expect more in their lives and from their society. See  http://www.maestrathefilm.org/ 

As part of Cuba‘s program of international solidarity, it is currently educating two women from Wisconsin to  become medical doctors, tuition free, in return for their commitment to work as debt-free doctors in an  underserved area in the US, and please see their statement as separately emailed to you.  

These are just a few of the reasons and facts why we urge the Milwaukee board of school directors to adopt this resolution and share that with our elected representatives.