Rep. Jim McGovern introduces bill to end “counterproductive” U.S. embargo against Cuba

On Thursday, Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts introduced a bill in the House of Representatives calling for an end to the 64-year-old U.S. embargo against Cuba.

The proposed measure comes as the Trump administration moves toward a total oil blockade on the island nation, following the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Since Maduro’s capture, the United States has halted all shipments of Venezuelan oil to Cuba. President Trump also threatened to impose tariffs on countries that ship oil to the island.

Cuba’s oil deprivation has sparked concern among international bodies, including the United Nations, which have warned that the situation would strain an already fragile oil situation and create a humanitarian crisis in the country.

“For 60 years we have been waiting [the] embargo to do what Washington politicians claim to do: bring freedom and democracy to the Cuban people. It failed,” McGovern wrote in his new bill.

“It’s time to get rid of the old, outdated and ineffective policies of the past and try something different. Let’s focus on the Cuban people – and treat them as human beings who want to live their lives with dignity and freedom. The Cuban people – not the politicians in Washington – should decide their own leaders and their own future.”

The Massachusetts representative’s proposal mirrors a similar bill that was introduced in the U.S. Senate by Oregon Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) in 2025.

Additionally, McGovern criticized the seemingly hypocritical nature of the blockade on Trump’s desire to curb immigration to the United States.

“The Trump administration claims to want to reduce migration, but its own hard line only encourages migration to the United States by worsening living conditions in Cuba,” he wrote.

“Not only is the embargo absurdly ineffective, it is counterproductive because it harms the very people it is intended to help. It is not Cuban elites who are harmed by our policies, it is ordinary people and their families who are denied food, medicine and basic necessities. We must use diplomacy and engagement to achieve our goals.”

McGovern is not new to seeking an end to the embargo, his advocacy on the subject dating back at least to 2000.

At the turn of the century, he wrote an article in the Times calling on former President Bill Clinton to end the Cold War policies that threatened tensions between the two countries.

“The president should … declare to the Cuban people that the Cold War is finally over,” McGovern wrote in his 2000 article. “He should announce that he will use his executive power to normalize diplomatic relations, lift travel restrictions on U.S. citizens wishing to visit Cuba, and lift the outdated economic embargo to the extent permitted by current law.” »

Other Democratic congressmen have criticized the devastating nature of the oil embargo in recent days. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez compared the Cuban crisis to that of Gaza, Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota called for the “cruel” and “despotic” blockade to be lifted, and Rep. Chuy García of Illinois said the blockade was “deliberately starving civilians” in Cuba.

To help stem Cuba’s humanitarian crisis, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum last week sent two of her country’s warships filled with humanitarian aid to the island, despite Trump’s tariff threats.

In another effort to send aid to Cuba, an international coalition is preparing to send a resource-laden flotilla in March to the Caribbean archipelago. Named after “Nuestra América,” the 1891 essay by Cuban independence leader José Marti, the “Nuestra América Flotilla” mission is modeled after the Global Sumud Flotilla, which attempted to deliver aid to Gaza last year amid the Israeli blockade of the Palestinian coast.

The coalition includes, among others, the political and grassroots organizations Progressive International, the People’s Forum and Code Pink.

“We are sailing to Cuba, providing crucial humanitarian aid to its people,” organizers wrote on the flotilla’s official website. “The Trump administration is choking the island, cutting off fuel, flights and life-sustaining supplies. The consequences are deadly, for newborns and parents, for the elderly and the sick.”