More than fifty economists and other experts on U.S. sanctions and foreign policy questioned Thursday the serious damage caused by the White House’s unilateral coercive measures against Cuba and Venezuela, according to information dated in Washington.
The group sent a letter addressed to New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez, in response to one he recently sent to members of the U.S. House of Representatives. “Menendez has a lot of power in the foreign policy of the U.S. Congress, since he chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,” Dan Beeton, director of International Communications of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), based in Washington, DC, told Prensa Latina.
He recalled that the legislator “belongs to a family of Cuban exiles, so he has always been very hard on U.S. policy towards Cuba and, in general, on right-wing policy towards Latin America.”
“He explained that it is unusual for a U.S. senator to take it upon himself to send an unsolicited response to a letter from members of the House of Representatives addressed to the president,” Beeton said.
“It is a sign – he pointed out – of Menendez’s zeal to maintain the embargo (blockade), and another example of the political division between the more conservative, or ‘mainstream’ Democrats, and the more left-wing faction that criticizes the sanctions and some other U.S. policies toward Latin America.”
On May 10, Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, whose district is located in the border area of El Paso (Texas), sent a letter to President Joseph Biden, signed by 20 other representatives of the Lower House. In their complaint, they urged the president to lift sanctions on Cuba and Venezuela, in part because they contribute to emigration to that country.
The letter received positive coverage in The Washington Post, Politico, The New Republic and other media outlets. Even former officials of the Barack Obama administration (2009-2017) condemned these asphyxiating measures, pointing out their connection to migration.
Meanwhile, Senator Menendez published a rejoinder opposing calls to reverse the sanctions against both countries, nor did he offer any evidence, or cite any research, to support his broad claims that the sanctions are not incentivizing migration to the United States.
