Democrats are clashing with Biden over sanctions on Cuba and Venezuela. But they have to get past the hawks in their own party, first, mainly, the powerful senator, Robert Menendez.
by Daniel Larison, Responsible Statecraft
A group of House Democrats wrote a letter to President Biden last week urging him to reverse Trump-era sanctions on Venezuela and Cuba. In the letter, which was organized by Reps. Veronica Escobar and Raul Grijalva, they identified the economic damage wrought by sanctions as one of the important factors driving the current migration crisis.
The signatories were a mix of Democrats from southern border states and progressives from other regions. They made a damning case against Washington’s use of broad sanctions against these two countries, and they appealed to Biden to provide sanctions relief on both pragmatic and moral grounds. The letter is the latest in a series of protests from members of Congress against the so-called maximum pressure campaigns that have remained in place under the Biden administration, and it shines a light on the human costs of the sanctions that so many people in Washington reflexively support.

While the focus of the letter was on the role of sanctions in contributing to the border crisis, the members also spelled out the destructive effects of economic warfare on the targeted populations and condemned these policies for their cruelty and their failure to achieve any U.S. goals. Their communication reflects a growing awareness among some members of Congress of the bankruptcy of economic warfare as a policy and their recognition that the U.S. cannot show solidarity with the people living under authoritarian regimes by starving and impoverishing them.
Recent Posts
Buttigieg Has A Flip-Flop Problem That Could Hurt In 2028
September 2, 2025
Take Action Now Buttigieg, appearing on “Pod Save America,” avoided taking a position on whether the U.S. should continue with shipping arms to…
Support For Labor Unions Near Historic High As Trump Trashes Working Class
September 2, 2025
Take Action Now “Working people want unions and the numbers prove it,” says one labor leader. “While billionaires and their yes-men…
Into The Uncanny Valley: Human-AI War Machines
September 2, 2025
Take Action Now Are military AIs more ethical than biological soldiers?By Peter Byrne, Project Censored In 1757, British philosopher David Hume…
These Billionaires Have Already Spent $19 Million In A Bid To Defeat Mamdani
August 31, 2025
Take Action Now Michael Bloomberg and anti-DEI pundit Bill Ackman are just two of the many billionaires showering cash on Cuomo.By Mike Ludwig,…