The World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) views with profound alarm the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in Cuba. The effective blockade of oil is not merely a new political tactic; it represents a grievous escalation of a decades-long injustice that has systematically eroded the quality of life for the Cuban people. We echo the cry of our recent prayer, lifting up a people who continue to endure profound economic hardship, as sanctions and political decisions, made far from kitchen tables and hospital wards, fall most heavily on those with the least power.
For years, the world has grown accustomed to the narrative of Cuba’s “economic slump.” The comprehensive sanctions imposed by the United States have become a normalized feature of the geopolitical landscape. This normalization has obscured a fundamental truth: the slow, grinding erosion of daily life is a direct contradiction of the abundant life that God desires for all creation. As our past statements have affirmed, including our 2021 call to end the blockade, these policies have systematically undermined access to food, medicine, fuel, and essential resources, disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable and deepening suffering rather than contributing to peace, justice, or human dignity.
However, the events of this past week signal that the situation has now escalated to a terrifying new level. The world’s normalization has been shattered by a crisis that has moved from chronic deprivation to acute disaster. The cutting off of oil—the lifeblood of a modern society—is starving hospitals, halting the transport of food, and grounding the airplanes that bring tourists and the foreign currency Cubans desperately need. This is no longer a slow decline; it is a rapid freefall. The UN World Food Programme is now preparing for a crisis of a “far larger” scale. This is the direct consequence of a strategy, described by diplomats in Havana, to starve the country “until people take to the streets.”
To understand the crisis today, we must speak truthfully about its roots. The suffering of the Cuban people cannot be separated from histories of colonialism, imperialism, and unequal power that continue to shape international relations. For over six decades, comprehensive sanctions imposed by the United States have systematically strangled Cuba’s economy.
But what we witness now is a radical and dangerous escalation. The current US administration, following military action against Cuba’s ally Venezuela, has moved from maintaining a state of chronic deprivation to engineering a rapid collapse. The executive order imposing tariffs on any nation supplying Cuba with oil is a weapon of mass incapacitation. It is designed to halt the transport of food, shut down hospitals, ground the tourism industry, and turn off the lights in people’s homes. This is not pressure for political change; it is collective punishment.
An Immediate Call to Advocacy
We can no longer afford the comfort of indifference. As a global communion committed to justice, truth, and the flourishing of all people, faithful discipleship compels us to speak and to act.
Therefore, the WCRC:
- Calls on all member churches, especially in the United States, to raise their voices with prophetic urgency. Contact your governors, your representatives, and your media. Demand an end to this inhumane blockade. Let it be known that silence in the face of such engineered suffering is complicity.
- Urges governments around the world to publicly condemn this strategy and to provide immediate humanitarian assistance to the people of Cuba. We welcome the aid sent by Mexico and urge others to follow, while simultaneously demanding that the root cause of the crisis—the US blockade—be removed.
- Reaffirms our unbroken solidarity with our partner churches and ecumenical councils in Cuba.We see you. We pray for your strength. We will not stop advocating until the walls of this unjust policy are reconfigured to build bridges of peace.
We lament where indifference has replaced compassion, and where ideology has silenced our response to human suffering. But lament without action is incomplete. We call on the global community to move from prayer to prophetic advocacy, from concern to confrontation of unjust power.
The God of life, who hears the cry of the poor, calls us to be agitated until justice flows like a river. The time for agitation is now.
