Progressives must learn: You can’t believe everything Cuba says

When Democratic Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.) returned from Cuba earlier this month urging less U.S. “rhetoric” and a reconsideration of sanctions, they framed their trip as a humanitarian fact-finding mission. Unfortunately, too much of what they brought back was the Cuban regime’s preferred propaganda about itself.

There is no question that recent U.S. policy has worsened an already dire situation. Tighter sanctions, particularly restrictions on oil shipments, have aggravated Cuba’s fragile energy sector, contributing to blackouts and shortages that ripple across daily life. Any honest account must acknowledge that.

But to stop there is to adopt Havana’s preferred narrative: that Cuba’s suffering is primarily the result of external pressure rather than a political system that has spent decades prioritizing control over competence, repression over reform.

That narrative was on full display during the lawmakers’ visit. Jayapal and Jackson spoke movingly about Cuba’s material hardships and urged a less punitive U.S. approach. Their concern for ordinary Cubans is understandable. But concern is not the same as clarity. A visit that focuses on scarcity without fully confronting the political system that manages, distributes and often weaponizes scarcity risks reinforcing the very story the Cuban government most wants foreign visitors to take home. 

Faced with a government that imprisons dissenters, restricts expression and maintains a system of........

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