Can Cuba outlast Marco Rubio? — Shortly after four members of Congress returned from a fact-finding visit to Havana early last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a tranche of new…

Can Cuba outlast Marco Rubio? Shortly after four members of Congress returned (pocan.house.gov) from a fact-finding visit to Havana early last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced (state.gov) a tranche of new sanctions against Cuba’s tourism, energy, trade and security sectors, the latest move in a months-long maximum pressure campaign (theguardian.com › marco rubio nears goal topple cuba government) intended to overthrow (wsj.com) the island’s government by year’s end.Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Teresa Leger-Fernández (D-N.M.), Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.) and Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) heard first-hand from a diverse range of Cubans that the de facto fuel embargo (nytimes.com › cuba oil blockade trump) and escalating secondary sanctions (akingump.com) against foreign firms in Cuba are strangling the very people the U.S. claims to support. The group referred (apnews.com) to the conditions they saw in the Cuban capital as a “silent Gaza,” contradicting the Trump administration’s claims (state.gov) that its brazen regime change gambit has only targeted the Cuban government.I accompanied the congressional delegation and have lived, worked and traveled to the island for over a decade. I can say confidently that, when the farmers, doctors, religious leaders, aid organizations, private entrepreneurs, and foreign diplomats with whom the members met (youtu.be › zdYMMgCqRH4) say the crisis in Cuba is more dire than at any point in recent memory, they mean it. Nationwide blackouts (reuters.com) are now a near-weekly phenomenon. With no electricity, access to running water (apnews.com) is increasingly scarce. Children are not attending school (nytimes.com › cuba oil gas crisis schools education) because teachers can’t get to work. Neither can most workers (france24.com), so private businesses are shuttering (wsj.com). With scant fuel (theguardian.com) and few international flights (newsweek.com), tourism (barrons.com) and the income (cnn.com › cuba hotels us tourists latam intl) it generates for independent Cubans are plummeting. Hospitals (nytimes.com › cubas health system us oil blockade) and clinics are running on fumes, as trash (nytimes.com › cuba trash fuel blockade) piles up on street corners, fueling mosquito-borne (crisis24.com