By Victoria Kill and Cindy Domingo, WILPF Cuba and the Bolivarian Alliance Committee
Please support our efforts to lift the blockade and oil embargo by joining our campaigns, traveling to Cuba (which remains legal), and donating to organizations that provide material aid to the Cuban people. Together with Global Health Partners, we are planning a new campaign focused on neonatal and maternal healthcare.
For 65 years, the US blockade of Cuba has persisted and now includes an oil embargo and direct military threats from the Trump administration—actions that bypass Congress and challenge the US Constitution’s division of war powers. A recent May 1 executive order expanded secondary sanctions, prohibiting all forms of international material aid to official Cuban organizations. Trump declared about Cuba, “I could do anything I want with it.” These unilateral coercive measures violate international law and the U.N. Charter and directly threaten Cuba’s sovereignty.
Members of the US Women & Cuba Collaboration and WILPF’s Cuba and the Bolivarian Alliance Issues Committee joined leaders from the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) and the National Union of Cuban Jurists (UNJC) at the March 2026 U.N. CSW NGO in New York. There, we presented two workshops addressing the urgent threats facing Cuban lives and sovereignty. Our workshop, “Defend Cuban Women’s Model Healthcare: End the US Economic Blockade,” was especially timely given the dire conditions imposed on the Cuban people by the Trump administration to force regime change.
At both our virtual U.N. Commission on the Status of Women NGO workshop and our in-person session at the annual US-Cuba Normalization Conference, we emphasized how the intensified US blockade disproportionately affects women and children in Cuba. We outlined plans for a future campaign to support pregnant women and reduce maternal and infant mortality—an urgent issue exacerbated by the blockade and oil embargo’s impact on Cuba’s healthcare and food systems.
Together with our Cuban colleagues, we spoke about the Cuban Revolution’s healthcare model—a foundation for advancing women’s human rights through universal access, equity, culturally appropriate care, and robust research and development. We highlighted how this model has uplifted all communities, including Afrodescendants, LGBTQIA+ people, girls, and elders, by institutionalizing community clinics, sexual and reproductive health, gender-affirming rights, and comprehensive prenatal and maternal care. We also discussed how the US blockade is devastating Cuba’s public health system, increasing maternal and infant mortality, restricting medical supplies and equipment, and placing additional burdens on women’s reproductive choices.
The US Women & Cuba Collaboration and WILPF’s Cuba and the Bolivarian Alliance Issues Committee are united in building a strong US women’s movement to end the US government’s blockade of Cuba and to foster mutually beneficial US-Cuba relations. Our work is rooted in universal human rights, racial and economic justice, and women’s rights. As women-led, multicultural volunteer NGOs, we partner with organizations that champion diversity, equality, and inclusion, and we strongly advocate for a just and peaceful US policy on Cuba.
Take Action with WILPF: Stand in Solidarity with Cuba!
Act now for Cuban sovereignty! Tell your representative to uphold Congressional war powers and oppose intervention in Cuba.
The WILPF Cuba and the Bolivarian Alliance Committee usually meets on the second Monday of each month at 5:00 p.m. PT/8:00 p.m. ET. Please join us!
To learn more about this critical issue, please watch the videos from our workshop, “Defend Cuban Women’s Model Healthcare”:
Maybel Gonzalez of Cuba defends Cuban Women’s Model Healthcare!
Vice President of the National Union of Cuban Jurists, Yamila González Ferrer, defends Cuba!
Bob Schwartz and Cindy Domingo speak out to defend Cuban Women’s Model Healthcare!
Learn more about the US Women & Cuba Collaboration and Global Health Partners.
For more information, contact lenivreeves (at) gmail.com or cindydomingo (at) gmail.com.
