WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) this week delivered remarks from the Senate floor underscoring how an attack by the Trump Administration on Cuba would be another reckless and illegal use of U.S. military power. In his remarks, Senator Welch emphasized the overwhelming opposition to a war with Cuba, especially amid President Trump’s war with Iran. 

“Like so many of the President’s apocalyptic predictions, there’s no sign the administration wants to negotiate a deal and Cuba has not fallen. Instead, the U.S. oil blockade—which if the tables were turned, every one of us would denounce as an illegal act of war—has absolutely paralyzed Cuba’s economy, and it’s plunged the Cuban people into darkness and into misery,” said Senator Welch. “The country is facing economic collapse, literally, and the United States is complicit in that. In fact, that’s the point of the U.S. actions. By causing Cuba’s economy to collapse and leaving millions of innocent Cubans without enough food or access to medical care, the White House hopes to create the ‘national security emergency’ it seeks to justify regime change, including, if necessary, using military force.”     

Watch Senator Welch’s full remarks below:  

Read a key excerpt from Senator Welch’s speech: 

“Cuba is a bankrupt country. It’s smaller than Virginia. It has neither the capacity nor intention to threaten the United States. Even before the Trump Administration cut off the oil, Cuba’s economy was barely functioning. Today, electricity is unavailable for most hours of the day and night across the entire island. So, this means that hospitals, schools, factories, food production have ground to a halt. Havana’s streets are overflowing with garbage,” said Senator Welch. “You know, the reason Cuba is ‘down to fumes’ is due to its own government’s repressive, failed policies and because of the U.S. oil blockade. But no American president, under any circumstances, ‘friendly’ or ‘unfriendly’, should threaten to ‘take over’ another sovereign nation that poses no imminent or credible threat to our country. And no U.S. Congress should condone such flagrant misuse of military power.” 

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Senator Welch continued, “Nobody here or in Cuba should be under any illusions: an unauthorized, unjustified, reckless war with Cuba is where we are heading. The United States has ‘one playbook that fits all’—that’s the approach to dealing with regimes that it doesn’t like: pile on the economic sanctions, threaten to wipe them off the face of the Earth, and when that fails, attack. There’s no plan B if things don’t go as predicted, no plan for what comes next, and no plan for how to pay for it.”

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In April, Senator Welch delivered remarks from the Senate floor urging support for a War Powers Resolution to block the deployment of U.S. Armed Forces in hostilities against Cuba and to end the Trump Administration’s illegal military blockade of Cuba. The Senator also spoke from the Senate floor in March to condemn Cuba’s leadership for persecuting political dissidents and the island’s failed centralized economy, while urging President Trump to prioritize the national interests of the United States and the well-being of the Cuban people in negotiating an agreement between the two countries. 

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