What Happens When U.S. Citizens Defy Cuba Policy? | Medea Benjamin Responds

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]Those people who think that that we are that easily intimidated, they don't know code pink, but they will find out how determined we are.

[00:00:09]>> Hi, I'm Liz.

[00:00:24]Fox News recently reported on an investigation by the US Treasury Department. specifically the office of foreign assets control.

[00:00:34]According to the report, you and others were um cited in connection with your participation in the North America humanitarian convoy to Cuba in March 2026.

[00:00:46]Is it true?

[00:00:46]>> It's not a subpoena. It's a letter asking for information about uh the trip, what we did, what flight we took, uh what a aid we took with us, what did we do while we were there, those kinds of things.

[00:01:03]>> Where are they trying to get without um asking?

[00:01:07]>> It's a form of intimidation to try to get people who travel to Cuba to be afraid that the government's going to go after them. It's not a tactic that works with Code Pink because we're certainly not afraid of our government. We're afraid of our government's policies like the government policy towards Cuba and what it's doing to the Cuban people.

[00:01:29]That's what we're afraid of.

[00:01:30]>> Have you or Pink violated any US laws in your visits to Cuba?

[00:01:35]>> We didn't violate the law. In fact, we followed the letter of the law. We did not want to stay in a fancy hotel in Havana. We would much prefer to stay in a very simple hotel, but we weren't allowed to by the US government. You know, they have a list of hundreds of hotels we're not allowed to stay in and only a handful that are foreignowned.

[00:01:58]Uh, in this case, we stayed in a Spanish-on-owned hotel. We also uh came under the category of aid to the Cuban people and we brought humanitarian aid.

[00:02:10]We also did not go to the beach. We were not tourists. We spent our time in educational activities learning about the situation in Cuba. So we certainly are in compliance with the law. That's why we feel that this request for information is really just a form of intimidation. We didn't try to hide that we were going. On the contrary, we encourage people to speak out to use their social media. It's interesting that Hassan who has millions of viewers and lots of them young people have really been educated for the first time about what the US government is doing in Cuba. And I think it's the kind of social media reach that we had on that trip that is something that irritated a lot of the members of Congress and pushed them to push the Treasury Department to do something. How does Colin plan to respond to this?

[00:03:09]>> We will be responding legally. We don't want to confront the government over a trip. We want to confront the government over their policies. Uh that's why we're organizing demonstrations to try to stop the US from an invasion of Cuba. Uh, and that's why we're doing so much educational work to make the American people aware of how sadistic the US policy is towards Cuban.

[00:03:37]>> Why are you taking so much time and energy to try to educate people in the United States about Cuba? Why you care about Cuba?

[00:03:44]>> I personally first encountered Cuba when I lived in a poor village in Africa and I was dying from malaria and it was Cuban doctors who saved me. And then I saw Cuban doctors all over Africa saving lives. And I thought, "Wow, what kind of country is this that sends their doctors overseas living very, very simply uh and very dedicated to helping people who never had access to a doctor. And then I visited Cuba. I spent a lot of time in Cuba. And I was really quite amazed as somebody myself who studied nutrition and worked with poor malnourished kids around the world to see the kind of care that the Cubans put into their own children as well as children in other countries. And when the US under Trump has so severely increased its pressure on the Cuban economy, I've seen how so many of those gains have deteriorated.

[00:04:47]how difficult it is for doctors to take care of the babies in the incubators.

[00:04:52]I've seen the infant mortality rate more than double in the last few years. And that is so painful to think that my government's policy is literally killing babies in Cuba. And I think the American people have to know that because if they knew that, I think they would be appalled at what we're doing. Media, how are you sure that the cause of the crisis that we are going through right now in Cuba is because your government and not because the Cuban government?

[00:05:22]>> The Cuban government has uh had a very difficult time since 1960 when the blockade was first imposed and it was eased up during Obama. I remember being in Cuba visiting those years when things were much better for the Cuban people.

[00:05:42]And when Trump came in and uh erased all of those gains, you could visibly see how that affected the Cuban economy and the Cuban people. Uh COVID certainly hurt Cuba, especially because so many tourists stopped coming. But it really has been these this last period under Trump with the oil blockade that has to so totally uh affected all of the people living in Cuba. It's become a catastrophe. And I want people who are watching this, who are not in Cuba, just to think what their lives would be like if they didn't have access to electricity, if they didn't have fuel, if they didn't have public transportation. I mean, all of the ways that the lack of fuel has is affecting the lives of Cubans and uh the way that it's creating hunger, the way that it's stopping doctors from performing operations, thousands and thousands of people who can't get those operations. I mean, this is a sadistic policy. And for Marco Rubio to say with a straight face that it's the Cuban government at that there is no blockade uh is just ludicrous and it's mean. It's inhumane and it's a big fat lie. The first time I visited Cuba was in 1979 and uh I've been going to Cuba many times. Ever since then, particularly now with the difficult economic situation in the last few years, I've been going every few months taking food and medicine, focusing particularly on the children's hospitals. The children have nothing to do with politics. They're not socialists. They're not capitalists.

[00:07:39]They're just children and we need to help them.

[00:07:42]>> The situation now between the United United States and Cuba is getting tense and and you can feel it. Are you afraid right now?

[00:07:51]>> I'm not afraid at all. Uh I think the government is wasting its time going after me. I'm afraid for what the government is doing and might do in Cuba. I pray every day that the US is not going to invade. I want to change my government's policy so desperately that I am focusing so much of my time now on this issue because I never thought we would be in this situation where the US would want to invade. It's quite ironic, Liz, that Marco Rubio is so determined to see private enterprise thrive in Cuba and yet the very policies are destroying the private businesses that do exist in Cuba. And we know that Cuba is open to uh foreigners coming in and investing.

[00:08:44]And there are so many ways that this could be a win-win situation like we started to see under the Obama years. It really is so sad that we have this horrible tense situation instead of a normal relation with Cuba.

[00:09:02]You know, if the uh the if the guiltiness of Cuba is because it's a communist country, then why do we have billions and billions of dollars of trade with China? Why do we have billions of dollars with trade with Vietnam? If we think that Cuba is a country that doesn't allow uh freedom in terms of human rights and free expression, why do we have such great relations with countries like Saudi Arabia or Egypt, including here in my own country where we've seen uh what ICE has been doing in our communities, destroying the lives of people, tearing families apart, throwing people in detention centers. and it's not um uh fair to the Cuban people who should be the ones to decide their own future.

[00:09:51]>> What do you think that is the goal of the US government with Cuba?

[00:09:55]>> I think there might be different goals that perhaps the goal of Donald Trump is to have a Trump resort in Cuba, to have beachfront property, to have his name up in lights, uh and be in charge of tourism in Cuba. But then there's Marco Rubio and Marco Rubio and the uh few Congress people want to see regime change. Uh they want to see an absolute change of government. Uh some people say, "Well, why don't they do a kind of Venezuela thing where they just take out the president and continue to work with the other people in charge?" Well, Cuba is not like that. It wouldn't happen in Cuba. And that would not be enough for Marco Rubio and his cohorts like Diaz Balard and Maria Salasad and Carlos Himenez. They want to see an absolute change. If you think like the CubanAmericans, politicians like Marco Rubio that is now secretary of state or the ones that you mentioned like Mario Balar and the rest actually represent the will of the Cubanameans in the United States or the Americans in general.

[00:11:07]>> Well, when it comes to Cubanameans, they represent only one portion of Cubanameans. There's certainly uh millions of Cubanameans, especially the young people, who don't want to see US military intervention and don't want to see a policy that hurts the ordinary Cuban people, which is what the blockade is doing. When it comes to the general American public, the overwhelming majority are against a US invasion of Cuba. And of course, Liz, as you well know, we have the overwhelmingly majority of people around the world on our side because we see that every year at the United Nations, almost the entire world, except for the US and Israel, uh, voted against the US policy. So this is a policy that really only represents a small minority of CubanAmericans that unfortunately have a voice that is way uh louder than they should have because of the small group that they represent.

[00:12:08]>> What is your take on the media coverage of your humanitarian work and activism with Cuba? Well, first of all, we didn't even get the letter uh until after we heard it on Fox News, and it was sensationalized. It was very misleading.

[00:12:25]And uh on the one hand though, I must say it did give us a chance to talk. Uh we've had many media interviews since then. We've had a lot of people who didn't know about our efforts now learn about them and asking how can they join, how can they help. So in one sense uh it worked to the benefit of educating people about US policy towards Cuba. We will keep working and keep pushing and uh will not be intimidated and those people who think that uh that we are that easily intimidated. They don't know code pink. Uh they don't know the other groups who have been uh committed to supporting the Cuban people. But they will find out how determined we are.