The full text of the detailed report is available at
https://tinyurl.com/SanctionsKillCubanBabiesReport
What follows is the press release that the US-based Center for Economic
and Policy Research issued together with the report. It is available at
https://tinyurl.com/SanctionsKillCubanBabiesPress
Art Young
(press release) NEW REPORT SHOWS THAT HARDENING OF US SANCTIONS ON CUBA
SINCE 2017 FUELED A SHARP INCREASE IN CUBA’S INFANT MORTALITY RATE
April 27, 2026
Washington, DC — A new report from the Center for Economic and Policy
Research (CEPR) finds that the expansion of US sanctions against Cuba
beginning in 2017 were likely the primary cause of a major increase in
infant mortality in Cuba. The report, by Alexander Main, Joe Sammut,
Mark Weisbrot, and Guillaume Long examines the unprecedented increase in
Cuba’s infant mortality rate (IMR), which soared by 148 percent from
2018 to 2025. During this time, US unilateral economic coercive measures
against Cuba were greatly tightened by President Trump and then largely
maintained under President Biden before being tightened even further
during the second Trump administration. Had Cuba’s IMR remained stable
over the last eight years, then approximately 1,800 deaths of infants
would not have occurred.
“The Trump policy of ‘maximum pressure’ on Cuba has killed a lot of
babies — and, although we don’t yet have data for the last few months,
it’s highly likely that more babies are dying now, and at an even higher
rate than last year as a result of the current US fuel blockade
targeting Cuba,” CEPR Director of International Policy and report
coauthor Alexander Main said. “The question is how many more babies will
have to die before the current economic siege against Cuba is lifted.”
The report notes that “In Cuba, where for decades the state has invested
substantially in health care services, the IMR was … among the lowest in
the Western Hemisphere, and lower than in the US,” but that “Since 2018
… Cuba’s IMR has increased from an annual rate of 4.0 per 1000 live
births to a rate of 9.9 as of 2025.”
The paper also notes that Cuba, unlike its neighbors in the region, has
not rebounded economically from the COVID-19 pandemic, averaging just
0.4 percent annual per capita GDP growth from 2020 to 2024, versus 3.2
percent for the Latin American and Caribbean region as a whole.
The report looks at the economic and social effects of the hardening of
US sanctions since 2017, focusing in particular on the impact on Cuba’s
health-care sector. Trump administration pressure on Cuba has included
restrictions that have sharply diminished the island’s important tourism
sector; severely limited exports of goods to Cuba — including essential
medication and medical equipment; cut Cuba’s access to international
financial markets by putting the country back on the State Sponsors of
Terrorism list; curbed remittances; pressured countries to end their
partnerships with Cuba’s medical missions, and notably imposed a recent
fuel blockade that prevents Venezuelan oil from reaching the island.
“US sanctions have targeted Cuba’s key sources of export earnings, such
as tourism, remittances from Cuban Americans to their family members,
and even by putting pressure on other countries to end primary care
programs staffed by Cuban doctors. These measures sharply reduced Cuba’s
capacity to pay for needed food and medicines,” CEPR International
Research Fellow and coauthor Joe Sammut said. “Cutting off medical
services exports is doubly cruel as these programs mostly serve
marginalized communities in poorer countries, while bringing in foreign
currency revenues to Cuba in a mutually beneficial trade. As such the
increasing US sanctions have a negative health-care spillover even
beyond the island of 10 million people.”
As the report discusses, recent research has shown that unilateral,
broad economic sanctions are as deadly as armed conflict, killing some
564,000 people annually, according to a study by CEPR economists
Francisco Rodríguez, Silvio Rendón, and Mark Weisbrot published in
August in The Lancet Global Health. More than half of these deaths are
children under five, and deaths of infants are even more
disproportionate, since they are three-quarters of the under-five
population.
“The sanctions on Cuba starkly illustrate how these economic sanctions
work: they target the civilian population, often with the goal of
provoking regime change,” said Mark Weisbrot, CEPR Co-Director. “This
can dramatically increase death rates, as shown statistically in the
Lancet Global Health study of economic sanctions throughout the world.
The increased mortality in Cuba fits this pattern, and the causality is
visible.”
The US Senate may vote as early as Tuesday, April 28, on a War Powers
Resolution introduced by Senators Tim Kaine, Adam Schiff, and Ruben
Gallego to “to prevent [US] Armed Forces from engaging in hostilities
[against Cuba] unless authorized by Congress.”
“This legislation pending in Congress right now argues persuasively that
the current blockade constitutes a military participation in hostilities
that is unlawful according to the US Constitution and law because it has
not been authorized by Congress,” Weisbrot said.
“The collective punishment of civilians is prohibited by the Fourth
Geneva Convention when there is armed conflict, and can be prosecuted as
a war crime. This would appear to be applicable now that the current
naval blockade involves the US military.”
The report also describes the vulnerability of newborn babies in Cuba to
the impact of blackouts and fuel scarcity — as recently reported by The
New York Times. “The blockade has had a particularly dire effect on
Cuba’s health-care infrastructure, with frequent power outages
interrupting the use of critical equipment for the treatment of
patients, including incubators for premature babies, and ventilators to
help sick newborns breathe,” Guillaume Long, CEPR Senior Research Fellow
and coauthor said.
The report notes: “Given the effects of the US energy blockade, it is
highly likely that Cuba’s infant mortality rate has increased
significantly since December of 2025, when it had reached 9.9 per 1000
live births. Other key health indicators, such as life expectancy and
maternal mortality have also very likely deteriorated since the
beginning of the year.”
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