September 25, 2026 — Belly of the Beast
While the Washington press corps continues to give Trump administration officials a free ride on Cuba, some members of Congress have been less accommodating.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) excoriated Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last week over Cuba policy, accusing him of creating fuel, food and power shortages on the island.
“What are you doing Mr. Secretary?” Waters grilled Bessent during a House Financial Services Committee hearing. “You cut off all the oil to Cuba. You’re starving the families. You’re starving the children. They don’t have electricity. They can’t get food in.”
Since May, Bessent’s Treasury Department has been the agency responsible for imposing sanctions targeting Cuba’s state oil and gas company, fuel distributors and entities involved in supplying equipment to the island’s energy sector.
Waters urged Bessent to change course.
“Let the oil flow. Let them have electricity,” she said. “You could be kinder. You don’t have to be cruel.”
Watch Waters confront Bessent HERE.
U.S. Lawmaker on Blockade: “It’s Evil”
Waters is part of a growing number of congressional Democrats that are proactively challenging the Trump administration on its Cuba policy.
Some of them—unlike Marco Rubio, Scott Bessent and Trump himself—have gone to Cuba to see the impact of U.S. policy firsthand.
In July, Reps. Maxine Dexter (D-OR), Mark Pocan (D-WI), Teresa Leger Fernández (D-NM) and Delia Ramírez (D-IL) traveled to Havana, where they visited the Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital to hear directly from doctors about shortages of medicines, equipment and other supplies.
“We don’t have the resources to perform major surgeries,” Dr. Calixto Hernández told the delegation.
He said the hospital had performed 2,300 surgeries in the first four months of this year—900 fewer than during the same period the year before.
“Does this make any sense?” Leger Fernández asked. “A blockade that prevents basic materials for health?”
Leger Fernández pointed to the doubling of Cuba’s infant mortality rate. “I can’t imagine any American citizen wants to say, ‘I want babies to die,’” she said.
“We have to end this war on the Cuban people,” said Ramírez. “It’s not just immoral. It’s evil.”
Watch the lawmakers’ visit to the hospital HERE.
