The Biden administration is facing mounting pressure from Congress to take decisive action and put us on a path toward peace and friendly relations with Cuba. In March, 80 US congressional representatives sent a letter to the president, urging him to reverse the Trump administration’s policies. More than 100 organizations, from the American Public Health Organization to Amnesty International, made a similar request to Biden. On the grassroots level, activists have organized monthly car caravans in over a dozen cities to demand an end to the embargo. Civil society organizations and social movements have raised over $400,000 to send syringes to Cuba.

If human rights are to be a core pillar of US policy, as a White House spokesperson recently declared, then the embargo must end. It is a policy that indiscriminately targets and harms civilians. It is a systematic violation of human rights on a massive scale.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s eloquent speeches about a rules-based international order ring false when it comes to US Cuba policy. Under international law, the US embargo of Cuba is illegal. Since 1991, the United Nations General Assembly has held a yearly vote to adopt a resolution calling for an end to the embargo. Every year, the United States finds itself isolated as nearly every country in the world votes in favor of this resolution. This year was no different: The June 23 vote showed 184 nations against the embargo, with only the United States and Israel in favor.