In a public statement, more than 1,000 academics from over 36 countries across the Americas, Europe, Asia, Oceania and Africa call upon their peers worldwide “not to remain complicitly silent in the face of the crimes systematically and widely perpetrated by the United States government against the people of Cuba.”
The document denounces the energy blockade imposed by Washington since January of this year, which compounds the hundreds of unilateral coercive measures enacted by the Donald Trump administration and the policy—spanning more than six decades—of economic, commercial, and financial blockade against the largest of the Antilles.
Furthermore, it declares that these measures violate international law and constitute crimes against humanity, as well as a form of collective punishment against the entire Cuban population. The infant mortality rate is cited as an example in the appeal, having risen by 148% since 2018—from 4 per 1,000 births to 9.9 in 2025—as a direct result of U.S. policy.
The signatories state that they view “with great hope the emergence of voices among academics in the United States and other countries who, with rigor and courage, denounce these crimes.” However, they also lament that some academics join “the State Department’s chorus,” producing work that fails to enrich academic debate and instead serves as material “instrumentalized” for the commission of crimes against humanity.
Among the signatories of the “Call to Academia Regarding the Situation in Cuba: Silence Is Complicity” are: Alberto Rocha Valencia, Mexico; Allisa Trotz, Canada; Ana Esther Ceceña, Mexico; Anton Allahar, Canada; Atilio Borón, Argentina; Camille Chalmers, Haiti; Carlos E. Martins, Brazil; Claudio Katz, Argentina; Darío Salinas, Mexico; Dídimo Castillo Fernández, Mexico; Emilio Pantojas, Puerto Rico; Eric Toussaint, Belgium; Fernando Estenssoro, Chile; Francisco López Segrera, Cuba; Gabriel Rockhill, United States; Helen Yaffe, United Kingdom; Irene León, Ecuador; Isaac Saney, Canada; Jaime Estay, Mexico; Jaime Zuluaga, Colombia; Javier Vadell, Brazil; Jason Hickel, United States; Jeffrey Sachs, United States/Nicaragua.
Also: John Kirk, Canada; José Ramón Cabañas, Cuba; Josefina Morales, Mexico; Leandro Morgenfeld, Argentina; Luis Bernardo Pericás, Brazil; Luiz Eduardo Motta, Brazil; Maribel Aponte, Puerto Rico; Matías Bosch Carcuro, Dominican Republic; Mónica Bruckmann, Peru; Pablo Vommaro, Argentina; Par Kumaraswami, United Kingdom; Ramón Grosfoguel, United States; Raúl Rodríguez, Cuba; Renzo Llorente, Spain; Ricardo Domínguez Guadarrama, Mexico; Sacha Sergio Llorenti, Bolivia; Sandra Kanety Zavaleta Hernández, Mexico; Steve Ellner, United States; Tamara Lajtman, Brazil; and Teishan A. Latner, United States.
[ SOURCE: CUBA DEBATE ]
