These have little to do with the embargo and everything to do with the loss of Soviet subsidies, which kept the Cuban economy artificially afloat. Overnight, all imports required hard currency. The Cuban people are suffering today. They are denied the chance to earn hard currency at legitimate jobs. Their ration cards offer barely enough food for survival.
Milk is provided only to children under seven.
The elderly receive an unpalatable soy supplement. Herbal remedies are on the rise as medicines disappear. Lifting the embargo, in spite of continuing human rights violations in Cuba, may be a sensible and humanitarian step. But true progress in health care and nutrition, I fear, will not come until the creative energy of the Cuban people is unleashed within a free economy, in a free country. Thank you, Mrs. Linderman.