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medea benjamin
'Saving the Lives of Babies Is a Crime?' Humanitarians for Cuba Speak Out Over Alleged Subpoenas
"It is outrageous that the US government would target people for bringing humanitarian aid... But even more disturbing is the cruel and deeply immoral policy the United States continues to impose on Cuba."
May 25, 2026
The antiwar group CodePink it has yet to be served with any subpoenas after it was reported over the weekend that the Trump administration has opened an investigation into a recent humanitarian trip it helped organize to Cuba, but vehemently denied wrongdoing and said any government probe, if there is one, would only show that "this administration is beyond grotesque."
"Taking medical supplies to pediatric hospitals in Cuba is now a crime?" asked co-founder Medea Benjamin on social media on Saturday after Fox News reported that organizers had been served subpoenas. "Saving the lives of babies is a crime?"
Fox reported that Benjamin and left-wing commentator Hasan Piker had been subpoenaed by federal investigators two months after they were among 40 Americans who sailed to Havana on the Nuestra America Convoy, which carried 20 tons of humanitarian aid to the island nation.
The Fox reporting claimed the subpoenas issued to Benjamin and Piker seek to obtain financial, logistical, and communications information related to the trip, which was organized in response to the Trump administration's decision in late January to threaten to impose tariffs on any country that provided Cuba with oil.
The administration cut off Cuba's main source of fuel at the beginning of the year when it sent US troops into Venezuela to abduct President Nicolás Maduro and took control of the country's vast oil supply.
White House officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, have long desired regime change in the communist country, and rights advocates have warned the administration appears to be moving toward just that as it strangles the island's oil supply—causing frequent blackouts and impacting the healthcare and food systems—and claims the Cuban government poses a threat to the US.
In organizing the Nuestra America Convoy, said Benjamin on Sunday, the advocates were acting "as moral US citizens trying to bring some relief to a population being deliberately starved by the cruel policies of our own government."
"This policy has contributed to catastrophic shortages of medicine and electricity, massive blackouts, transportation collapse, and a public health crisis that has hurt the most vulnerable, especially children and the elderly," said Benjamin. "It is a policy that is, literally, killing babies, as we have seen in the recent tragic doubling of the infant mortality rate. This is why we focused our donations on medical supplies for pediatric hospitals."
The blockade is compounding the suffering caused by the trade embargo the US has imposed for decades, said Benjamin.
The Cuban Assets Control Regulations law prohibits US citizens from conducting unlicensed travel-related transations with Cuba, but the law makes exceptions for humanitarian endeavors and other activities aimed at supporting the Cuban people.
"We traveled to Cuba under the US government-authorized category of providing humanitarian aid to the Cuban people. We brought desperately needed medicines and medical supplies at a time when Cuba is suffering catastrophic shortages caused by the crippling US blockade," said Benjamin.
Benjamin, Piker, and Drop Site News co-founder Ryan Grim emphasized that the group stayed in Spanish-owned hotels that are "explicitly permitted under" the US law—while right-wing influencer Nick Shirley allegedly stayed in a sanctioned hotel on a recent trip to Cuba.
"It is outrageous that the US government would target people for bringing humanitarian aid to suffering Cuban children," Benjamin said. "But even more disturbing is the cruel and deeply immoral policy the United States continues to impose on Cuba—a policy designed to strangle the island economically, deprive people of food, fuel, medicine, and basic necessities, and make daily life unbearable."
Piker said the reports of the investigation indicate that "the American government would rather try to criminalize delivering aid to a country we’ve starved, than punish the Epstein class."
Benjamin emphasized that the reports of the probe come as the administration intensified its threats against Cuba, having indicted former President Raúl Castro last week on charges related to the shooting down of a plane operated by Cuban-American exiles in the 1990s. Trump and his allies have repeatedly mused about invading the country following his military attacks on Venezuela and Iran.
"President Trump already has his hands full trying to disentangle himself from the disastrous US war with Iran," said Benjamin. "He should not start another one in Cuba. The American people are tired of endless wars, interventions, sanctions, and suffering imposed in our name."
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'A Beautiful Act of Profound Civil Disobedience': Guido's Bridge Protest Against Iran War Hits Day Five
"You represent the majority of people not only in the United States who overwhelmingly in the public opinion polls, say they're against the war, but of course the majority of people in the world," said peace activist Medea Benjamin.
May 05, 2026
As the one-man protest of activist Guido Reichstadter reached its fifth day, 168 feet above the Anacostia River on the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge in Washington, DC, the anti-war activist is receiving praise both at home and worldwide as he said Tuesday he would go another day even though he has run out of both food and water.
"We are profoundly touched," said CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin during a visit Monday, standing below Reichstadter's perch at the top of one of the bridge's arches, which he has been occupying since last Friday in protest of President Donald Trump's war on Iran and the rapid proliferation of unregulated artificial intelligence.
"It's such a beautiful act of profound civil disobedience that is making waves all over the world," said Benjamin in a video clip posted on social media by documentary filmmaker Ford Fischer.
2) Guido Reichstadter spoke by phone with Medea Benjamin of CODEPINK, saying he's "touched" by their support.
"We are just amazed that you did this!" Benjamin told him. "Just something beyond our belief."
Police over a loudspeaker continued to implore Reichstadter to accept… pic.twitter.com/cnBXv0mNTy
— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) May 4, 2026
Reichstadter climbed up to the arch on Friday and unfurled a long black banner that he says represents the "shame and grief" of those who have been forced to be complicit in the US-Israeli war on Iran.
He released a statement saying he was demanding "an immediate end to the Trump regime’s illegal war on Iran and the removal of the regime’s power through mass nonviolent direct action and non-cooperation.”
The 45-year-old activist and father of two has staged other high-profile acts of civil disobedience in the past, but this one garnered the attention of Explosive Media, an independent media group that has released several viral videos skewering the Trump administration's deeply unpopular war. Reichstadter appeared in a video released by the group over the weekend, portrayed as a heroic LEGO figure.
As Benjamin spoke to Reichstadter, police continued trying to convince him to climb down from the arch, which he said he planned to leave Tuesday afternoon.
Now: Police get some exercise as they monitor Guido Reichstadter, now on his fifth day of occupying the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge in a one-man protest against the Iran War and AI proliferation. https://t.co/DFkhA6zABG pic.twitter.com/0dumNmXk20
— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) May 5, 2026
He survived on Chex Mix and dried cranberries for the first day of his occupation, before running out on Saturday. He ran out of water Monday afternoon and was almost out of phone battery, but Fischer reported that he "managed to get something working."
Reichstadter said that he would stay for "possibly another day or two."
With reporters assembled nearby, Benjamin asked him if he wanted to share any message about the war in Iran, in which hostilities were continuing this week in the Strait of Hormuz, despite Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's insistence that a ceasefire that was reached last month is holding.
"We have to end it," said Reichstadter.
"We're so worried that the bombing is going to start once again," said Benjamin, "and that's why you being up there is so important at this moment, because you represent the majority of people not only in the United States who overwhelmingly in the public opinion polls, say they're against the war, but of course the majority of people in the world... So what you're doing is on behalf of people all over the world, who are saying, 'This war was unprovoked, it's illegal, it's reckless, and it has to end."
More than 60% of Americans view Trump's war on Iran as a "mistake," according to a Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll released the day Reichstadter climbed on top of the bridge.
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China Reaffirms Vow to Aid Cuba Amid Trump's 'Inhumane' Economic Strangulation
"China firmly supports Cuba in safeguarding national sovereignty and security and opposing external interference," a Beijing spokesperson said.
Feb 11, 2026
As the Trump administration weaponizes its economic privation of the Cuban people in hopes of ousting their socialist government, China on Tuesday reaffirmed its pledge to help alleviate the island's worsening oil shortage.
Emboldened by his recent abduction of socialist Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on legally dubious "narco-terrorism" charges, President Donald Trump is ratcheting up pressure on a people already ravaged by 64 years of what many critics call Washington's "economic terrorism" and decades of actual terrorism committed by US-based right-wing Cuban exiles.
Cut off from the Venezuelan petroleum that provided around 75% of Cuba's imported oil just a few years ago, the island is suffering a worsening energy emergency. The Cuban government has responded by strictly rationing fuel and seeking alternate sources of oil such as Mexico and, to a lesser extent, Russia.
"I would like to stress again that China firmly supports Cuba in safeguarding national sovereignty and security and opposing external interference," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said during a press conference.
"China stands firmly against the inhumane actions that deprive the Cuban people of their right to subsistence and development," he added. "China will, as always, do our best to provide support and assistance to Cuba."
As is usually the case when Washington tightens the screws on Cuba, everyday Cubans are suffering the most.
“You can’t imagine how it touches every part of our lives,” Marta Jiménez, a hairdresser in Cuba’s eastern city of Holguín, told CodePink co-founder and frequent Common Dreams opinion contributor Medea Benjamin, who traveled to Cuba last week with a group to deliver 2,500 pounds of lentils.
“It’s a vicious, all-encompassing spiral downward," Jiménez continued. "With no gasoline, buses don’t run, so we can’t get to work. We have electricity only three to six hours a day. There’s no gas for cooking, so we’re burning wood and charcoal in our apartments. It’s like going back 100 years."
"The blockade is suffocating us—especially single mothers,” she added, “and no one is stopping these demons, Trump and [Secretary of State] Marco Rubio.”
The United Nations General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly every year but once since 1992 to condemn the US blockade on Cuba. Last October, the UNGA voted 165-7 against the embargo, with 12 abstentions.
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