Last month, I traveled to Cuba as part of a seven-day youth delegation, organized by the International Peoples’ Assembly, to meet Cuban activists and learn about conditions under US sanctions. A common refrain I heard from the young Cubans I met was “No hay un futuro en Cuba.” There’s no future in Cuba.

Many young Cubans who shared this sentiment with me told me that they hoped to come to the United States as soon as they could figure out how. “Y sin el bloqueo?” I asked. And without the embargo? “Eso es diferente,” they replied. It’s true: without US sanctions, life in Cuba would be very different, and the future much brighter.

The economic effects of the more-than-sixty-years-long embargo on Cuba alone are devastating. By one count, they have cost Cuba more than $130 billion. Not only does Cuba’s neighbor to the north, the largest economy in the world, refuse to do business with Cuba, but the United States also freezes Cuba out of systems of global commerce and trade via its influence in and control over international banking and financial networks.