Reps. Maxine Dexter of Oregon and Delia Catalina Ramírez of Illinois, closing a weekend in Havana, said they will seek amendments in Congress to blunt the health toll of the U.S. energy embargo on Cuba and to bar President Trump from further armed action against the island without legislative authorization [1]. Dexter, a physician, and Ramírez spoke at a July 12 news conference alongside Reps. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin and Teresa Leger-Fernández of New Mexico [1].

The four Democrats arrived Thursday and met President Miguel Díaz-Canel, ministers, doctors, and business leaders before departing Monday, the second congressional trip to Cuba in three months [1]. Washington imposed the energy embargo in January, after the capture of Venezuela's then-president Nicolás Maduro, and threatened tariffs on any country selling fuel to the island [1]. On the streets, AP reports blackouts lasting more than 20 hours a day, canceled flights, and shrinking work hours; Pocan repeated a Cuban's description of the result as a "silent Gaza" [1].

What the delegation did not produce is a bill. No amendment number, text, cosponsor, committee, or vote yet exists, and the lawmakers confirmed there are no active talks between Washington and Havana on lifting the embargo [1]. Social feeds cast the Havana pledge as resistance already checking Trump's embargo; a Cuban enduring the twenty-first hour of a blackout gets relief only when the promise becomes filed text and a recorded vote.

-- SAMUEL CRANE, Washington