protests. Impact Humanitarian and health impacts The embargo has been criticized for its effects on food, clean water, medicine, and other economic needs of the Cuban population. Criticism has come from both Fidel Castro and Raúl Castro, citizens and groups from within Cuba, and international organizations and leaders. American diplomat Lester D. Mallory wrote an internal memo on April 6, 1960, arguing in favor of an embargo to "to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government". In 1997, the American Association for World Health stated that the embargo contributed to malnutrition, poor water access, lack of access to medicine and other medical supplies and concluded that "a humanitarian catastrophe has been averted only because the Cuban government has maintained a high level of budgetary support for a health care system designed to deliver primary and preventative medicine to all its citizens." Some medical scholars, outside Cuba, have linked the embargo to shortages of medical supplies and soap which have resulted in a series of medical crises and heightened levels of infectious diseases. Medical scholars have also linked the embargo to epidemics of specific diseases, including neurological disorders and blindness caused by poor nutrition. An article written in 1997 suggests malnutrition and disease resulting from increased food and medicine prices have affected men and the elderly in particular, due to Cuba's rationing system which gives preferential treatment to women and children. Although since 2000 the embargo has explicitly excluded the acquisition of food and medicines, a 1997 study by the American Association for World Health (AAWH) and a 1996 article in The Lancet by Anthony F Kirkpatrick of the University of South Florida College of Medicine showed that while the Cuban Democracy Act was amended to allow the de jure export of food and medicines into the country, the de facto application and implications of the act's enforcement significantly restricted the accessibility of both within Cuba. The AAWH stated that "a humanitarian catastrophe has been averted only because the Cuban government has maintained a high level of budgetary support for a healthcare system designed to deliver primary and preventive healthcare to all of its citizens." The AAWH found that travel restrictions embedded in the embargo have limited the amount of medical information that flows into Cuba from the United States. Political impact Writing in 2021, in the context of the 2021 Cuban protests, according