Understanding the US Blockade Against Cuba
Cuba is subjected to the longest economic, commercial and financial blockade in modern history by the United States, a war measure that has caused losses of more than 900 billion dollars to the island.
It has been almost 60 years since the economic, commercial and financial blockade was put in place, and almost 30 years since the UN began voting to decide whether to lift the unilateral measure. Almost unanimously, the international community rejected it, but it only persists because of the veto power of the United States as one of the five permanent members of the Security Council.
The United States commercial, economic and financial embargo on the sale of arms against Cuba was first imposed on March 14, 1958, under the dictatorial regime of Fulgencio Batista. The second time was in October 1960, in response to the expropriations of businesses and other properties of American citizens on the island by the new revolutionary government.
Although these restrictions initially excluded food and medicines, in February 1962 the measures were tightened and the restrictions became almost absolute.
The total blockade against Cuba was finally imposed in 1962 by former US President JF Kennedy.
The blockade was implemented in principle to reduce support for Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution, while creating economic hardship for the population.
"The majority of Cubans support Castro (...) the only foreseeable way to reduce his internal support is through disenchantment and dissatisfaction arising from economic malaise and material hardship (...) every effort must be made rapidly to weaken Cuba's economic life (...) a course of action which, while being as cunning and discreet as possible, achieves the greatest progress in starving Cuba of money and supplies, in order to reduce its financial resources and real wages, to provoke hunger, despair and the consequent overthrow of the government."
Excerpt from page 885 of the United States Department of State Report 1958-1960 which contains a secret memorandum dated April 6, 1960, from Under Secretary for Inter-American Affairs Lester D. Mallory.
Over the years, the United States has put forward various reasons to justify the blockade, including:
- The nationalization without compensation of American properties on the island (at the beginning of the Revolution).
- The dangers that Cuba supposedly poses to the security of the United States because of its relations with the former Soviet Union.
- The Cuban example of an insurrection in Latin America and Africa.
- Allegations of human rights violations on the island.
In 1992, the embargo acquired the character of law in order to maintain sanctions against the Republic of Cuba.
Later in 1996, the United States Congress passed the Helms-Burton Act, which eliminated the ability of U.S. citizens to do business on the island or with the Cuban government.
The Helms-Burton Act clearly establishes that the blockade is not only the prohibition of reciprocal trade between Cuba and the United States, it is the obligation of the government to try to stop and hinder Cuba's commercial relations with any part of the world, to the point that it requires that the State Department must report annually to Congress on the results of compliance with this blockade measure, which costs our country more than 4 billion dollars each year.
In 1999, President Bill Clinton extended the trade embargo by banning foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies from trading with Cuba for amounts greater than $700 million a year, making it the world's first transnational law.
For decades, the economic embargo policy was defended by sectors of the Cuban exile, whose votes were crucial in the state of Florida.
What is blockade and what is embargo?
An embargo may be an order issued by a country to ensure, through the retention of assets, the performance of a legally incurred obligation, such as a debt.
The blockade is rather an act of war, applied unilaterally against a country, in the case of Cuba, however, in times of peace. For this reason, the American legislative framework that legally supports the blockade insists on calling it an "embargo."
No rule of international law justifies a blockade in peacetime.
The US blockade against Cuba is illegal because it is an act of war and is recognized as a according to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, approved by the United Nations General Assembly on December 9, 1948.
The US blockade contravenes the fundamental principles and rights of international law: the principle of sovereign equality, the principle of non-intervention, the principle of independence and the right to nationalization.
The blockade violates the human rights of Cubans, as it prevents the island from developing economic, commercial and financial ties with third parties in different ways. This results in isolation and economic suffocation.
The blockade affects all sectors of the Cuban economy with millions of losses and prevents access to materials, products and services in the international market, necessary for the normal development of the island.
This blockade also causes damage to the private sector and third countries due to its extraterritorial nature. Enormous pressures and financial retaliation often prevent trade with companies from all over the world.
On December 17, 2014, the presidents of the United States and Cuba, Barack Obama and Raúl Castro, agreed to improve political, social and economic relations between the two countries, leading many to assume that this would be the end of the economic, commercial and financial embargo on the island.
After coming to power on January 20, 2017, the current President of the United States, Donald Trump, reversed many of the measures taken by the previous administration, causing diplomatic relations between the two countries to cool again.
This government has also taken such extreme measures as trying to prevent the arrival of fuel that our economy needs to function.
The Trump administration has also moved to minimize official bilateral exchanges between the two countries. It has obstructed ties between Cubans living on both sides of the Florida Straits by suspending air traffic and flights to various parts of Cuba, and has increased persecution of Cuba's cooperation on health matters.
It is known that Cuba cannot import anything from the United States through credits, nor can Cuba import from anywhere in the world, if that product contains more than 10% of American components.
Despite this situation, the United States is among Cuba's five main trading partners for agricultural products. However, trade between Cuba and the United States is subject to very specific regulations and takes place under certain conditions. For example, Cuba must pay absolutely in cash for all products imported from the United States, since the latter does not grant financial credit to the Cuban government.
Currently, the main competitors of the United States are the European Union, the second largest exporter of agricultural products to Cuba, followed by Brazil, Argentina and Canada. In total, Cuba imports about a billion dollars a year, about 6% of which comes from the United States.
This hostile policy against Cuba is partly responsible for the country's economic difficulties, apart from the typical internal worries specific to the Cuban administration.
The blockade has become an element of Cuban popular culture. If something goes wrong in Cuba it is always the fault of the American embargo, and this may often be true, but Cubans increasingly believe that there are many daily problems whose origin and solution do not lie outside the country. There would also be a second internal blockade, closely linked to the backward thinking and administrative incompetence of an entire generation of Cubans.
The blockade would ultimately have only proven its objective ineffectiveness through the twists and turns of history, and would have aged, with generations of resilient Cubans, who did not succumb to a legendary economic war that is completely absurd and outdated for the current era.
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