by Benjamin Rothove
The American embargo against Cuba prevents American companies and some businesses with ties to the United States from trading with Cuba. The United States first instituted an arms embargo against Cuba in 1958 during an armed rebellion led by Fidel Castro against the US-backed regime. However, the arms embargo backfired because the rebels were not being supplied by the US, which resulted in Fidel Castro’s socialist government coming to power in 1959. Within three months of being in power, the US began plotting to overthrow Castro. Congress did not wish to lift the embargo, and the Cuban government began purchasing weapons from the Soviet Union in 1960. The US reduced the import quota of Cuban sugar, and the US government cut exports of crude oil to the country in late 1960. This led to the regime nationalizing all three oil refineries in Cuba, and one of the final acts of the Eisenhower administration was to sever all diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba in January 1961.
After the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban government officially declared itself Marxist. Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act which allowed the president to impose a trade embargo if necessary, and the Organization of American States suspended Cuba. Sanctions were then imposed on Cuba by the OAS, and president John F. Kennedy officially began the embargo in early 1962 and expanded it in late 1962. Following the Cuban Missile Crisis, travel restrictions were enacted and all Cuban assets in the US were frozen.
Sanctions remained largely unchanged throughout the Johnson, Nixon, and Ford administrations, but the restrictions officially lapsed in 1977. President Jimmy Carter chose not the renew the regulations and the ban on spending US dollars in Cuba was soon lifted. However, as relations did not improve and Cuba failed to acknowledge basic human rights, the Reagan administration reinstated the embargo in 1982. However, there were a few slight modifications. While business and tourist travel remained restricted, government officials on diplomatic missions, news organizations, persons engaging in research, or anyone visiting close relatives were now exempt. Currently, US citizens are not necessarily banned from visiting Cuba, they are merely banned from making any monetary transactions.
In 1996, Cuba shot down two unarmed American planes which killed four Americans, and restrictions were tightened aggressively. The embargo was again reinforced in 1992 and 1996, which penalized foreign companies that do business in Cuba and the United States. Obama attempted to lift these penalties, but Congress prevented this ability.
In response to pressure from American farmers, certain aspects of the sanctions were modified. Although Cuba initially rejected the trade, they began purchasing some food and medicine from the United States as a result of Hurricane Michelle. By 2007, the United States became the largest foreign food supplier of Cuba. In some tourist spots, American brands can be purchased. Many large companies such as Microsoft and Ford have walked the line of legality by working with some Cuban suppliers.
In 2009, President Barack Obama eased the Cuban travel ban, and the first officially sanctioned ship sailed from Miami in 2012. In 2014, it was announced that the US was intending to reestablish relations with Cuba while the embargo began to thaw considerably until January 2017. However, the Trump administration reinstated most of the restrictions that were lifted by the Obama administration within the first few months.
Those who believe that the embargo should be continued argue that Cuba has not met the conditions required to lift the sanctions, Cuba has responded to the US attempts to lift trade barriers in the past with aggression, open travel is insufficient to affect change, trade would be maintained through the Cuban state rather than Cuban citizens, Cuba has not negotiated willingness to negotiate, Cuba has supported various acts of terrorism, actual Cuban-Americans support the embargo, and the embargo allows the United States to fight for human rights.
Proclamation 3447 was issued by President John Fitzgerald Kennedy in order to establish an embargo against the communist threat of Cuba. It has since been strengthened twice in the 1990s, with the Cuban Democracy Act and the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act. Specific conditions were defined for Cuba to follow that would allow the sanctions to be lifted. In order to do so, Cuba must release all political prisoners, legalize all political activity, commit to free and fair elections for representative democracy, respect internationally recognized human rights, grant freedom of the press, and allow labor unions. Despite these reasonable demands, Cuba has not responded. Lifting these sanctions would show Cuba, and other fringe countries such as China, Iran, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and North Korea to see America as weak. An image of a weak America would spread anti-American sentiment worldwide, and the Castro regime would live on.
Furthermore, the United States has attempted to normalize relations with Cuba in the past, but to no avail. In 1977, US President James Carter attempted to cool the tension between the United States and Cuba by opening a de facto embassy in Havana. However, Fidel Castro did not respond with hope for a better diplomatic relations with the United States. The dictator orchestrated the Mariel Boatlift, which dumped 125,000 emigrants, including criminals, in the United States. Later, in 2003, George Dubya Bush loosened restrictions for visiting Cuba, but the nation again responded with hostility. Most recently, Barack Obama again relaxed US travel policy in 2009, which then allowed unlimited travel for Cubans to visit family members. Unsurprisingly, the Cuban government reacted with hostility. The Cuban government prosecutes and arrests its own citizens, and the number of monthly detentions continues to rise periodically. In 2011, Barack Obama stated that he had looked for ways to eliminate the Cuban embargo and sought to form a better relationship with Cuba, but Fidel Castro responded by literally calling Obama a stupid emperor. Again in 2015, President Obama attempted to normalize relations with Cuba, but they failed to acknowledge human rights.
The Cuban government has repeatedly supported acts of terrorism in the past, and there is little evidence that they have attempted to end it. From 1982 to 2015, Cuba was on the list of State Sponsors for Terrorism, and the Trump administration considered reinstating it. In the past, Cuba has shot down American aircraft and supported armed insurgencies in Africa and Latin America. The State Department has consistently found evidence of Cuba harboring US fugitives and providing a safe haven for international terrorist groups. Isn’t it terrifying that the Cuban government allows murderers and terrorists to walk free while persecuting those who simply want rights?
The government of Cuba has arrested about 4-7 thousand citizens annually for political reasons. The Cuban government holds approximately seven thousand prisoners, which is among the highest in the world per Capita. Freedom of speech and the right to assembly are highly restricted in Cuba, so the United States has the moral obligation to promote human rights in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
About three million people from around the world visit Cuba annually, including more tourists from Canada than any other country. Despite the influx of tourists, the Cuban government controls its people. Cuban nationals are banned from visiting tourist areas, so US citizens would be unable to seriously impact the Cuban government.
Continuing on, trade with the United States would benefit the government of Cuba but not the Cuban people. While maintaining the sanctions, the US is able to assist the people of Cuba while harming the fascist regime. 90 percent of the Cuban economy is state-owned, which ensures that the government and military reap all of the benefits of international trade. Foreign companies that operate in Cuba hire workers through the state, and wages are devalued 24 to one. This means that every 50 dollars that a worker earns, they would only see about two dollars of it. US government policy allows Americans to visit and assist their family members in Cuba, and humanitarian or educational aid is also allowed. Americans provide about one billion dollars in remittances every year to Cubans, and Congress has spent about 364 million promoting democracy in Cuba. Until the fascist Cuban regime shows a willingness to negotiate, it is necessary that the US keep this embargo in place. Thank you.
Those who believe that the embargo should be lifted argue that Cuba does not pose a threat to the United States, the 50-year policy has failed, the standards held against Cuba are vastly different than those held against other nations, the embargo holds the people of Cuba in the past, free trade can promote democracy in Cuba, almost every country opposes the sanctions, preventing travel to another country is authoritarian, the embargo harms the people-not the government- of Cuba, and it hurts the US economy.
It has been almost 60 years since the embargo was implemented, but Cuba has not budged. The era of Cuba having ties to the former Soviet Union is over, and the country poses no threat to US national security. Since the USSR dissolved in 1991, American foreign policy has changed considerably in almost every manner except for the Cuban embargo. Since even 1998, the US Defense Intelligence Agency has acknowledged that Cuba does not pose any threat to America, and the failure of Cuban communism will prevent it from spreading. Fidel Castro has not been president for more than a decade, and it has been two years since any Castro was in charge. If 60 years of sanctions have not toppled Cuban fascism, a new approach is necessary.
Secondly, the standards that Cuba are being held to are vastly different from those held to other countries. The US trades with China, it trades with Vietnam, it trades with Venezuela, and many other countries with reprehensible governments. American citizens are allowed to visit North Korea, Iran, Burma, or various other evil nations. There is no reason for singling Cuba out against a world of more pertinent threats.
Furthermore, only about one-quarter of Cubans have any access to the internet. The government controls access to the internet, and preventing Americans from entering the country prevents enlightenment ideas from reaching the island state of Cuba. This embargo helps the government while harming the people. Many Cubans are denied access to medicine, food, technology, and many other necessary goods as a result of US trade sanctions. Cuba has access to less than half of the world’s available medication, and famine plagues Cuba. Treatment for children for a wide array of diseases is not readily available, and the trade sanctions aggressively harmed the people of Cuba during the Covid-19 pandemic without US support.
Additionally, free trade is the most effective way of promoting democracy in Cuba. Trade with China brought 100 million people above the poverty line and has improved access to health care and education. Restricting the rights of Americans to visit another country in order to promote democracy is hypocritical, as the US has supported dictatorships various times in the past. It can be argued that the current state of Cuba is the fault of the US for this very reason. The American government-backed President and then-dictator Batista in Cuba until 1958, when he was overthrown by Fidel Castro. During this time, political dissenters were imprisoned, tortured, and killed, but the US did not care. Opening Cuba for trade would force officials to take on a failing health care system, the lack of access to medicine, a declining sugar industry, widespread water pollution, and terrible plumbing systems that the Cuban regime has wrongly blamed on the embargo. The Cuban government uses these sanctions as a scapegoat for their failing economic system and views Americans as the enemy. Lifting the embargo would show Cubans, and the world as a whole, the evils of Cuba’s communist state.
Finally, almost no one actually supports the embargo. For 22 years straight, the United Nations has condemned the embargo. 187 out of 190 nations condemned the US sanctions, and the policy is not much more popular in the United States. 80 percent of Cuban Americans say that the embargo has not worked, 62 percent of Americans believe that the United States needed to reopen diplomatic relations, and 51 percent of Americans wanted to open up trade with Cuba. There is no reason that a policy as wildly unpopular should stay in place, particularly one with only a legacy of failure.