The US Embargo on Cuba Essay

After it became officially globally acknowledged that Cuba was in fact a communist state and was being led through a dictatorship run by Castro, it did not take long before powerful enemies and essential allies were formed. The act of seizing all foreign land with none or very little compensation was received with great hostility amongst those who lost in their property through this process, and probably the reaction that had the biggest impact on Cuba’s economy was that of the US. Castro’s communistic policies did not of course help calm this resentment and also took part in leading to the establishment of trade embargos with Cuba from the US. This meant that Cuba would now lose a very valuable buyer of their precious sugar, [5] but they did however gain another one, a powerful nation that shared quite similar Marxist ideals and were quick to form an alliance with the Cubans, the USSR.

Embargoes are restrictions on trade between countries used to achieve some kind of goal. The United States has imposed an embargo on Cuba to encourage the Cuban government to change the way they run themselves because the United States does not agree with the system of government they have in place. This embargo enacts total restrictions on trade and travel between the United States and Cuba. The United States’ embargo against Cuba should be lifted because it is doing more harm than good to both countries involved.

As also stated by Mr. D’angelo, in a personal interview about the Cuban embargo, “Yes I think it will last until Cuban reforms, change in Cuban leadership…” This shows that many people, including professionals believe that the embargo will not end soon without the removal of the Castro’s. This idea of no Castro in the government makes sense since many speculate that even though Fidel is no longer is power he still has some influence over what his brother does. Vividly depicted, this is shown by a passage made by Catharine Moses from her book: “They might not like him, they might complain about him, might see his failing and might blame him for all the countries problems, but he is Fidel. He is in control of the island…”(pg. 7) In compliance, this just shows that many still believe he holds power and some hold truth to their hearts that it is Fidel’s Cuba. On an other aspect that goes hand and hand with the Cuban democracy Act is the declaration of John F. Kennedy that states that the goal of the embargo is to submit Cuba’s government into giving up its communist government. Evidently, this was the main goal of the embargo and Cuba has not, and for the foreseeable future, will not change its government from the communist one that it is known for. An idea and aspect that is clearly shown and supports the idea of containment, is that the embargo also

In the article, “Why Do We Still Have an Embargo of Cuba?” Patrick Haney explores the history of the embargo and the different factors which have maintained and tightened its restrictions over the past fifty years. The embargo consists of a ban on trade and commercial activity, a ban on travel, a policy on how Cuban exiles can enter the U.S., and media broadcasting to the island. These once-executive orders now codified into law by the Helms-Burton Act, have become a politically charged topic which wins and loses elections, spawned influential interest groups, and powerful political action committees.

The United States embargo of Cuba has its roots planted in 1960, 53 years ago, when “the United States Congress authorized President Eisenhower to cut off the yearly quota of sugar to be imported from Cuba under the Sugar act of 1948… by 95 percent” (Hass 1998, 37). This was done in response to a growing

Cuba’s colorful history can be documented to before the days of the American Revolution in 1776, but today, American policy directly affects many Cubans’ lifestyles because of a nearly 45-year-old trade embargo that has been placed on the island nation. It is crucial to analyze the development of Cuba and its neighboring island nations in order to discern the reasons for Cuba’s current political situation with the United States. The following paper will discuss the events that shaped Cuba and larger Caribbean nations like Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica; next, a detailed description of Cuba’s turbulent history will help in explaining the Cuban transformation into a

In 1960 the United States, under President Eisenhower, established a partial embargo on the tiny island nation of Cuba (Rampersand, 402). That partial embargo became a complete embargo under President Kennedy in 1962. The United States established the embargo on Cuba to alter Cuba’s political clime. Looking back through the last 55 years, that goal has not been achieved. It is time to end the embargo on the island nation of Cuba re-establishing economic, scientific and cultural exchanges.

Cuba and the Affects of the Embargo The island nation of Cuba, located just ninety miles off the coast of Florida, is home to 11 million people and has one of the few remaining communist regimes in the world. Cuba’s leader, Fidel Castro, came to power in 1959 and immediately instituted a communist program of sweeping economic and social changes. Castro allied his government with the Soviet Union and seized and nationalized billions of dollars of American property. U.S. relations with Cuba have been strained ever since. A trade embargo against Cuba that was imposed in 1960 is still in place today. Despite severe economic suffering and increasing isolation from the world community, Castro remains committed to communism. (Close Up

The Cuban embargo was set up in October 1962 by President John F. Kennedy. Cubans’ name for the embargo, ‘el bloqueo’ meaning ‘the blockade’, is arguably more fitting rather than ‘embargo’ which is what the United States call it. This is because the U.S policy aims to limit other countries from engaging in business with Cuba. John F. Kennedy began the embargo with the intention of punishing Fidel Castro’s management of allowing the storage of Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba. The embargo aimed to reform the communist system, encourage democracy and to improve human rights in Cuba. However, the embargo did not accomplish this. Instead it imposed unselective hardship on the Cuban population and because of it, the Cuban government had an excuse

Hubert Humphrey once said “National isolation breeds national neurosis”. The island country of Cuba has been under an embargo banning trade to and from the U.S. for over 54 years. Subsequently the country of Cuba has faced debt and poverty. The embargo on Cuba is controversial because the U.N. has called to end the embargo, but the U.S has rejected their advice.

Following the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the United States shifted its focus to Cuba with the intentions of freeing the country from its communist ideologies and establishing a democratic government. The U.S. government passed the Helms-Burton Act in an attempt to pressurize Cuba into restructuring. Its enactment was controversial, provoking immediate and widespread debate around the world as to whether certain provisions of the Act violated international law principles and treaties to which the United States was a party. Opposition to the Act came from most countries outside of the United States. Many nations attempted to counter the Helms-Burton Act by implementing legislation that enabled their

In light of the Cuban embargo, it is easy to see that it is hurting the citizens of Cuba. Cubans are denied access to things we, in the United States, couldn’t imagine living without. They don’t have access to modern technology,

The idea persists throughout the policy community that what Washington really despises about modern day Cuba is not communism, it is Fidel Castro (Leogrande 216). The man who is the symbol of sanctions against Cuba is also the primary cause for the continuance of sanctions against the island nation. Many believe that recent efforts to tighten economic sanctions against the Cuban government, such as the Helms-Burton laws, only make more powerful the symbols of Castro and strengthen his and his supporters’ resolve to resist change. A prominent Castro critic, former Costa Rican President Oscar Arias remarked about Helms-Burton, ‘[Measures] that tend to impose more sacrifices on the Cuban people are arguments one gives Fidel Castro to continue living in the Cold War’ (qtd. in Zimbalist 162). Indeed Castro seems to publicize through his clothes, that even though the Soviet Union is no more, the Cold War continues to endure in the warm waters off South Florida.

As Fidel Castro’s 89th birthday came around (august 13, 1926), he published an essay in some of the local media saying that the U.S. Owes Cuba millions of dollars. Castro claimed that because of the 50 year old embargo, or a ban on trade, or activities with a certain country, that the U.S. Placed on Cuba in 1962, shortly after Castro gained power. Although president Obama wants to get rid of the embargo, some republicans disagree with the idea because they believe that Cuba first needs to fix human rights records, and removing the embargo would take some time to do.

Able to weather a variety of political leaders, economic events, and historical eras, the U.S. embargo of Cuba is the longest and harshest embargo by one state against another in modern history. Following Castro’s overthrow of the Batista government in 1959 and threats to incite revolutions elsewhere in Latin America, the Unites State cancelled its trade agreement to buy Cuban sugar. Then, following a series of increasing hostile events, the United States severed diplomatic relations and initiated a full trade embargo in 1962. Trade between the United States and Cuba stopped. Spurred by the collapse of communism more than thirty years later, Congress