The US Embargo Against Cuba

The United Nations Calls for an End to the Blockade

Oct 29, 2009 Tom Wolsey

An embargo on trade with the island nation of Cuba has existed in some form since 1958.

The embargo dates to the time when Fidel Castro and the government of Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar clashed in the Cuban countryside. Batista, a U.S.-backed dictator, was overthrown by the revolutionaries under Castro. On New Years’ Day in 1959, Batista fled the island and Castro’s army soon took over the government.

As an artifact of the Cold War, the U.S. embargo of Cuba is singular in many ways. Partly in response to the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy ordered new restrictions on travel to Cuba. Various iterations of the embargo have made their way through the legislative and executive branches of the U. S. federal government, with most resting on notion of economic sanctions as authorized in the law known as the “Trading with the Enemy Act.”

Indeed, a book by the author, Tom Miller (1992), details his travels in Cuba and explorations of the effects of the Cuban embargo. The book’s title reflects the popular name of the legislation, Trading With the Enemy: A Yankee Travels Through Castro’s Cuba. By the mid 1990s, additional acts of Congress solidified the embargo and strengthened its effect by banning commerce in other ways, as well. The President of the United States must renew certain provisions of the law in order for them to remain in effect.

Arguments For and Against the Embargo

Proponents of the embargo claim that the Castro government seized or stole the assets of foreign companies, threatens the security of the United States, and represses its people. Opponents of the embargo point toward attitudinal changes in the government in Havana, restructuring of the geo-political environment that led to the embargo when the Castro regime first became aligned with the now defunct Soviet Union, and changing demographics.

Few individuals associated with the overthrow of the Batista government or the Castro government’s seizure of assets are alive today. Meanwhile, opponents claim, the adverse affects of the embargo can be felt by Cuban nationals and families of Cubans now living in the United States who were not alive at the time of the Cuban Revolution.

The United Nations and the Cuban Embargo

The Obama administration made some movement toward lifting elements of the embargo on humanitarian and economic grounds. A letter from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its affiliates (2008) supports relaxing sanctions against Cuba because the policies of the past have been ineffective and doing so would be beneficial for the U.S. economy as it seeks to strengthen business ties with the country’s Caribbean neighbor.

The current U.S. administration faces foreign policy questions that are condemned by nearly all other member of the United Nations, as well. On Oct. 28, 2009, the United Nations General Assembly passed its 18th consecutive non-binding resolution indicating its concerns that the U.S. embargo against Cuba as a policy which does “not conform to their [U.S.] obligations to reaffirm freedom of trade and navigation." Only the United States, Israel, and the island nation of Palau voted against the UN resolution. Two additional nations abstained from voting: Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. 187 UN member nations voted in favor of the resolution.

References

Miller, T., Trading with the Enemy: A Yankee Travels Through Castro’s Cuba, New York: Basic Books, 1992.

Obama, B., Choosing a Better Future in the Americas, Press Release and Op-Ed Piece, April 16, 2009 available: whitehouse.gov

UN News Service, General Assembly Again Calls for Lifting of United States Embargo Against Cuba, UN News Centre, October 29, 2009.

US Chamber of Commerce, Re-examining US Cuba Policy [Letter to President-elect Obama]. Available: uschamber.com

Wilkinson, T. Obama's Cuba policy faces a world of expectation, Los Angeles Times, October 28, 2009.

The copyright of the article The US Embargo Against Cuba in Latin Am/Caribbean Affairs is owned by Tom Wolsey. Permission to republish The US Embargo Against Cuba in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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