The US Blockade of Cuba Must End

[Judi Lynn]

BY
PERRY BLANKSON

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the US blockade of Cuba, a collective punishment of the Cuban people for their independence from US control. The blockade needs to end.



People walk along a street under a Cuban flag, in Havana, on October 14, 2021. (Photo by Yamil Lage / AFP via Getty Images)

For sixty years, the US empire has waged a relentless economic war against the Republic of Cuba. This comes in the form of the imposition of unilateral sanctions, which to date have cost the island nation more than $130 billion.

The US sanctions, or the “blockade,” touch every part of Cuban life. They restrict access to medicine, food, building supplies, and, crucially, materials for vaccine development, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sanctions are also designed to smother Cuba’s economy by restricting travel and prohibiting businesses from trading with Cuba if they also wish to trade with America. What justification does the United States give for this inhumane blockade?

In the face of widespread Cuban support for Fidel Castro and the Revolution in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the US State Department admitted that the only way to undermine the regime was to foster internal dissent by imposing economic hardship on the Cuban population. According to a now-infamous internal memo written by Lester D. Mallory, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, in 1960:

The majority of Cubans support Castro . . . . The only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship . . . every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba . . . a line of action which . . . makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.

More:
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2022/03/us-control-cuba-blockade-must-end-sixty-years

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Didn't we start to open Cuba not rhat long ago? Fwiw, I knew a...

woman in Toronto who was born in Sweden, so after 9/11 she wasn't allowed to take her usual vacation in Florida. She said fuck it and flew to Havana. Said she had a great time and Florida can suck it

[DFW]

3. Obama lightened travel restrictions and reestablished diplomatic relations

Those were long overdue actions, but the trade embargo is still largely in place.

Kommanists, doncha know……

[Judi Lynn]

4. True, with our President Obama, travel restrictions were relaxed, and a warming of relations

was underway. You may recall former President Jimmy Carter visited Cuba during George W Bush's terms, and spoke on live Cuban tv and radio across the island, accepting an invitation offered to him in Canada, during the time he and President Fidel Castro served as pall bearers at the funeral of Canada's President Trudeau.

It was tremendous seeing that super important breakthrough, and the Republicans pitched fits, of course!

Obviously, they also went berserk when stupendous Democratic President Obama and his family also visited Cuba, and conferred with President Raúl Castro.

Canada has always remained open to travel to and from Cuba, like every other country! Outstanding hearing about your friend's decision to break her pattern when the chance arose. Hooray!

Thanks for your comments.

[sinkingfeeling]

7. And TFG reversed the progress.

[DFW]

2. Interesting use of terms.

We lifted the blockade in 1962 after the Soviets removed their missiles.

I think what the author is referring to is the trade embargo, which did indeed have every effect described in the article, and is an anachronism that should have been gone decades ago. It would have been, too, if it weren’t for the Marco Rubio crowd.

I’m surprised the author used the term that referred to the ring of warships that the USA placed around Cuba in 1962, which was removed once we made the deal with Khrushchev.

[Judi Lynn]

5. The term "bloqueo" remained in use throughout the Americas south of the US Southern Border. n/t

[DFW]

6. I wonder why they don't differentiate?

There is a world of difference. But I haven’t been to Cuba since 1982, so I didn’t know. I was invited by their government, and not as a representative of ours, so it never was part of our discussions, since I was in no position to do anything about it.

Thanks for pointing that out.