An End to the Embargo?

Under the provisions of the Helms-Burton Act of 1996, normal trade relations cannot resume with Cuba until its government recognizes US claims to property that was confiscated in the wake of the Revolution and pays compensation for those assets. The total value of these assets has been estimated to be between 6 and 20 billion dollars. There is endless information characterizing the intentions that the US government and its corporate army wish to bring to fruition should Cuba open its borders under a new regime – you can just see them salivating from the Florida coast, waiting to bridge the gap between them and 11 million potential consumers. There is so much wrong with this situation that I hardly know where to begin. In the 1970s and beyond the US supported murders, “disappearances”, torture and abuse to see the implementation of IMF-led neo-liberal economic policies throughout Latin America. Most of those countries are still drowning in debt from an era of failed economic reform, not to mention the smothering of indigenous and marginalized groups that continue to face the pressures of this system. All the empty commitment within the UN to address poverty, failing economies and other global symptoms of colonialism and globalization is getting tiring. An immediate priority of the UN should be to abolish third-world debt, as an apology at least and an act of human decency and compassion especially.

Ending this nonsense between the US and Cuba falls under the same category. A direct comparison between Cuba and Haiti, the Dominican Republic and all the Central American countries in regards to the mental and physical health of the population, standards of living, the divide between the rich and the poor, the level of education and the incidence of disease will show that Cuba has certainly made some amazing achievements during its 45 year experiment with Socialism. The normal backlash to these statistics is the incidence of human rights abuses with the Cuba. Indeed many freedoms are repressed and many murders have been committed, but name a Latin American country whose record is any better over this same period. Is Castro’s logic that the ends justify the means that different from what’s happening in the Middle East? At least Castro’s mission is built more on altruism than economic and political manipulation and exploitation.

The embargo is the primary culprit of Cuba’s lack of infrastructure and economic immaturity, not the failings of Socialism. Will the US realize that the rhetoric of democratization and their duty to bestow it upon failing regimes throughout the world will not satisfy the international community when it comes to Cuba? Saddam was, and radical Islam is a viable threat to global security, but Cuba is clearly the opposite. This island nation is an amazing anomaly of achievement, especially in terms of their agricultural achievements and they do have a lot to teach the world once we’re reading to learn. To conclude, who will benefit from an expansion of trade between the US and Cuba and should benefit? What will happen to all the campesino families who have worked their fields for generations, valuing their dignity and the tens of thousands of people who work on collective farms and reside in nearby communities built on the land taken back from rich Cuban and American capitalists? As for the expatriates, I believe they revoked their duty and claim to the island when they left and traded Cuban culture for American culture – it’s time to drop this deep seeded psychosis and drop the grudge.
Further trade between Cuba and any other nation should be uninterrupted by US aggression and occur under the terms laid out by the Cuban government.

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