Blockade or Embargo Against Cuba?

Blockade or Embargo Against Cuba? / Somos+, Wilfredo Casañas
Posted on January 22, 2016

Somos+, Wilfredo Casañas, 22 January 2016 — The so-called economic
blockade or embargo by the United States against Cuba is an old an
decayed quarrel between the two countries that has been used for the
most varied ends, disquisitions that I will not use to affirm or deny
what was said by famous characters from the fields of politics, law,
literature and culture in many countries.

I will limit myself to confirming the meaning of some elemental
concepts, such as a "blockade" that implies that a country's coasts are
surrounded by naval fleets that block international commerce, isolating it.

According to our actual history since 1959, Cuba was only partially
blockaded during the days of the "Missile Crisis" in October of 1962,
when the American fleet blocked the passage of ships from the USSR and
Eastern European countries because of the danger that they might be
transporting weapons.

These events had a historical antecedent. In the "Cold War" between the
United States and the USSR, Fidel Castro followed the strategy of
allying himself with the Russian and seeking to make the Americans
enemies, and allowed Soviet nuclear weapons to be placed in Cuba. This
was discovered by American U2 spy planes, and President John F. Kennedy
demanding that the Soviet government remove the missiles from Cuban,
which was complied with halfway.

During the events that occurred in 1962, when a group of Cuban exiles
invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs intending to overthrow the ruling
regime, the United States did not provide air and naval support to the
operation. Therefore, the term "blockade" is not applicable to the
decades-long tension between Cuba and the United States.

The Torricelli Law was approved by the US Congress and signed by
President George Bush (the father) in 1993, and the Helms-Burton Law was
approved by the House of Representatives and the Senate of the United
States in 1995. Both laws were enacted with the purpose of economically
strangling the Cuban regime.

While it's true that pressures from U.S. presidents against powerful
"Made in USA" companies managed to limit trade with Cuba, it is also
true that large and deep gaps remained and the ineffectiveness of such
measures was shrewdly exploited by the rulers of the island, for many
years, to open trade relations with the entire world, including with the
United States itself.

Thus, the term "economic embargo" is not morally or legally applicable
to all of the above and has only been used to try to justify the
infinite failures of Communism in Cuba.

But something more important than these conceptual differences, is the
real and merciless "blockade" that the dictatorship maintains against
its own people, making everyday life in the country harrowing every day.
There are multiple prohibitions by the regime against Cubans: We cannot
have legal organizations, movements or parties other than the Communist,
there is no freedom of assembly if it is not organized by the government
on matters of interest to them and they do not allow dissent.

They collect impossible taxes from poor entrepreneurs who have huge
debts to the State in the process of achieving their dreams and economic
improvements. Food is increasingly scarce and of lesser quality, even
that is is produced here in Cuba. Indoctrinations continues in schools
and mass organizations are used to promote their invariable message, and
so on for a long list.

This is the real Blockade and it is imposed by those who are governing
our beautiful Cuba. Will we stand with our arms crossed listening to
excuses and blaming somebody else for our problems without the power to
solve anything? Or are we going to see the reality of the matter and
take responsibility like Cuban citizens? The major problem is internal
and the best solutions are also internal but be need more commitment and
willingness to change.

Source: Blockade or Embargo Against Cuba? / Somos+, Wilfredo Casañas |
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