The U.S. Embargo Against Cuba Violates International Law and Must Be Lifted

By David Starr

 

The recent blackouts on the island nation of Cuba are a reminder of the consequences of the 60-year-old U.S. embargo, or as Cubans call it, The Blockade. Cubans, however, are a resilient people and have effectively coped with it, despite those consequences. 

 

It can’t be denied that the embargo has done its damage over the years. Economically, Cuba has had to cope with a major loss of revenue. In an annual report published by the Cuban government, it is estimatedthat Cuba has lost over the equivalent of five billion dollars between March 2023 and February 2024. This loss was 189.9 million dollars higher than the previous 12 months. At the close of 2023, Cuba’s gross domestic product (GDP) decreased to 1.9%.

 

The USA has allowed restricted commercial activities with Cuba “through exemptions and licenses,” quoting from On Cuba News, “under certain conditions – such as payment in cash – [but] with the authorization of U.S. authorities.” So, the USA is practically dictating to Cuba what it can do and it cannot do in commercial ventures. And, as On Cuba News writes, “Cuba has been mired in a serious economic crisis for more than four years and its government mainly blames the U.S. sanctions for this situation.” It’s incredibly obvious that this is the case. Despite the denial of U.S. officials.

 

But when it comes down to it, the USA, as an empire, doesn’t care about Cuba or the Cuban people.

 

Writing in Africa is a Country, Simon Adetona Akindes laid out the stereotypes and lies coming from the U.S. government and the U.S. media. It is “a litany of distorted accounts of a malfunctioning society; a county that hung on to communism, an obsolete ideology; hyperbolic tales of repression; hordes fleeing an ugly communist dictatorship; a country training terrorists to harm the rest of the world.” The reality is that the USA empire (and the NATO alliance for that matter) is the biggest threat in the world today. 

 

The embargo has been tightened several times over the years, making this a sadistic act on the part of the U.S. establishment. There was, however, an attempt by former president Barack Obama to reestablish relations with Cuba. Published in Bloomberg News, Angela Greiling and Mike Dorning wrote that a deal was brokered by Pope Francis. 

 

Further, “The action means not simply the opening of a U.S. embassy in Havana but the lifting of some of the restrictions that have limited travel and commerce and kept aficionados from legally bringing Cuban cigars to U.S. soil.” 

 

Obama worked with Cuban leader Raul Castro in making these things a possibility. 

 

Greiling and Dorning quoted Obama, who declared that “Today, the United States of America is changing its relationship with the people of Cuba. Neither the American nor Cuban people are well served by a rigid policy that’s rooted in events that took place before most of us were born.” 

 

Castro was also quoted, saying that “the progress achieved in the exchanges we’ve had shows that it’s possible to find solutions to many problems. We have to learn the art of living together with our differences in a civilized way.”

 

As the USA and Cuba were mapping out the reestablishment of relations, Obama finished his second term as president. In 2016, Donald Trump was picked by voters to be the new president. Being especially a Republican, Trump reversed the opportunity to have the USA and Cuba reconcile. He reimposed anti-Cuban laws. But at the same time, Trump was open to further dialogue. That means he probably lied about that. A report in USA Today stated that Trump would proceed with reinstituting “travel and business restrictions,” thus reversing Obama policy.

 

USA Today also quoted a statement from the Trump regime, which said, "The new policy centers on the belief that the oppressed Cuban people — rather than the oppressive Castro regime’s military and its subsidiaries — should benefit from American engagement with the island." It’s not surprising Trump would echo the antiquated Cold War rhetoric. It’s been evident ever since the Cuban Revolution triumphed in 1959.

 

Laura Prada, a Cuban journalist in Havana, had a report published by People’s Dispatch, in which she wrote, regarding the latest blackout, that “The origin is the same. A tangled regime of sanctions and blockade; the refusal of a powerful country to accept the will of independent peoples determined to forge their own path.” 

 

Further, Prada wrote that, “There is something that does not leave my mind and I have been repeating it for hours. This is the reality of the fucking Yankee blockade. This is one of its many faces and today we are looking at it in the eye.

 

“For more than 72 hours Cuba is in the dark, but not defeated.”

 

Just as determined, The Venezuela-Cuba Friendship Solidarity Movement made a statement that was published in Prensa Latina. “This genocidal policy has been one of the main elements of the deterioration of the industrial infrastructure and the National Electric System. 

 

“[T]he haters who bet on the collapse of the Revolution of the humble, by the humble and for the humble, will once again feel the contempt and the forceful and dignified response of an entire nation. For decades, Cuba has been the beacon that has illuminated the path of redemption and self-determination for the peoples of the world.” While this sounds somewhat rhetorical, Cuba has nevertheless been an example of a country that has committed the ultimate “sin,” practicing socialism, in defiance of the USA monetary empire and the current capitalist world order that it has tried to impose. And that is inspirational for the Global South.

 

Most of the world community supports Cuba in its continuing attempts to protect its sovereignty and staying on an alternative path. A United Nations report on a United Nations’ General Assembly vote s wants the embargo to be lifted. The report began with a statement, saying, “The UN General Assembly once again urged the United States to end its economic, commercial, and financial embargo on Cuba, renewing a demand it has made since 1992.” 

 

The results of the vote went as follows: 187 nations in favor, two nations against and one abstention. Of course, the two nations that voted against was the USA and Israel, i.e., Uncle Sam and his spoiled child. 

 

Although the vote is unfortunately non-binding – which isn’t very democratic – the report asserted that, “The resolution reaffirmed, among other principles, the sovereign equality of States, non-intervention and non-interference in their internal affairs and freedom of international trade and navigation. “

 

The blockade has to be lifted inevitably. And with respect to Cuba’s sovereignty and its continuing Revolution. The U.S. monetary empire cannot impose it forever.