Cuba and the Affects of the Embargo The island nation of Cuba, located just ninety miles off the coast of Florida, is home to 11 million people and has one of the few remaining communist regimes in the world. Cuba’s leader, Fidel Castro, came to power in 1959 and immediately instituted a communist program of sweeping economic and social changes. Castro allied his government with the Soviet Union and seized and nationalized billions of dollars of American property. U.S. relations with Cuba have been strained ever since. A trade embargo against Cuba that was imposed in 1960 is still in place today. Despite severe economic suffering and increasing isolation from the world community, Castro remains committed to communism. (Close Up …show more content…
Supporters of the legislation believe that prohibiting foreign investment will quicken Castro’s downfall. (Close Up Foundation) Many debate on the issue of why the U.S. should or shouldn’t keep the ebargo against Cuba. These debates deal with the effects of the Embargo on Cuba’s economy, humanitarian rights and health of the people of Cuba. The embargo today places a ban on subsidiary trade, Licensing, shipping and humanitarian aid. (Close Up Foundation) In 1992, the Cuban Democracy act imposed a ban on subsidiary trade with Cuba. This ban restricted Cuba’s ability to import medicines and medical supplies from third country sources. There have also been corporate buy-outs and mergers between U.S. and European pharmaceutical companies thus adding to the number of companies permitted to do business with Cuba. Under the Cuban Democracy Act, The U.S. Treasury and Commerce Departments are allowed to license individual sales of medicines and medical supplies, supposedly for humanitarian reasons to make up for the embargo’s impact on health care delivery. According to the U.S. corporate executives, the licensing provisions are so tough as to have had the opposite effect. With this statement, it is assumed that there are fewer licenses given out for humanitarian reason therefore favoring the embargo and aiding in the downfall of health in Cuba. Since 1992, the embargo has prohibited ships from loading or unloading cargo in U.S. ports for 180 days after
The embargo is estimated to have cost Cuba $1.126 trillion in lost revenue over the last 50 years. The embargo obviously restricts Cuba from buying a lot in the United States, but not everything. Cuba is only allowed to purchase certain things from the United States if they pay in cash. The United States can't buy anything from Cuba though. Due to the restrictions of purchasing things from the United States, Cuba mostly has automobiles from the 1950’s or 1960’s.
In the article, “Why Do We Still Have an Embargo of Cuba?” Patrick Haney explores the history of the embargo and the different factors which have maintained and tightened its restrictions over the past fifty years. The embargo consists of a ban on trade and commercial activity, a ban on travel, a policy on how Cuban exiles can enter the U.S., and media broadcasting to the island. These once-executive orders now codified into law by the Helms-Burton Act, have become a politically charged topic which wins and loses elections, spawned influential interest groups, and powerful political action committees.
The Cuba Policy came into effect to end all relations between the United States and Cuba. The U.S. policy toward Cuba is controlled by the embargo, which contains economic agreements and restrictions on travel to Cuba. The effect of this policy is to minimize commercial, political and resident relations between the United States and Cuba. The State Department indicated that the purpose of the embargo was to have a nonviolent transition to a secure, democratic form of government and respect for human rights in Cuba.
The United States embargo of Cuba has its roots planted in 1960, 53 years ago, when “the United States Congress authorized President Eisenhower to cut off the yearly quota of sugar to be imported from Cuba under the Sugar act of 1948… by 95 percent” (Hass 1998, 37). This was done in response to a growing
As also stated by Mr. D’angelo, in a personal interview about the Cuban embargo, “Yes I think it will last until Cuban reforms, change in Cuban leadership…” This shows that many people, including professionals believe that the embargo will not end soon without the removal of the Castro’s. This idea of no Castro in the government makes sense since many speculate that even though Fidel is no longer is power he still has some influence over what his brother does. Vividly depicted, this is shown by a passage made by Catharine Moses from her book: “They might not like him, they might complain about him, might see his failing and might blame him for all the countries problems, but he is Fidel. He is in control of the island…”(pg. 7) In compliance, this just shows that many still believe he holds power and some hold truth to their hearts that it is Fidel’s Cuba. On an other aspect that goes hand and hand with the Cuban democracy Act is the declaration of John F. Kennedy that states that the goal of the embargo is to submit Cuba’s government into giving up its communist government. Evidently, this was the main goal of the embargo and Cuba has not, and for the foreseeable future, will not change its government from the communist one that it is known for. An idea and aspect that is clearly shown and supports the idea of containment, is that the embargo also
Besides that, the pro of US embargo to Cuba is that trading with Cuba has not given much benefits. From the experienced, Cuba has doing business with several countries around the worlds. For example Canada, Europe and Latin America have been doing business with Cuba but the results is that they have not enjoyed a lot of economic and political benefits. It’s only the Cuban government that is enjoying the commercial and economic
In the early 1900’s, Cuba was a stomping ground for many of the rich and famous from the United States. Many famous movies stars and wealthy business entrepreneurs spend their vacations there along with a substantial amount of money. Trade and commerce between the United States and Cuba flowed freely and abundantly. Even with the Dictatorship-like regime of Batista, the countries benefited from the economic trade between them. This was all about to come crashing down as revolts against Batista occurred and Fidel Castro came to power within Cuba.
In the year 1959 a politician named Fidel Castro led a revolution against the Cuban government under Fulgencio Batista.
Many of these factors had either been introduced or improved by Castro and just the idea of having a country that is third world having these factors so long ago is an indication of how beneficial Fidel Castro was to Cuba. The extent to which the US — a superpower — felt threatened by a third world country like Cuba is also an indication of how beneficial Fidel Castro was to Cuba. This source further explains how under Castro there were food shortages, increased rationing and growing scarcities. The introduction of sanctions under Castro’s rule is said to have been damaging because the source these sanctions upset and disadvantaged the middle-class and therefore were a social disadvantage. This source also explores how the suspension of US exports under Castro was damaging as these badly affected people like retail merchants, manufacturers and industrialists and many of them found it difficult to remain in Cuba. Therefore, this particular policy under Fidel Castro proved to be both socially and economically
The U.S. imposed an Embargo against Cuba on Oct. 19, 1960. Has the time come to the United States to lift the five-decade embargo? The Embargo was a part of America’s Cold War strategy against the Soviet Union, imposed on the belief that Cuba was a threat to the U.S. since the Soviet Union was a danger to the National Security because of its alliance with the Soviet Union. Although Cuba would like the U.S to terminate the embargo against their country, the U.S. wants Cuba to make their situation a better living environment and to promote human rights for its citizens before any sanctions are removed.
From the time, Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba tensions ran high between the Cuban government and the United States government. Relations between Cuba and the United States grew during Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations. Not as much during the Eisenhower administration as the Kennedy administration did tensions between between the two countries intensify. Kennedy faced many a different situations as President. He faced such situations like the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Tensions have mounted high for a long time between Cuba and the United States.
On an island far, far, away, are oppressed, poor, and hopeless people who have been under the subjugate control of a regime of communist dictators for over half a century. A body of people, who for almost 55 years, have been given the cold shoulder by one of the world’s biggest superpower and the only superpower in close proximity to their own island. The U.S. implemented sanctions on Cuba in 1960 and 1961, with President John F. Kennedy making the embargo official in 1962. The embargo was placed on Cuba during the reign of Fidel Castro because Cuba nationalized American owned Cuban oil refineries without compensation as well as instigated several national security conflicts, such as the Cuban missile crisis, which was spurred by their alliance with the Soviet Union. The issue now stands today on whether America should lift the embargo on Cuba. The lift of this embargo will affect the United States’ international diplomacy, cause an economic boost in Cuba due to the new import and export of goods with the United States. Along with a possible immigration reform for Cubans wanting to move to the United States, and Americans wanting to emigrate to Cuba. There are an incredible amount of problems for the people of Cuba, a lift of the embargo would greatly improve their quality of life. The United States should lift the embargo with the communist state of Cuba,
economic growth comes from agriculture and exports to and from Europe. Since America has had an embargo on Cuba since 1962 neither countries trade with each other because of many disagreements about governing techniques and Fidel's unwillingness to comply with U.S. instructions. Cuba’s long history and culture has contributed to many economic and social growth through out the world, but Cuba is still struggling to try to stable their economy.
In 1959, Cubareceived 74 percent of its imports from the US, and the US received 65 percentof Cuba’s exports. On February 3, 1962, the United States imposed a fulltrade embargo on Cuba, completely ending any type of trade between the twocountries. This embargo remains in effect today, more than four decades later,and has grown ! to be a huge center of debate and controversy (DeVarona 8).Opponents to the embargo argue that the embargo does nothing more than hurt theCuban people, while proponents argue that the embargo places pressure on Castroto repair Cuba’s mismanaged and corrupt government. Both the supportersand the opponents of this embargo have strong arguments and evidence to supportthese
Able to weather a variety of political leaders, economic events, and historical eras, the U.S. embargo of Cuba is the longest and harshest embargo by one state against another in modern history. Following Castro’s overthrow of the Batista government in 1959 and threats to incite revolutions elsewhere in Latin America, the Unites State cancelled its trade agreement to buy Cuban sugar. Then, following a series of increasing hostile events, the United States severed diplomatic relations and initiated a full trade embargo in 1962. Trade between the United States and Cuba stopped. Spurred by the collapse of communism more than thirty years later, Congress