Cuban Embargo Research Paper

When President Obama announced the change to US-Cuban relations, it was the most significant change of foreign policy

Cuba and the United States has recently undergone a fundamental shift in regards to their foreign relations. They have lifted their embargo and restarted relations with the help of U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, Cuban officials, and Pope Francis. The naval base and the prison on Guantanamo Bay has been a topic of controversy for a long time. Very recently, President Obama has released a plan to close the prison. He means to relocate the prisoners to other mainland prisons. While this is a still a debate in Congress, it shows a step forward in improving United States and Latin American

President Obama addressed the situation and policies between Cuba and the United States in his State of the Union Address. " In Cuba, we are ending a policy that was long past its expiration date. When what you're doing doesn't work for fifty years, it's time to try something new. Our shift in Cuba policy has the potential to end a legacy of mistrust in our hemisphere, removes a phony excuse for restrictions in Cuba, stands up for democratic values, and extends the hand of friendship to the Cuban people. And this year, Congress should begin the work of ending the embargo," the President said regarding Cuba and the antiquated policies.

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 U.S. and Cuban controversies have been around since 1962. The president has decided that isolating Cuba has not worked and recently loosened travel restrictions and exports restrictions. Although this is a huge step to right directions economically, cultural effects so far have been minimal for both the U.S. and Cuba. Politically, Cuba is a socialist country, however, has been taking steps to democracy. For example, reforms breaking up government owned lands and authorizing self employment in many occupations. With the embargo lifted, it is expected that Cuba takes more steps in the right direction. On the economic side of things, Cuba still has strict control on foreign investment, but it is expected with time that investors will be

The history of the Cuban embargo is a brief one, but is as significant to Cuban history as World War II is to American history. After Castro’s overthrowing of the government from previous president Batista, Castro began his communist styled reign that was immediately recognized by the U.S. Castro seized multiple reservations of land meant for American use, and heavily taxed American products which led to the dramatic decrease in U.S. exports in a short window of two years as a trading embargo was placed to restrict trade with Cuba with the exception of food and medical supplies. Castro declared American policy-makers “Yankee Imperialists” and ultimately cut off all diplomatic ties with the U.S. and grossly expanded trade with the Soviet Union, America’s biggest rival, to compensate for American economic absence. In retaliation for directly violating the Trading with the enemy Act of 1917 and continuing to collect human rights violations, President Kennedy

The fight against communism became less important. The United States faced bigger issues when the Cold War ended. As a result to the Cold War present President Obama lifted problems with Cuba. By lifting these problems he made 1 billion dollars in income. Obama felt that such out dated thinking was irrelevant and didn’t make since on rebuilding a democracy in Cuba.

The new era began, Barack Obama and Raúl Castro announced that the United States of America and Cuba will restore full diplomatic relations for the first time in more than 50 years since severing ties in 1961. Barston 2006, defines diplomatic relations as “the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of states. It usually refers to international diplomacy, the conduct of international relations through the intercession of professional diplomats with regard to issues of peace-making, trade, economics and culture” (p. 1). One of the major areas it will address is the lifting of the Cuban embargo. The embargo restricts trade, travel and communication between the two states which hinders the economic development of Cuba.

The United States and Cuba have had a history of tension that goes back about 50 years. Within those years, an embargo was placed that kept Cuba isolated from participating in activities such as trade with the U.S. In 2008, a major step towards

U.S. wanted Cuba to meet special requirements in order for the embargo to go into effect, including rules such as: transition to a democracy, demand Havana support small businesses in exchange for sheathing restrictions on remittances, denounce presence of either Fidel or Raul Castro in Cuban government, better living conditions for all Cuban citizens, absolutely no travel to Cuba, and promote human rights. Cuba has not yet met all requirements, but is currently working on them. Obama reversed some of these polices, such as, allowing U.S. citizens to send remittances to non-family members in Cuba and travel under license of religious or educational purposes. As of today United States citizens may travel to Cuba with only special reasons like religious or

Just like it is stated in white house article following the same path does not lead to a different result, President Obama was looking for a different result. It does not serve America’s interests, or the Cuban people, to try to push Cuba toward collapse. We know from hard-learned experience that it is better to encourage and support reform than to impose policies that will render a country a failed state. We should not allow U.S. sanctions to add to the burden of Cuban citizens we seek to help” (whitehouse.gov). If we do not grow as a people how are we going to improve for our future benefits? We need to move forward and help each other and let past events go by the way side and look to a future that will help not just one group but all groups. Before President Barack Obama historic trip to Cuba he loosened travel and banking and tourism restrictions. While visiting Cuba, United States President Barack Obama and President of Cuba Raul Castro went to an exhibition baseball game played between the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the Cuban National team, Tampa Bay won the game 4-1. Some called this baseball Diplomacy helping to quick change in America’s relationship with Cuba through sport “(New York

When applied to Cuba it can be shown that when they are isolated they do not thrive as much as when they have contact with other countries. Cuba has never been stronger than when it had ties to the Soviet Union. The US does not have formal diplomatic relations with Cuba, and the offer to purchase Cuba from the Spanish Empire has waned. It has intention to maintain an embargo until the reintroduction of capitalism in Cuba. But exports from the US to Cuba in the industries of foods and medical products are permitted. In January 2011, the Obama administration eased specific travel and other restrictions between Cuba and the US. Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, with an area of 109,884 square kilometers. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean where the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic Ocean meet. It is south of both the U.S. state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Haiti, and north of Jamaica. Havana is the largest city and capital. Cuba-U.S. relations have developed over centuries to turn from relatively close and cordial relations to today where the U.S. still retains an economic embargo against the small island

Cuba and the United States are two very different countries. Although they are only nearly 90 miles away from each other it has been over 50 years since both countries have had any real relationship towards each other, other than the hatred that seems to shown by the two countries’ politicians. In October 1960 the United States began to impose its first round of embargoes towards the small island when Cuba decided to nationalize all of the American Oil on its county after the United States without properly compensating the United States. The embargo that was put in place October 1960 limited the on exports to Cuba except for food and medicine. Then in February of 1962 the United States expanded on its embargo from 1960 to include imports as well, but not before John F Kennedy could get his hands on some more of the finest Cigars that Cuba had to offer. There are many reasons for why the United States has placed embargos on the island of Cuba. Some will argue that they should have never placed any embargo against Cuba and some will argue that the embargo should have been lifted a long time ago, but as long as the country remains communist and the Cuban people don’t get an equal opportunity to prosper then lifting or not lifting the embargoes on Cuba will have no real impact on Cuba and its people.

After more than a half-century of hostilities, the United States and Cuba have taken significant steps in recent years to dramatically alter their relationship in the years ahead. Those efforts are controversial to a number of Americans who oppose engaging the Cuban government.

Another reason forimplementing the embargo on Cuba concerns the corrupt communist government andUS hopes of promoting a transition to a democratic system. On February 3, 1962,President Kennedy was confident that “Castro was moving toward theestablishment of a to! talitarian regime in alliance with the Soviet Union”(DeVarona 7). This raised a huge national defense issue since Cuba is only 90miles from US soil. The US government claims that the transition from communismto democracy will help Cuba flourish, as other democratic countries in thewestern hemisphere have. (“Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act of1996”).