Andrew Nicholas Estevez
INSANITY
The Ineffectiveness of the USA Embargo against Cuba
Andrew Nicholas Estevez
INS 566
Major Issues in U.S.-Latin American Relations
Dr. Ambler Moss
FALL 2013
Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
- Albert Einstein
It has been over fifty years since the United States imposed an embargo against Cuba on February 7, 1962. The intent of the embargo was to constrict development in order to eventually eradicate communist leadership on the island. Decades later, there has been no improvement in the quality of life of the Cuban people, and still, the same communist regime reigns. The embargo has been extremely unsuccessful in fulfilling its purpose, and it would be insane to allow it to continue another decade expecting different results. It is imperative that we wash away old ineffective policies and begin considering alternative diplomatic methods of dethroning the communist government in Cuba.
BACKGROUND
The Spanish-American war culminated in 1898 with the U.S. winning the rights to Spain’s territories including Guam, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. The U.S. subsequently granted Cuba its independence, while retaining a perpetual lease on its naval base atGuantánamo Bay. For the next half-century the two countries were relatively cooperative as the U.S. helped to suppress rebellions and heavily invested in the economy of its Caribbean neighbor. Cuba became a hot-spot for Americans looking for a tranquil escape. One of the most famous American icons of the era was Ernest Hemingway, who lived in Cuba for 22 years and wrotehis masterpiece, The Old Man and the Sea,at his villa just outside of Havana.
A NEW WAVE
The Cuban Revolution changed everything. After several years and many attempts, Fidel Castro and his band of guerillas successfully overthrew the government of President General Fulgencio Batista on January 1, 1959. The Eisenhower Administration had supported Castro’s rebellion by imposing an arms embargo in 1958 against Batista's government. The U.S. immediately recognized the new regime; in the meantime the CIA began its campaign aimed at overthrowing the new government.[1] In April of 1960, then - Prime Minister Castro, visited the U.S. and met with Vice President Richard Nixon where they discussed democracy and dictatorship[2]. During his tour of America he visited a few universities and spoke at a rally in New York. In a memorandum published in his memoirs, Nixon said that “it was apparent that as far as his [Castro’s] visit to the United States was concerned his primary interest was not to get a change in the sugar quota or to get a government loan but to win support for his policies from American public opinion.” This was the last moment of perceived alliance between the U.S. and Cuba.
In 1960, relations were agitated as Castro's government seized private land and nationalized hundreds of private companies, many of which were American-owned. Cuba expropriated thousands of acres owned by U.S. sugar companies, and the U.S. responded by burning tons of Cuban sugar cane fields and bombing sugar mills. Cuba then reached out to the Soviet Union and China and established trade agreements to secure their sugar industry. President Eisenhower followed by canceling Cuba’s sugar quota, ceasing all imports of Cuban sugar in his first economic sanction against Cuba. A few months later Eisenhower’s administration declares a partial embargo on all exports to Cuba. Vice President Richard Nixon described the policy as an “all-out quarantine – economically, politically, and diplomatically – against the Castro regime.”[3] In response, Cuba nationalized all remaining U.S. property in Cuba. By 1961, the U.S. had severed all diplomatic relations with Cuba, and has arranged for Switzerland to act as a mediator of communication ever since.
PIGS AND SEASHELLS
The early 1960’s are marked with numerous attempts to overthrow the Castro regime. By far the most infamous attempt would be what is referred to as The Bay of Pigs. After nearly decimating the Cuban air force in previous days’ bombings, early in the morning of April 17th, 1961, approximately 1,400 brigadistas arrived at Playa Girón from Bahia de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) on the southern coast of Cuba. The group of Cuban exiles were trained in Guatemala by the CIA and intended to establish a strong hold at the beach and hold off counter attack until they linked up with anti-Castro rebels within Cuba. The U.S. had invested millions of dollars to provide tons of supplies and arms to support what was supposed to seem like a Cuban-led attack.[4] Unfortunately their secret was far from clandestine, and Castro’s military forces awaited the impending invasion at Playa Girón. Within 72 hours Castro’s army had sunk U.S. supply ships, and destroyed two B-26 bombers which were later used by Castro to prove that it was an American attack.[5] The CIA’s botched attempt was a horrific failure – from infiltration teams who had that been captured before battle, to the unexpected lack of upheaval from rebels within Cuba. Perhaps the biggest losses of the battle were that, for the exile community, it symbolized their betrayal by the U.S. government from whom they mistakenly expected military support, and for the Cuban government, it proved its ability to defend itself against the United States.[6]
In the following years, Operation Mongoose was composed of a series of increasingly far-fetched covert attempts on Castro's life. Throughout the 1960s there were at least five plots to kill or humiliate the Cuban leader. The comical attempts included exploding seashells, poisoned cigars, and even shoes dusted with chemicals to make his beard fall out.[7] The plans never worked, besides making Castro angry as ever toward the United States.
CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS
The most heated period in the countries' relationship transpired throughout a 12 day nuclear stand-off beginning on October 15, 1962 when U.S. spy planes discovered evidence that the Soviet Union was building missile bases in Cuba. This would be forever referred to as the Cuban Missile Crisis. President Kennedy immediately responded by ordering a naval blockade of the island, but carefully decided to call this action “quarantine” to avoid implementing an act of war. In 1989, Soviet officials confirmed that there were 20 nuclear warheads in Cuba with 20 others on a ship that turned back because of the blockade.[8] The stand-off ended only when Soviet Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev and President Kennedy came to terms on an agreement stipulating that the Soviets would remove their missiles from Cuba if the U.S. ended the blockade, pledged not to invade Cuba, as well as remove its nuclear missiles stationed in Turkey.
EL MARIEL
In April 1980, thousands of Cubans rushed to the Peruvian Embassy which began offering asylum.[9] Overwhelmed, they closed their doors and Castro then announced that anyone who wanted to leave could do so through its northwestern port – Mariel Harbor. Over the next six months, a mass exodus of over 125,000 Cubans squeezed onto boats and made their way to the U.S. in a mass flotilla. Taking advantage of the mass exodus, Castro decided to release over 20,000 criminals and chronically-ill people from hospitals and insane asylums amidst the migratory wave.[10]
CUBAN ACTIVISM IN AFRICA
In 1975, Castro sent thousands of Cuban armed forces to Angola to support the communist MPLA movement fighting against South African invasion backed by the U.S.. Castro stated that the Cuban forces’ successful intervention in Angola was a great crusade in the third world to help free the people from the misery and oppression that tormented them.[11] Their efforts in Africa were not only a means to satiate the compulsive revolutionary’s devotion to his cause, but it was also an opportunity to take on the Yankees, and fight against U.S. influence abroad.
HELMS-BURTON
The United States’ relations with Cuba had begun to thaw somewhat until February 1996, during President Clinton’s administration, when the Cuban military shot down two U.S. civilian airplanes killing four Cuban exile pilots. Although Cuba claimed that they were flying over Cuban waters[12], the U.S. maintained that they were over international waters, and the commercial planes flying in the daytime posed no threat to Cuba. This resulted in perhaps the most assertive move of the United States during the 1990s designed to further isolate Cuba, to strengthen the trade embargo against it, and to extend U.S. legislation to punish foreign companies investing simultaneously in the United States and Cuba. Despite vigorous opposition from the main trading partners of the United States, including the European Union and Canada, theHelms-BurtonAct (also known as the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act) was signed into law by Congress on March 12, 1996. The law extended sanctions to all non-U.S. companies that did any business with Cuba, and allowed U.S. citizens to sue foreign companies for dealing in expropriated U.S. property in Cuba.[13]
CHANGING TIDES
In the last decade we have seen the U.S. give slack to restrictions on Cuba. In the 2001 aftermath of Hurricane Michelle, an agreement to sell food and medicine was put into effect. Today, the United States is Cuba's main food supplier, with sales reaching $710 million in 2008.[14] During President Obama's administration he has lifted remittances and travel restrictions for those with family in Cuba. This has symbolized a significant change in the U.S.'s position toward the island. Another significant change in policy was that Obama began allowing telecommunications companies to expand business to Cuba, which still had roughly the same number of telephone lines as it did in the 1950s.
Despite the relaxing of sanctions, the most recent case of hostility towards the U.S. came in late 2009 when Cuban officials arrested Alan Gross, a subcontractor for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). He was arrested in Havana while helping Cuba's Jewish community get better access to the Internet. A Cuban court last year found him guilty of participating in a "subversive project of the U.S. government that aimed to destroy the revolution through the use of communications systems out of the control of authorities," and sentenced him to 15 years in prison. He has languished in a military hospital ever since.[15] Cuba has used Mr. Gross as a bargaining chip in exchange for the “Cuban Five” – a group of five Cuban spies convicted in 2001 for espionage in Miami, Fl. This was an irrational offer such that there is no comparison between the crimes of Mr. Gross (if any) and the “Cuban Five”.
Another prime example of Cuban oppression and disregard for human rights can be examined through the situation faced by Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, aka – Antunez. In 2012, Antunez was attacked, beaten, and jailed by Cuban security less than a week after testifying via tele-conference during a Senate Foreign Relations' Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs hearing. Following reports that Cuban authorities detained and viciously beat the freedom advocate and former political prisoner, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio issued a statement saying that “it is clear that he has been jailed and savagely beaten by criminals working for the Castro regime because he testified before the Senate last week… all threats and acts of violence against him and his family must stop, as they should with any Cubans who are simply demanding their God-given rights.”[16]
Cuba’s actions throughout history have demonstrated that the Castro regime has no consideration for the American perspective of their decisions. It seems like every time the U.S. takes a step towards diplomacy, the Cuban government takes a step in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, U.S. economic and diplomatic sanctions have had no effect on the decision making process of the Cuban government to this point. After 50 years of embargo they still revel at any opportunity to oppose the United States in any way imaginable. Why is that so?
SALTY RELATIONS
It has been said that poverty and rationing are arms used by totalitarian repression. Through rationing, the government becomes a powerful entity whose kindness, the citizens’ hunger and happiness depend. Rebellious Cubans have lost their ration cards for many different reasons. Enormous power emanates from controlling the key to the cupboard in a country where no one can hoard more foodstuffs than are necessary for a 72-hour supply.[17] The strategy of Castro’s communist government has been to control the minds of the masses by keeping the people hungry. It is nearly impossible to find any published statistics about the number of Cubans who live in poverty, but there are millions of Cubans who live off less than 20 pesos per month, and 11 million who are subject to food rationing. In Figure 1, you can see how food rations significantly diminished when Castro’s communist regime assumed power. Cubans spend their days worrying about where their next meal will come from; they do not have time nor energy to organize political movements.
The Castro regime has long blamed the U.S. and the embargo for the plight of the Cuban people and the dilapidated condition of their country. Ironically, what began as an alternative to war during Kennedy’s administration, has been interpreted a sign of belligerence against the communist party. In turn it has fostered a significant outcry of dissent from Cuban leaders who publicly condemn the Yankees, while obsessing about their ardent desires for relations with the United States. Although mistaken, the Cuban leaders cling to the consolation that relations with Washington will alleviate the economic situation and bring new prosperity.[18] This is the explanation provided to Cuban citizens regarding their plight – as if their conditions are the direct consequence of the U.S. economic resistance which has forced them to live in such poor circumstances. The fact is that Cuba trades with every other country in the western hemisphere, and has every opportunity to provide the quality of life that the Cuban people rightfully deserve. The Cuban government violates the human rights of their people every day by not allowing them access to the abundance the modern world offers.