Why is there still an embargo against Cuba.
So this is coming from an Englishman so I may be missing some context an American might know. I have recently booked a holiday to Cuba and it got me thinking about why USA still has an embargo against Cuba when they deal with much worse countries than Cuba.
In: Economics
It requires an act of Congress, and the political capital to do it isn’t worth potentially alienating Cuban American voters in Florida. Plus the American and Cuban governments still really don’t like each other which is not going to change anytime soon.
In a sane world the U.S. would have dropped the embargo long ago, the carrot is better than the stick. There would still be sanctions, Cuba is still an authoritarian oppressive state.
There is a strong debate about this politically it is not something all Americans agree on.
Long story short: conservatives and the voting block they court of Cuban exiles have made hating Cuba part of their identity and political slate.
If we could overcome the conservatives we would normalize relations with Cuba. But trying to do so motivates conservatives so it’s an uphill battle. And we already have a lot of important ones.
The Obama Admin tried to normalize relations, then suddenly a bunch of embassy staff got sick by a supposed “sonic weapon” that was blamed on the Cuban gov. Never existed, but it derailed the effort.
Just enjoy lording your fun holidays against us. We can get there sneakily through Canada but it’s risky to have it on your passport that you violated the embargo and went.
https://www.state.gov/reports/country-reports-on-terrorism-2019/cuba/
Most of the reasons are listed there. To sum them up:
1) Cuba provides military assistance to North Korea, Iran, and Syria by repairing and providing parts for Soviet era military equipment.
2) Cuba allows North Korea, Iran, and Syria to use its financial system to launder money.
3) Cuba continues to support various armed groups in South America by providing weapons and training, as well as sheltering their leadership in Cuba itself.
4) Cuba continues to harbor US criminals who fled there during the Cold War to avoid prison.
5) Cuba allows its territory and financial system to be used to help the Venezuelan Government traffic drugs to the US.
Its not mentioned in that State Department report, but this is also pretty important to understanding the US Government’s current position on Cuba:
In 2014 the US Government began normalizing relations with Cuba. The US Government’s theory is that, despite that, the Cuban government became an active participant in whatever resulted in employees at the US Embassy in Cuba developing Havana Syndrome. This occurred shortly after that normalization began.
Harming another country’s diplomats is always kind of a big deal and this is especially true when the diplomats that you harmed were trying to normalize relations with you.
Were it not for the Havana Syndrome incident, its likely that the US Government would have been willing to look the other way on some of the other stuff Cuba does – as the US does for many other countries that it has normal relations with. But post-Havana Syndrome, there is a 0% chance of any normalization in relations until there is significant and lasting change within the Cuban Government’s position on all of the other problems that the State Department has with it.
edit: and just to discuss Havana Syndrome a bit more – starting in 2016, diplomats at the US Embassy in Cuba began experiencing severe neurological symptoms. Nobody knows who did it or how, but there are a number of plausible explanations ranging from a malfunctioning “microphone” that used microwaves to try to listen through walls to deliberate poisoning.
What the US Government does know is that when they alerted Cuba to the problem, Cuba’s reaction was stereotypical of the type of reaction that the Soviet Union had when the Soviet Union was involved in something like this. That is to say, Cuba conducted a sham “investigation” that found nothing, then began demanding access to sensitive sites in the US Embassy and access to sensitive records concerning US personnel. Cuba also stonewalled the US on requests for access to basic information or non-sensitive sites.
Again, this is not an unfamiliar reaction to the US Government – the Soviet Government followed this exact playbook on a number of occasions when it would get caught doing something wrong. The fact that Cuba chose to react that way when confronted with the possibility that someone was targeting US Diplomats in Cuba basically cemented the idea in the US Government’s mind that the Cuban Government at least knew what was going on and had either outright facilitated it or done nothing to stop it.
You’re basically guaranteed to get implicated in something like this when your reaction to it is “well how can we know that the symptoms weren’t being caused by the sensitive data on your computers unless we’re allowed to look through them?”
I can’t add any good reasons it still exists. I had the opportunity to visit cuba last Dec. It was horrifying to see these folks in such dire conditions. The people are amazing. I have no doubt that when the embargo goes away, Cuba will flourish.
Florida.
There’s a strong Cuban expat community in Florida that left s a result of the rise of Castro, or escaped communism through crossing the straits, or by being exiled by Castro.
Those people are still a major voting bloc in Florida, and they are vehemently against the US aiding Cuba in any way, shape, or form.
A decade or so ago, when Florida was still competitive, both political parties wanted/needed Florida for their electoral votes, senators, and representatives. So, pacifying a major (swing) voting bloc was important. Both parties would do whatever the Cuban expats wanted, just to get their votes
Now that Florida is solidly red. The Dems are no longer stuck trying to make the Cuban expat community happy. So, the Dems have opened up a bit (cultural exchanges, limited tourism, some economic ties back and forth). But the GOP is still beholden to the Cuban expats, so whenever they arf in power, restrictions will tighten up, again.
I think it’s because of an honest belief they’re doing good and if they try a little harder, last a little longer, that suddenly Cuba will come around. It’s classic sunk cost fallacy and at this point, it’s hard to back out without losing face.
I personally think Canada’s approach was better — find common ground and build from that.
Dont expect to find a good answer here where most people are just brainwashed by propaganda. The embargo exists exactly to disrupt the government legitimacy and generate the opinions you see here, trying to causing psychological terror over the population of Cuba, pressuring them to remove the Castro regime.
That’s one of the methods the US state is used by the rich to squash those who oppose them, see how Trump is aiming to put sanctions on Brics countries just because they dont want to deal with the dollar anymore? As last resort, when there is a casus beli, they execute military invasion (Ex: Iraq). The US state is just the oppression power of billionaires from the west.
If Cuba by any chance were better developed, workers around the American continent would start to raise questions, Cuba cannot succeed under any circumstances, it has to be sabotaged forever. Not saying that without the embargo the island would be a paradise, but the embargo guarantees it wont.
Nations tend to trade with their allies and not with their enemies, that and backwards countries that can’t really feed themselves have very little to offer in trade anyways.
Countries that nationalize foreign companies on their soil shouldn’t expect good trade relations and we still are getting Cuban refugees fleeing on rafts of garbage floating to our shores. Dumping the problem you created unto someone else’s lap isn’t a great way to build a friendly relationship.
An economic embargo is also being used as leverage to get them to change their ways, if it ends too soon then the Cuban people will have less hope that they can some day enjoy freedom.
If communists truly believed in their economic system, then they shouldn’t need access to capitalistic markets for it to be successful. Instead blaming the embargo for Cuba’s economic stagnation, sounds like one more excuse in a long list of excuses why communism doesn’t work.
Cuba can trade with any other country, and since the Trade Sanction Reform and Export Enhancement Act was enacted in 2000, the trade of food and medicine goods is excluded from the embargo.
Cuba is poor because of communism and no, it’s not America’s responsibility to help their enemies.
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