Cuba has been under US embargo for 60 years. It's time for that to end

This article is more than 2 years old

Thu 3 Feb 2022 06.13 EST

David Adler
The US embargo impacts every aspect of life on the island – and that is the precisely the point

“There is no embargo on Cuba.” This bold claim – made by Florida senator Marco Rubio on the floor of the US Senate last July – has quickly hardened into conventional wisdom across aisles of US Congress and among Rubio’s base of support in the Cuban diaspora. The US blockade is a myth, a bogeyman for the Communist party of Cuba. “Cuba is not isolated,” Rubio said. Those who say otherwise either “don’t know what they’re talking about … or they’re liars. Those are the only two options.”

Here in Havana, though, the isolating effects of the US embargo are impossible to ignore. The docks are half-empty: the US has banned all cruise ships, cultural exchange and educational delegations that once drove the largest industry on the island. The Western Union branches are shuttered: the US has banned all remittances through Cuban firms and their affiliates to the millions of Cuban families that rely on assistance from abroad. The hospitals are understocked: the US embargo has forbidden the export of medical technology with US components, leading to chronic shortages of over-the-counter medicine. Even the internet is a zone of isolation: the US embargo means that Cubans cannot use Zoom, Skype or Microsoft Teams to communicate with the outside world.

In short, the US embargo impacts every aspect of life on the island – and that is the precisely the point. Sixty years ago on this day, President John F Kennedy introduced Proclamation 3447, Embargo on All Trade with Cuba, designed to isolate Cuba and stop the spread of so-called Sino-Soviet Communism “Every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba,” the assistant secretary of state, Lester D Mallory, wrote in an April 1960 memo. The goal of the Kennedy administration was clear: “To bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.”

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/03/cuba-us-embargo-must-end

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Policy Memorandum on Cuba detailed by Lester D. Mallory, in 1960

Mallory worked in Dwight D. Eisenhower's State Department

{Dwight D. Eisenhower's tenure as the 34th president of the United States from January 20, 1953, to January 20, 1961)



Lester D. Mallory
Diplomat


FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES, 1958–1960, CUBA, VOLUME VI

499. Memorandum From the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Mallory) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Rubottom)1
Washington , April 6, 1960.

SUBJECT
The Decline and Fall of Castro
Salient considerations respecting the life of the present Government of Cuba are:

1. The majority of Cubans support Castro (the lowest estimate I have seen is 50 percent).
   
2. There is no effective political opposition.
   
3. Fidel Castro and other members of the Cuban Government espouse or condone communist influence.
   
4. Communist influence is pervading the Government and the body politic at an amazingly fast rate.
   
5. Militant opposition to Castro from without Cuba would only serve his and the communist cause.
   
6. The only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship.

If the above are accepted or cannot be successfully countered, it follows that every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba. If such a policy is adopted, it should be the result of a positive decision which would call forth a line of action which, while as adroit and inconspicuous as possible, makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.

The principal item in our economic quiver would be flexible authority in the sugar legislation. This needs to be sought urgently. All other avenues should likewise be explored. But first, a decision is [Page 886]necessary as to the line of our conduct. Would you wish to have such a proposal prepared for the Secretary?2

LDM

https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v06/d499#:~:text=If%20such%20a%20policy%20is,bring%20about%20hunger%2C%20desperation%20and