I. Analyzing the Problem
Does what affect whom.
The US policy of travel restriction to Cuba and the limiting of remittances affects primarily Afro Cubans and poor white Cubans. Cuba is a small nation, of roughly 11 million people; there are close to 2.2 million people in exile. The average monthly wage of a Cuban worker is about 200 Pesos, which is equivalent to 16 dollars (Perez-Lopez 1995). For many Cubans possessing dollars is the only opportunity to purchase food and appliances and daily use items outside the allowance of the rationing card. The rationing card is an instrument used by the Cuban government to allocate food, clothing, and any household items of necessity. Each Cuban household has one rationing card assigned to them and is the only way to access goods legitimately for Cubans with no access to dollars. The general scarcity existing in Cuba does not guarantee food or household items, it ensures only that people will have equal access as long as good and food stuff are available. The Cuban government sells foods and items of first necessity in special stores where the exchanges are made in US dollars. The limitation to $300 per year of the remittance to relatives in Cuba affect the Afro Cubans and poor whites Cubans the most since they have the least connections abroad. The limiting of travel restricts the amount of dollars coming into the island, and the ability to obtain dollars by Afro Cubans through the illegal sale of crafts and Cuban art, as well as cigars and rums. This being the primary source of income for many Afro Cubans living in the big cities, prostitution and tips as secondary sources of income.
During most of the emigration that has occurred in Cuba, the primary emigrants were the descendants of the European colonizers. Having family abroad is the key to “remesas” or remittances, the assistance in cash and foodstuff and daily use items sent to Cuba by relatives through Canada and Spain, and these are primarily concentrated in the hands of Cubans of European descendants. The major waves of emigration from Cuba to Spain, US, Mexico, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Canada and other parts of the globe were consistently composed of Cubans of European descendants, rich elites, whose properties the Revolution confiscated.
The CIA World Book classifies the population as: mulatto 51%, white 37%, black 11%, Chinese 1% (World Book, 2005). In Cuba the population is not just black and white, the mixed race people have a category of their own. From 1965 to 1973 on what was called Flight to Freedom, there were two flights daily to the US filled with emigrants. In a poll done by Institute of Public Opinion Research IPOR) interviewing 1622 Cuban Americans in Florida, 93.5% of the total considered themselves as whites (IPOR, 2004). It is believed that insisting in these divisions actually dilutes the cause of Afro Cubans, by inserting a buffer definition between descendant of African slaves and the descendants of European colonizers. In reality, the population is 67% of African and European mixed descent, the mulatto or mixed race is but a idiosyncrasy of the Spanish colonial rule aimed at developing a classist society where the Spaniards ruled everyone else.
During the Mariel Boatlift, for the first time many Afro Cubans had the opportunity to migrate to the US. According to a study, Afro Cubans wait for the lottery process to emigrate to the US, instead of being claimed by relative as many white Cubans do. The lottery is part of an agreement to allow 20 000 Cubans yearly in the US. However, 83 % of the people using the lottery are white Cubans (Aguirre, 1999).
The government with massive propaganda had always discouraged the exodus of Afro Cubans, instilling fears of racist Whites in US by exaggerating the racial tensions existing in this country. The Cuban leaders always pointed at how much better off Afro Cubans were under the protection of the Cuban Revolution, how much more educated and healthy they were compared to African Americans.
The gap once existing between Afro Cubans and White Cubans in regards to education, employment came under attack during the Revolution initial period. Afro Cubans reaped the benefits of education and health and housing, these efforts have forever merged the future of the Afro Cubans to the Revolution. While these advances were real, more Afro Cubans doctors graduated than ever before, more Afro Cubans were employed than ever before; the leadership of the country now and then is retained by the White Cuban minority. According to Blue “the question arises of whether Afro-Cubans have sustained the gains they achieved in the revolution's first 30 years” (Blue, 2007).
After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the USSR, the Cuban government opened doors to investments and tourist ventures with capitalists. The new policies benefited largely the Europeans descendants. Those Cubans of European ancestry had inherited the larger houses of their relatives; this extra space was critical to open up restaurants and eateries inside their homes. It also allowed them to rent space within their homes to tourists, actually competing with the state’s hotels and accommodations. These activities brought hard currency to the white Cubans and the opportunities remained closed to the majority of Afro Cubans.
II. Many sides to this coin
This policy issue is viewed by differently by different groups.
Americans Anti-embargo
The Cuban Embargo is a policy of the US aimed at the Cuban Government, and is seen by many Cuban observers as facilitating the entrenching of the Cuban leaders in an anti-American position. Philip Peters of the Lexington Institute defines five points in examining the policy
1. Any credible Us Policy towards Cuba must place human rights at the forefront to stay true to American Values.
2. American policy finds no support among Cubans, not even the dissidents.
3. Denying Cuba of hard currency also denies America’s influence in Cuba.
4. US have little to loose by experimenting with different approaches.
5. The policy violates the rights of American citizens to trade and travel (Peters, 2000).
Cuban American Florida Leadership
The White Cuban exiled elite in South Florida see the embargo as the only way to force the Cuban government to compensate them for their property confiscated. Sweeny of the Heritage Foundation writes in an article “ The United States would truly abandon the Cuban people by relaxing or lifting the trade embargo against that reprehensible dictatorship. Instead, the U.S. government must reject all pressures to ease the embargo until the objectives for which it was imposed are initiated” (Sweeny, 1995). The rich white Cubans elite of South Florida are the main supporters of the embargo. The Cuban American legislators are the sole source of anti-Castro legislation and have opposed for years any abrogation of the embargo.
This elite, white and republican, funds the coffers of republican political candidates and are suspected in delivering the presidency to Mr. Bush in 2000 by aiding John Sweeny (R.N.Y.) in stopping the recount of ballots in Miami-Dade County, which if allowed to proceed would have delivered the victory to Al Gore (Randall, 2000). When President Bush, in 2003, failed to live up to the commitment to the Cuban American community in South Florida, they send him a letter saying: “ if Bush did not make “substantial progress” toward meeting the demands of the Cuban-American community, we fear the historic and intense support from Cuban-American voters for Republican federal candidates, including yourself, will be jeopardized” (Benen, 2003). This letter exemplifies the inmense power and clout the White Cuban American elite has and how it is capable of dictating foreign policy in the US.
Cuban Leaders in Cuba.
The Cuban leaders, in public, see the embargo as an expensive burden, as a criminal act against the sovereignity of Cuba imposse by a powerful neighbor. The costs of importing food and clothing and oil from Europe, China, and other parts of the world are much greater if access to the US markets were available. In 1996 the cost of maritime for each ship by trip adds $ 215,800 from Europe and $ 516,700 from Asia, the additional expenditure compared to a similar operation from the United States. After the Torricelli Act, that prohibits ships having touched Cuban ports from entering the US for six months, the shippers began adding additional freight charges( Revist Envio, 1996)
In private, many Cubans in the island believe that the Cuban regime needs the embargo. This idea is also expressed in the US, Thomas Donohue, President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who has traveled to Cuba and met with Castro, says: "When it comes to the Cuban economy, Castro has a perfect excuse - it's the embargo's fault. In fact, Castro needs the embargo as a scapegoat for the abysmally poor Cuban economy. Lifting the embargo on Cuba would not only remove Castro's excuse for economic failure, but would also help the Cuban people by providing more economic opportunity and freedom” (Winzig, 2000).
In private the Cuban leadership is probably hoping the embargo continues, after all the embargo promoted USSR assistance to Cuba according to many commentators to an amount in excess of 6 billions dollars. This subsidy however was not used to rebuild the aging Cuban infrastructure but to support foreign wars and movements of liberations throughout the world. The embargo in Cuba has sustained the island in a permanent state of war with the US, aiding Castro in maintaining his hard line and excusing not only the failure of his economic policies, but also the isolation experienced by the Cuban people for the last 40 years. While the Cuban government blames the US for its problems, it maintains a tight fist on news from abroad, Internet access and unrestricted travel and many prohibitions such as the right to form unions, to own property or to openly disagree with the government policies.
Ordinary Cubans in Cuba
In public and in private, ordinary Cubans opposed the embargo, and resented the clockwork-like events, which have truncated any efforts by US president to end the Embargo. The series of events coincide roughly with moves towards normalization. During the Nixon administration, Cubans forces have been involved in foreign wars in the capacity of support personnel or trainers. Peru, Bolivia, Guatemala, Chile, and Venezuela all had Cuban presence in their struggle of leftist movements and indigenous uprisings. In Africa, Cuban presence in Congo-Brazzaville and the Kinshasa event is well known. The Cubans were ion Angola, Algeria and Mozambique and during the later part of the 70s there were 20, 000 Cuban regulars Army soldiers in Angola. The overture to China from president Nixon and the ping-pong diplomacy did not extend to Cuba. Nixon focused on Viet Nam and officially ended attempts to overthrow Castro. President Ford had the will to open the doors for Cuba; the escalation of the War in Angola and open support of the Puerto Rican nationalist movement by the Cuban leadership stopped his efforts. Travel to Cuba was possible for the first time since the first wave of Cubans moved out of the island during the early and mid 60s. Carter made some serious attempts to normalize relations with Cuba; Carter opened an office of interest in Havana and Cuba reciprocated and opened a similar office in DC. By 1978, the Cubans troops in Ethiopia and Somalia ended this overture. In 1980, the Mariel Freedom Flotilla with 125 000 Cubans landing in Florida stopped any good will from Carter to open up to Cuba.
For the next eight years Reagan maintained a hyper vigilance of the Cubans and the Cuban involvement in the wars of Nicaragua and El Salvador did nothing to change his perception of Fidel, as a megalomaniac bent in etching his name in the history book as a messiah. It was in Granada, during the US invasion that Cubans troops and American troops faced each other in combat. During the Bush administration, the policies established by Reagan continue and the Torricelli Act was enacted. The 34, 000 Cubans landing in Gauntanamo Base in 1994 besieged President Clinton from the beginning. The Brothers to the rescue planes downing by Cuban Migs and the Elian Gonzales’ debacle thwarted any efforts of the Clinton Administration and the Helms Burton Law was passed.
From the perspective of the ordinary Cuban people, every time an American president seeks to normalize relations with Cuba, Fidel Castro immediately provokes a situation that precludes any further commitment of the US President. In the Cuban community’s opinion, there is no one in the world more interested in maintaining the status quo, the Embargo, than Fidel Castro himself. His standing stature among the Third world population, the leadership of the Non-Aligned countries provided Castro with a platform, resolving his problems with the US, will have colluded with his own personal agenda. Among ordinary Cubans in sotto voce the relentless pursuit of this policy by the United States, is a way of punishing the nation and the government for having had the audacity of installing missiles with nuclear capabilities within 90 mils of the US. The embargo and the calamity that it brings to Cuba is a heads up to the Hugo Chavez and any other leaders of Latin America who dares to challenge the US and their Sphere of influence in this hemisphere. To subscribe to the Manifest Destiny or not is the options open to leaders in Latin America, it seems a conundrum that Castro exists because the Embargo and without Castro there will not be Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, a Rafael Correa in Ecuador, an Evo Morales in Bolivia , and a Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, nor a Sub Comandante Marcos in Mexico. The very attitudes the Americans were trying to avoid in what they called their backyard, namely Latin America, has multiplied and seems to be moving forward.
III Assessing options
What values are at issue?
This regulation, which in fact limits the freedom of Americans to travel, to do business, to import goods and services and live where they choose is unconstitutional. To circumvent this inconvenience the legislation was enacted under the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917(Us Code). It is important to understand that the embargo and the leanings of the Revolution towards the USSR appear to come in increments. As the Cuban regime became more dependent in the Soviet Union the more astringent, the embargo became. The result of the embargo has always been a negative situation for Cuban people. It has succeeded in making the Cuban people poorer and left them facing greater challenges. Even the Cuban dissidents speak of abrogation of the embargo, as a way to deny the regime the excuses to repress its people. Osvaldo Paya, head of the Movimiento Cristiano de Liberacion, and winner of the Sakharov Peace Prize explained that is it up to the Cuban people and not US foreign policy to dictate the course of the nation (Paya, 2002). Further, he commented that the embargo has, as a policy, been wrong and has not worked the way Americans intended. The values of choice, freedom, and independence so dear to Americans are denied to Cubans through the embargo. While US continues to isolate the Cuban nation, it posit itself as the moral cop of the world, removing and imposing governments all throughout the world, often times by force. The values so clear and so dear to Americans and Western Europeans are easily denied to other people.
What might be done?
Presidential candidate Barack Obama said in one of his speeches in South Florida that he will retain the embargo, but will lift all the travel restrictions and eliminate limits on remittances (Wides-Munoz, 2007), The US law as it stand will not lift the embargo until both Castro’s brothers are completely out of leadership roles in the nation.
By allowing American the freedom to travel to Cuba, the US will enable the democratic ideas to travel freely with people to the island. It will enable the opportunity for many people to reach their potential educationally and professionally, by exchanging with colleagues in an environment free from fear. In addition, that could be a start, in undoing 45 years of a decidedly onerous treatment of a smaller, poorer nation. Re-establishing diplomatic relations at embassy level will be a way to open up means to work on the problems brought about by nationalization of the industries and the payment due for confiscating the property of many individuals now residing outside and inside Cuba .
The total lifting of the Embargo is the only rational choice, the only moral choice the only humane choice, for the Cuban families now separated by ideological walls.
What is the anticipated outcome of this option?
The manipulation of fear by the Cuban regime will not longer be an issue for the Cuban people. The people will be able to express themselves and begin living a normal life without double speak or simulating adherence to communists principles to get ahead and reap benefits. The nations of Cuba and the US can go on and establish a friendly course that will conclude once and for all the militarization of the island and the expenditure of many resources now dedicated to the defense of a nation expectant of a US invasion. Cuban families can be reunited without the great expenses that the process now entails, and be able to visit each other when they please as everyone else in the world could.
Cuba is now purchasing 500 million dollars of US agricultural products; this amount could double if the restrictions were not in place. Cuba is a producer of pharmaceuticals, which can definitively cheapen the drugs and vaccines used in the US by purchasing from Cuba, By allowing Cuba access to financial resources the country with its wealth of trained and educated personnel could march into the XXI and join the brotherhood of nations. With a 0.6% illiteracy rate in the nation, Cuba presents a formidable work force and untapped talent, now forced to linger in a planned economy.
The recent changes enacted in Cuba after the retirement of Fidel Castro are inspiring events that should be met with in kind effort by the US authorities. Raul Castro, while subservient to his older brother’s whimsical and unpredictable temper is considered a pragmatic and a capable organizer. The measures recently enacted respond to a increasing clamor of the population, mostly born during the revolutionary process, for more openness, more freedoms and less government control of the day to day economic activities of the population.
IV Supporting and evaluating policy choice
Embargo or Trade embargo as it is known is defined as a government order imposing a trade barrier, any regulation or policy that restricts international trade. This concept probably dates back to medieval time sieges that armies laid to fortified and walled city-states to win by attrition. Thirty years after its creation the United States declared the Trade Embargo of 1807 against Britain and France, and has used embargoes as a tool of foreign policy ever since. Whether is a grain embargo against the Soviet Union for the invasion of Afghanistan or the embargo against Libya, or against Saddam Hussein, invariably the poorest people of said nation are affected negatively the most. According to the Report on the Impact of the UN Sanctions against Libya “is worth noting that the Health and Human Welfare sector has been the most affected by these sanctions” (1996 Report by Libyan Delegation to UN Secretary General). In this report, which covers from 1993 to 1996, the combined losses are about 50 billion dollars for a nation that can hardly afford that amount for that time.
In Iraq, while the numbers of infantile death (given at 500, 000) has not been proved, Garfield states based on comparative data from other countries, that in five or six years Iraq would have returned to its pre-Gulf War level of around forty deaths per thousand births of children under five. Instead, we can observe not just an increase, but also a sustained increase. This is remarkable”(Garfield, 1999).
· Does the policy still make sense?
The Embargo, after 46 years, is equally responsible for the deteriorating conditions of the economic, and psychosocial of the people of Cuba. One troublesome and critical aspect of this confrontation between US and Cuba shows up in a grim statistic. Cuban people commit suicide more often and are more successful than anywhere in the world. According to Tamayo, Cuba’s suicide rates “ have clearly swung with history: From 2.2 per 100,000 in 1907, soon after Cuba won independence from Spain, it rose to 13.1 in 1957, in the thick of Castro's guerrilla war against President Fulgencio Batista.
With hopes riding on the fledgling Castro revolution, suicides plummeted in the 1960s and averaged 8 to 10 per 100,000 people, but after 1970-harvest failure, the rate rose, peaking at 23.2 in 1982 -- two years after the crisis unleashed by the Mariel boatlift. That figure made Cuba fourth in the world at the time, behind Hungary, Denmark, and Austria”. Cuban suicide rates like the health of the Comandante en Jefe became state secrets and the deaths due to suicide were classified as other (Tamayo, 1998). The sheer struggles a Cuban family has to endure to obtain the basic needs on an everyday basis, is akin to a nation under siege. When the Iraqis, or Libyans or South Africans made it known to the world what kinds of hardships they had to endure because of the embargo imposed upon them, the Cubans understood, they had endured and still do an embargo of monumental consequences longer than anyone else.
