What is the US embargo on Cuba and how has it affected the island’s economy

(CNN Spanish) – The January 1, 1959 a unit of the rebel army entered Havana, marking the triumph of the Cuban Revolution led by Fidel Castro and the overthrow of the dictator Fulgencio Batista.

Little more than two years had passed since the arrival of the first revolutionaries to Cuba aboard the yacht Granma, after which an armed struggle began from the Sierra Maestra, and the triumph generated confusion and expectations throughout the region.

Relations between the new revolutionary government and the United States, however, were extremely tense from the beginning, and have been characterized especially by the embargo, or blockade – as Cuba calls it -, on which the government of Miguel Díaz-Canel has blamed due to the recent protests over the economic situation and the lack of freedom in the country.

In statements on television, the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, said on Monday after the protests that it was explained to the population that they were going to “enter a difficult period, of difficulties and economic deficiencies” since 2019 when they began to apply the “restrictive measures” and a “policy of sanctions” in the government of Donald Trump.

But what exactly does this embargo consist of?

In 1960 Cuba began a wave of nationalizations that affected US $ 1 billion worth of interest, including land and sugar refineries on the island.

Consequently, the then president of the United States, Dwight Eisenhower, established that same year the first embargo on revolutionary Cuba: he prohibited United States exports to Cuba, except for medicines and some foods.

The long history of the US embargo on Cuba

In February 1962 the government of John F. Kennedy extended the embargo, extending restrictions on Cuban imports, based on Foreign Assistance Act approved by Congress in 1961 and that allowed the president to impose these measures until the Cuban government made progress in compensating US citizens for nationalizations.

This embargo is still in force today, although in recent decades it has been extended and partially alleviated on different occasions.

During the Bill Clinton administration, the Cuban Democracy Act (1992) and the Cuban Liberty and Democracy Solidarity Act (1996) enforced the embargo.

This latest legislation, known as the law Helms-Burton, was born with the main objective of limiting the commercial operations of other countries with Cuba and took the embargo to new levels. Specifically, it prevents the embargo on Cuba from being lifted without authorization from Congress; requires the mandatory blocking of visas for individuals who will benefit from property confiscated by Cuba; and allows Cuban-born Americans to sue those who confiscated their property on the island.

It was approved at a time of high tensions between Washington and Havana after the shooting down of two civilian planes belonging to the anti-Castro group “Brothers to the Rescue” by the Cuban Air Force in 1996. Four people died, including three US citizens.

During the presidency of Barack Obama, relations between the United States and Cuba improved and there were measures to alleviate the situation: travel restrictions were lifted, commercial flights between the two countries were resumed, some sanctions were relaxed, and Cuba was removed from the list of countries that support terrorism and in 2015 diplomatic relations were resumed with the reopening of the US embassy in Havana.

But after the inauguration of Donald Trump in 2017, much of these changes were reversed, reinforcing the embargo with sanctions between 2019 and 2021, again restricting travel and repositioning Cuba on the list of countries that support terrorism.

60 years of embargo and debate

The US embargo on Cuba has been going on for almost 60 years and has generated intense debate since its implementation.

“The embargo as such in the end has been a half or third embargo, extraordinarily porous. Even before the Helms-Burton law it was impossible to secure the extraterritorial parts of the embargo,” Eduardo Gamarra, professor of international politics at Florida International University.

As an example, he explained that “much of the tourist boom in Cuba has been thanks to Spanish investment.” “When you see the argument that the embargo has caused Cuba’s problems, that line is false.”

“Cuba was an economy completely subsidized by the Soviet Union until 1990, and when those subsidies ended, the real nature of the system was seen, with a state monopoly and little private initiative, and it was forced to open at the end of the 90s” , Gamarra considered.

“The embargo has been the way to justify the failure of the revolution. Much of what is happening now is the product of ordinary Cuban access to the world through communications,” he said.

For Frank Calzón, Cuban political scientist and human rights activist, “much of what the Cuban government calls the blockade is a lie, the United States sells everything it needs to Cuba, but requires that the payment be in cash. Nobody believes the big lies of Castroism anymore. “

While Sebastián Arcos, a graduate in International Relations and associate director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University, says that it is an “official narrative that has been going on for decades.” “Cubans no longer believe in that narrative, it is a simplistic explanation that does not reflect reality,” he said.

Embargo, blockade or siege?

On the other hand, for Arturo Lopez Levy, professor of international relations at Holy Names University, “it is more correct” to speak of a blockade or siege than simply an embargo.

“Because the sanctions against Cuba are not simply a restriction on trade. The US Government sought to generate ‘hunger and despair’ in the people to generate a change of government, as the Lester Mallory memorandum points out,” he added, in reference to internal memo sent on April 6, 1960 by then-Assistant Secretary of State Lester Mallory to Roy Rubottom, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs.

“The effect in Cuba is that all financial transactions cost much more than normal. There are French, German, Mexican, Argentine companies, from all over the world that have been penalized by billions of dollars for financial operations concepts that they do not violate their internal or international laws, “he considered.

Regarding the recent protests in Cuba, Lopez Levy said that the pandemic and the economic blow it caused in Cuba were “the last straw.”

“The rest of the glass was full of water due to two factors: the Cuban government’s economic policy errors and the effects of the sanctions,” he stressed. “The sanctions have made a difficult problem like the pandemic particularly almost unmanageable.”

With whom is Cuba currently trading?

According to 2019 data from Observatory of Economic Complexity of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, China is the main destination for exports (38.2%), followed by Spain (10.5%), the Netherlands (5.44%), Germany (5.37%) and Cyprus (4.05%).

While Cuba obtains its imports mainly from Spain (19.2%), China (15%), Italy (6.2%), Canada (5.4%) AND Russia (5.39%), among others,

Some of its main exports are tobacco, sugar, alcoholic beverages, nickel and zinc. While the main imports include chicken meat, wheat, corn and concentrated milk.

With information from Juan Pablo Elverdín.