The Cuban Democracy Act

In 1992, the United States hoped to take advantage of the collapse of the Soviet Union that marked the end of Soviet influence in Cuba. The withdrawal of Soviet money and support meant that the Castro regime was weakened. “With increased economic deprivation at home and growing pressure from the Cuban people, Cuban Democracy Act supporters hoped the Castro regime would implode” (163).

Jorge Mas Canosa, the head the Cuban American National Foundation, was chiefly responsible for The Cuban Democracy Act (CDA). The bill was sponsored by New Jersey Congressman Robert Torricelli and signed into law in October 1992 (the bill is also known as the Torricelli Bill). George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton both showed support for this bill. The main goal of the bill was to tighten the U.S. embargo against Cuba in an attempt bring down Castro’s regime,  free the Cuban people from tyranny, and transition the Cuban people into democracy.

As Julia Sweig writes in her book Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, “The law had two principal components: sanctions and a series of limited openings” (163). “On the sanctions side, the CDA reimposed the ban on trade with Cuba by subsidiaries of U.S. companies based in third countries, previously lifted in 1975” (163). On the sanctions side, the U.S also didn’t allow ships to dock in U.S. ports within 6 months of docking in Cuban ports. The bill also restricted Cuba’s access to U.S. currency for international transactions. Finally, the bill gave the President executive order on restricting remittances to Cuba.

As well as imposing sanctions aimed at the Castro regime, the bill was meant to show that the U.S. wasn’t an enemy but rather that they supported the Cuban people and wanted them free from oppression. Thus, the bill “allowed for telecommunications companies and the U.S. Postal Service to resume what until then had been nearly nonexistent phone and direct mail service with Cuba” (163). The Cuban Democracy Act also allowed companies to sell medical supplies and medicine to Cuba. However, the companies had to apply to the Treasury Department in order to obtain a license allowing them to sell medicine to the island.

“The CDA thus contained several provisions that, in theory if not always in practice, promoted communication with the Cuban people and created loopholes in the embargo for humanitarian and/or human rights purposes” (164). As a result of the bill’s broad guidelines for helping the Cuban people, there were many loopholes. Also, the bill gave the president “full executive privilege over the embargo…the president could still do away with most sanctions with the stroke of a pen” (165). President Clinton took advantage of these loopholes during his presidency in order to loosen sanctions and somewhat open up relations between the United States and Cuba.

My next post will look into the US-Cuba policies in place during the Clinton administration.

Source: Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know by Julia Sweig

http://www.anb.org/articles/15/15-01319.html

http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/legal/statutes/cda.pdf

Cuban Human Rights Violations

According to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), one of the main issues preventing normalization of US-Cuba relations is human rights violations by the Cuban government. On cfr.org, it says, “In March 2003, the Cuban government arrested seventy-five dissidents and journalists, sentencing them to prison terms of up to twenty-eight years on charges of conspiring with the United States to overthrow the state.” The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation also reports that the Cuban government has “resorted to other tactics besides prison -such as firings from state jobs and intimidation on the street- to silence opposition figures”.

The Cuban government has violated human rights in a variety of ways. Some of these violations are carried out against opposition figures that are considered to be a threat to the Castro regime. In a 2008 Cuba report, the U.S Department of State concluded that Cuba had at least 205 political prisoners and detainees. The Department of State goes on to say, “As many as 5,000 citizens served sentences for ‘dangerousness,’ without being charged with any specific crime.” The Department of State also listed all of the human rights violations in Cuba.

Among those listed are:

-beatings and abuse of prisoners and detainees

-harsh and life-threatening prison conditions

-denial of fair trial

-severe limitations on freedom of speech and press

-denial of peaceful assembly and association

-restrictions on freedom of movement

-restrictions on freedom of religion

-arbitrary arrest of human rights advocates

As the list shows, the Cuban people are being denied human rights from their government in a variety of ways. The question is: Should the United States government open trade and diplomatic relations with a country whose government violates the very rights that our country was founded on?

Sources: http://www.cfr.org/publication/11113/uscuba_relations.html

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/wha/119155.htm

The Cuban Exiles

Lifting the embargo is a major political issue. Therefore, the stance that U.S. elected officials take on US-Cuba relations can cause them to gain or lose the support of some voters. The Cuban-American community has played a major role in the politics of this issue over the years.

The Cuban exiles are people that left Cuba after the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Many of them came to the United States and settled mostly in Miami. Most of these Cuban Americans are political refugees. No group cares more about US-Cuba policy, and no group has been more vocal. Historically, the Cuban exiles have been strong supporters of the embargo. According to the Miami Herald, an older exile said, “The embargo is the one thing exiles feel has punished Castro for kidnapping their country in a revolution that they feel cost them their way of life, their families and their future in their homeland.” Over the years, it has been common to hear sentiment such as this from Cuban-Americans who have pushed for the US government to take a strict approach against the Castro regime in order to force the regime into political change. These people feel that the Castro regime should be punished for its treatment of the Cuban people. Many believe that Cuban leadership needs to make a change before the embargo should be lifted. Francisco Hernandez, President of the Cuban-American National Foundation, says, “The embargo should remain in place until there is some negotiated change in Cuba such as the release of prisoners or free elections.”

However, there are a rising number of Cuban exiles that want the embargo to be lifted. “In 1992, 82 percent of Cuba-born exiles polled said the embargo should be kept in place. By 2005, that number had dropped to 62 percent.” The younger Cuban-Americans are generally more likely to be against the embargo. This growing number of exiles believes that the embargo has failed. One Miami Herald reader writes, “You don’t change a dictatorship by blindly continuing a half century failed embargo…”

It will be interesting to see if the changing viewpoint of Cuban exiles will play a part in changing American policy on Cuba.

Source: http://www.cubaheadlines.com/2009/09/09/18373/support_us_embargo_down_among_cuban_exiles.html

Simple Explanation of US embargo against Cuba

In my first few posts, I have yet to offer a direct explanation of what the US embargo against Cuba is. I’ve jumped into the details without offering an overview of my topic. Before I add another post, here’s a link that should help clear things up. This link describes what the embargo is and the embargo’s purpose in 3 concise paragraphs. My link also includes a link to the definition of embargo, and it includes links explaining the Cuban Democracy Act and the Helms-Burton Act. All 3 are important in understanding US-Cuba relations.

Source:    http://www.search.com/reference/United_States_embargo_against_Cuba

Is Cuba Still a National Security Threat?

One of the original purposes of the embargo was to keep our country safe. Cuba posed a national security threat for many years. By restricting trade, our government was ensuring that the United States wasn’t funding a regime that was a possible threat to our homeland. A major question that needs to be addressed is whether or not the Cuban military is still a security threat. 

As Daniel Griswold from the CATO Istitute states, “The embargo had a national security rationale before 1991, when Castro served as the Soviet Union’s proxy in the Western Hemisphere.” Because of the Soviet Union, Cuba was a legitimate concern for the United States. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Griswold believes, “Cuba is only a poor and dysfunctional nation of 11 million that poses no threat to American or regional security.”

Griswold is not the only one that believes that Cuba has been drastically weakened since 1991. The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency concluded in 1998, “Cuba does not pose a significant military threat to the U.S. or to other countries in the region.” “Residual” and “Defensive” were words used by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency to describe the state of the Cuban military. No matter who is running Cuba and what their beliefs are, I do not believe that a weak, residual, defensive military is a military that the United States should worry about.

I realize that national security is not the only purpose of the embargo. There are other purposes for the embargo that I will research, but in terms of national security, the US-Cuba embargo is unnecessary and pointless.

Source: http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10921

US-Cuba Relations Timeline

Click here for a timeline of the lengthy conflict between the two countries

In order to explore changing US-Cuba policy, it is important to first understand the history of the conflict. This timeline shows the major events that have taken place in the past 100+ years.

Trust has been a major problem between Cuba and the US. Especially over the last 50 years, the two countries have done a lot to lose each other’s trust. Below are some of these major events:

1960: All US businesses in Cuba are nationalised without compensation; US breaks off diplomatic relations with Havana and imposes a trade embargo in response to Castro’s reforms.

1961: US backs an abortive invasion by Cuban exiles at the Bay of Pigs; Castro proclaims Cuba a communist state and begins to ally it with the USSR.

1961: The CIA begins to make plans to assassinate Castro as part of Operation Mongoose. At least five plans to kill the Cuban leader were drawn up between 1961 and 1963.

1962: Cuban missile crisis ignites when, fearing a US invasion, Castro agrees to allow the USSR to deploy nuclear missiles on the island. The US released photos of Soviet nuclear missile silos in Cuba – triggering a crisis which took the two superpowers to the brink of nuclear war.

It was subsequently resolved when the USSR agreed to remove the missiles in return for the withdrawal of US nuclear missiles from Turkey.

1996: US trade embargo made permanent in response to Cuba’s shooting down of two US aircraft operated by Miami-based Cuban exiles.

May 2002: US Under Secretary of State John Bolton accuses Cuba of trying to develop biological weapons, adding the country to Washington’s list of “axis of evil” countries.

February 2006: A propaganda war breaks out in Havana as President Castro unveils a monument which blocks the view of illuminated messages – some of them about human rights – displayed on the US mission building.

The mistrust over the years has caused a great amount of tension. If relations are going to change, a period of trust is needed.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3182150.stm

Lifting the Embargo: A Difficult Task

Last April, when Obama lifted travel restrictions for Cuban-Americans, it seemed that he was quickly making progress towards bilateral relations with Cuba. Since then, progress has not been made. In fact, the argument could be made that the situation between the United States and Cuba is getting worse.

According to a cnn.com article written in early January, US-Cuba relations “may be settling back into the same old relationship that has gripped the two Cold War foes for half a century.” Although Fidel Castro is longer head of the Cuban regime, he has been doing his part to criticize American leadership. Fidel Castro showed support for Obama when Obama first came into office, but now his views have changed. In a letter to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro wrote, “The intentions of the empire are obvious. This time behind the friendly smile and African-American face of President Barack Obama.” Castro believes that the ”intentions” are violence and aggressive action by the United States.

There is some optimism amongst critics of the embargo that Barack Obama will be the one to make major progress with Cuba. There is also pressure from allies in the international community for the the United States to strengthen ties. However, it must be understood that it takes cooperation from both sides in order to make progress. As of now, it doesn’t seem that the Cuban regime is willing to cooperate. Along with Fidel’s harsh words, Raul Castro,the current leader of Cuba, has described the United States as the “enemy” in recent speeches.

If progress is going to be made between the two countries, then the outlook of the Cuban government on the United States will need to change drastically. It will be a difficult task.

My Senior Exit Project Topic

The main purpose of this blog is to help me with my senior exit project. The first task given to me was to come up with a topic. This was more difficult than expected. However, throughout the brainstorming process, I was told countless times that the best thing to do is to choose a topic that interests me. I have a range of interests, but there is nothing more interesting to me than politics. After deciding to focus on politics, I was able to come up with a topic. 

My senior exit project will be about US-Cuba relations. I want to find the answer to one main question: Should the United States government lift the current sanctions on Cuba?

This topic stood out to me because international relations and foreign policy fascinate me. But why Cuba? I find US-Cuba relations intriguing on many levels. Cuba is only about 90 miles south of the United States and yet the relations between the two countries are basically nonexistent. The U.S. has had an embargo on Cuba for about 50 years. Both countries have recently had new leaders come to power. Raul Castro has taken over in Cuba, and of course, Barack Obama is now our president. Barack Obama has already eased Cuba travel restrictions. However, despite the new leadership in both countries and the geographical proximity, the United States and Cuba have a long struggle ahead of them if they plan to ease conflict and facilitate diplomatic relations. Years of conflict and tension don’t disappear overnight, and the differences amongst the two countries are undeniable. Lifting sanctions is controversial and would simply be one step towards full diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba. In spite of that, I want to look into the possibilities of lifting the sanctions, and if it isn’t possible, if US-Cuba relations will always be the way they are, then I at least want to know why.

Thoughts? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

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