- by Graham Holton
- The Guardian
- Issue #2120
32nd Solidarity Brigade from Australia and New Zealand to Cuba, 2014 – 2015.
On 28 May 2024, the US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) amended the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, removing some economic sanctions on the Republic of Cuba. It allowed Cuban private entrepreneurs and businesses to open US bank accounts and access online banking, while the US avoided any financial assistance to the Cuban government. The changes were made because since 2021 more than 500,000 migrants, 5 per cent of the population, have left Cuba. They joined with the caravan of economic refugees demanding access to the USA, crossing into the US along the Mexican border.
Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodriguez said that these measures were “limited” and did “not reverse the cruel impact and economic strangulation imposed on Cuban families by the genocidal blockade and inclusion in the list of state sponsors of terrorism.” The economic embargo is still in place, along with legislative sanctions. Although the US no longer considers Cuba as one of the “Not Fully Cooperating Countries” (NFCC) which do not assist US ‘counterterrorism,’ Cuba still remains on the US State Sponsors of Terrorism (SST) list.
Some background. After the Cuban Revolution in January 1959, and the proclamation of the Agrarian Reform which nationalised foreign properties, the US government reduced Cuba’s sugar quota, banned US investments and eliminated all economic aid to Cuba. In 1960, US oil companies Texaco, Esso, Standard Oil, and the Royal Dutch Shell Company ceased oil supplies to Cuba, paralysing the national economy. In January 1961, the US broke all diplomatic and consular relations. On 3 February 1962 President John F Kennedy decreed Executive Order 3447 placing an embargo on Cuba (days later, Kennedy ordered 1,200 Cuban cigars for himself).
After more than 60 years the embargo against Cuba is still enforced through: the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 (which prohibits trade with countries considered enemies); the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961; the Cuban Assets Control Regulations of 1963; the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992; the Helms–Burton Act of 1996; and the Trade Sanction Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000. Those who violate the embargo can spend 10 years in prison. In 2008 the US held US$6 billion in financial claims against Cuba. The Cuban government estimates el bloqueo (the blockade) has cost the national economy over US$150 billion in lost revenue.
Cuba has always given political asylum to those fighting the US government. The Cuban government had formal ties with the Black Panther Party in the 1960s, and gave political asylum to American political fugitives such as members of the Black Power Movement, the Puerto Rico Independence movement, and defecting CIA agents, such as Philip Agee, author of Inside the Company.
On 1 March 1982 Cuba was added to the SST list, because it supported revolutionary movements in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa. The SST designation was lifted in 2015 by the Obama administration. Cuba was put on the list again by President Donald Trump, a week before he left office in January 2021, because Cuba provided advice, safe haven, communications, training, and financial support to what the US considered guerrilla groups and terrorists. Cuba refused to extradite to Colombia members of the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) responsible for the bombing of the Bogotá police academy in 2019, killing 22 people and injuring 87 others. When Colombia suspended the arrest warrants, in August 2022, against the ELN members it made extradition no longer relevant.
After law enforcement cooperation resumed between the US and Cuba in 2023, the State Department removed Cuba from the NFCC list in May 2024. The Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez, welcomed Cuba’s removal from the list, but said it has not stopped the embargo.
Every year since 1992, Cuba has presented to the UN General Assembly a motion condemning the sanctions. Human Rights Watch and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights are critical of the US embargo. The Amnesty International report Cuba: The US embargo against Cuba (2009) found the embargo adversely affected human rights, and the “economic, social and cultural rights” of Cuba. The South Centre, an intergovernmental organisation of developing nations with headquarters in Geneva Switzerland, maintains that there is no evidence of state-sponsored terrorism by Cuba. Recently 187 countries at the UN supported the removal of US sanctions against Cuba.
In July the Russian State Duma called for the immediate removal of Cuba from the SST list. Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said the US should pay Cuba US$160 billion in compensation for the “damage caused” by the embargo.
Despite the embargo Cuba continues to trade internationally, joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995. Today the European Union (EU) is Cuba’s largest trading partner. The US is the fifth-largest exporter to Cuba, supplying 6.6 per cent of imports. All US food imports must be paid for in cash. In 2018 Cuba’s GDP was US$100 billion. To assist the economy, in 2021 the Cuban government legalised setting up 11,000 private businesses, from tourism to car repairs. These now account for a third of all employment. The embargo continues to ensure that the Cuban economy struggles to meet the needs of its people.
The US State Department continues to see Cuba as a threat, despite the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) being small in size and armed with mainly Soviet weapons. Although removed from the NFCC list, Cuba still remains on the SST list, because it grants safe harbour to those seeking political asylum. Despite calls from the United Nations in November 2023 and politicians within Congress, the embargo remains.
According to Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post, the US eased sanctions hoping to deter Cuba from reaching out to Russia and China for economic and other assistance. This has not worked. In July Russian warships visited Havana, showing the deepening ties between both countries. In August President Xi Jinping of China pledged to support Cuba’s defence of its national sovereignty.
Cuba’s independent people have survived 65 years of US embargoes, but the ongoing suffering is immense. The US embargo against Cuba must end.
