Cuba, the UN, and the US Election

Just six days before our election, when the UN General Assembly votes to condemn the US embargo against Cuba, it will toss into the center of our political debate a powerful reminder that the next president must attend to America's debilitated global image.

Every president since Eisenhower has tried to kill or topple Fidel Castro and to replace Cuba's government and economic system with something more to our liking. But when Fidel Castro retired earlier this year, he left power in a peaceful succession, on his own timetable and without the violent upheaval that US policy makers had predicted since the 1960s.

Preventing this transition has always been the goal of the US embargo, which imposes sanctions more comprehensive than any we impose on Iran, Sudan, or Syria. But it didn't - and still, this flawed and futile embargo lives on.

UN Members are now digesting a report compiled by the Secretary-General that measures the impact of our sanctions in chilling detail.

The embargo hurts Cuba's health care system. Last year, it forced Cuban children with heart conditions to wait for needed operations because a US-based firm, Boston Scientific, has refused - as it must, under U.S. law - to sell needed devices to Cuba's William Soler Pediatric Hospital. It prevented the purchase of spare parts for diagnostic equipment used in cancer detection, and delayed the delivery of 3 million syringes for vaccinations against communicable diseases. It forced Cuban medical authorities to buy antiretroviral drugs from secondary suppliers in grey markets, at significantly higher prices - straining an already thin public health budget.

The embargo also takes food off the table in Cuban homes, by blocking the government's access to imported seeds, fertilizers, and spare parts for farm machinery, and by imposing exotic payment rules that add tens of millions of dollars to its bill for importing food from overseas.

In other words, the sanctions we aim at Cuba's government actually hit and hurt the health and diet of the Cuban people instead.

But the embargo is more than a bilateral matter between Cuba's government and ours. US law reaches companies and countries across the globe in an effort to bend their policy to our will, rallying the rest of the world to Cuba's side

Brazil calls our policy a violation of international law. Mexico condemns the embargo as an abandonment of diplomacy. Colombia, our closest ally in the region, says of the US embargo "this kind of action should stop." The European Union, now negotiating directly with Cuba on human rights, objects to the extra-territorial reach of our sanctions. China calls on us to negotiate our differences directly with Cuba. Russia - without a trace of irony - refers to the embargo as "a remnant of the cold war."

It is no wonder that last year's sanctions vote went against America 184-4. Only Israel, Palau, and the Marshall Islands stood with us. Every one of our European allies, Canada, Japan and Australia, and nearly all of Latin America (save El Salvador, which was absent) deserted us. It will happen again this year. Already, close to one-hundred fifty countries filed statements with the Secretary General for this year's debate that bear witness to our isolation.

This is where ten American presidents have left us - with an embargo that imposes cruel hardships on the Cuban people, a diplomacy that isolates the United States from the rest of the world, and a Cuban government proudly preparing to celebrate its fiftieth year in power.

Given the enormous diplomatic and domestic challenges the new administration will face, some might ask "why fix Cuba policy now"? In fact, no action would cost us less and do more to recapture our image and influence in Cuba and around the world than tearing down the embargo. The way forward is to legalize trade and travel, and to engage Cuba in areas like migration, drug interdiction, and academic exchange, all with an eye toward normalizing relations between the governments.

No matter who wins the election in November, the eleventh president of the Cuba embargo must also be the last.

Comments

[JPHR]

Cuban exiles ought to become aware that the embargo actually strengthens the Castro regime.

An external enemy invariably helps to unite the population even behind an unpopular regime.

Ending the embargo will most probably speed up the demise of the Castro regime.

[freebeer]

Great article, thank you for writing about Cuba.

Strange how our fall into this financial crisis has so many Americans wishing for some of the things Cubans take for granted.

Public housing. Far from perfect, but better than what millions of Americans who lost their homes have.
Free health care. No plastic surgery, but loads of love and support with plenty of doctors and nurses to meet everyone's needs. It could vastly improve without our cruel embargo.
Education for all, right through post secondary for those with smarts and a work ethic. Free.
Food programs that protect the vulnerable old people and guarantee dairy, fruits and veggies for school kids.
Many government supported local produce gardens. Communal work and reward, green space for cities, and mainly organic. These projects exist all over the country using government to get them off the ground and community organizers and citizens to make them prosper.

On the down side, there is still some domestic spying on those who oppose the government.
But fortunately for Cubans, it is not nearly as bad as what goes on in the United States.

[walterlx]

We must all recall that the Cuban blockade has long served, and still serves, a multitude of purposes quite well, of which denying Cuba the hard-currency income which normal relations would bring is, in my opinion, among the LEAST of the reasons, though not an insubstantial one.

Mostly, the travel bans serve to prevent the people of the United States from seeing Cuba as it really is, warts and all. Cuba is the only country in the world for which people in the United States need a permission slip from the federal government to go for a visit. McCain says he wants government to get out of our lives, but he's in favor of keeping all those restrictions on travel to Cuba.

Obama is better, calling for an end to restrictions on travel and remittances by Cuban-Americans, but everyone in the United States should be free to visit Cuba and provide practical support to friends and family there who are trying to rebuild after the recent hurricanes.

Thanks for your commentary.

Walter Lippmann
Los Angeles, California

[nglina]

The Government of Cuba does not like to see its people suffer. The US has tried time after time to kill Castro and overthrow his Gov. to no avail. Castro and the Cuban people have pride. A pride so strong that they would rather suffer than kneel before the US.

As for the Cuban people in Florida, their voice is one of four or five in the entire world that is for the embargo. They should be thrown back to Cuba for the remainder of the embargo to taste what they dish out. Shame to Cubans in the USA.

[Michale32086]

{{{{{
The Government of Cuba does not like to see its people suffer.
}}}}}

Assumes facts not in evidence..

}}}}
As for the Cuban people in Florida, their voice is one of four or five in the entire world that is for the embargo.
}}}}

But they hold great sway in Florida..

Michale.....

[Michale32086]

If Senator Obama intends to eliminate the Cuban embargo, the honest thing to do is state so before the election.

I have no doubt that Senator Obama WON'T do this, because it would guarantee he would lose Florida.

As to the embargo itself.. Cuba could get rid of it easily enough.. Simply by granting the citizens of Cuba inalienable human rights...

If the citizens of Cuba are indeed suffering because of the embargo, what does that say about the GOVERNMENT of Cuba that would rather hold onto their power and see their own people suffer, than grant greater freedoms to their people and watch them prosper..

Michale.....

[Yat1954]

If Senator McCain intends to eliminate the Cuban embargo, the honest thing to do is to state so before the election.

I have no doubt that Senator McCain WON'T do this, because it would guarantee he would lose Florida.

As to the embargo itself.. Cuba could get rid of it easily enough.. Simply by overthrowing the Castro regime..

Fat Chance...

[Michale32086]

I have no doubt that a President McCain does NOT intend to eliminate the Cuban Embargo.. If you have any evidence to the contrary, then (as Ross Perot said in the 1992 Presidential Debates) "I am all ears"..

The Cuban people are two cowed by their own government to rise up..

It's up to the Cuban government to join the 21st century as far as human rights go.

Surely you are not defending the Cuban government???

Michale.....

[av2ts]

The Cuban people do not want to give up their social gains under the Revolution. They want changes on their own terms. They do not want to give up their economy to those who have access to the dollars in Miami. The US has never understood that Cubans are proud and don't want want anything to do with the US plan for a non-Constitutional change, or counter-revolution. If the US was not funding subversion as a matter of national policy for 50 years, Cuba would be a lot more liberal.