The U.S. Embargo: A Convenient Excuse for Cuba's Own Failures

I wore a red and white uniform, I was ten years old, and the subject of the "blockade" was barely mentioned in the ideological books they gave me at school. Those were optimistic times and we believed that the F1 cows* would give enough milk to flood the streets of the whole country. The future had those golden hues that never showed themselves in our faded reality but we were a too colorblind to notice. We thought we had discovered the formula to be among the most prosperous people on the planet, so that our children would live in a country with opportunities for all.

From the podium a bearded leader defiantly pointed to the North, because he counted on the pole of the Kremlin subsidy to vault over any obstacle to the construction of communism. "Despite the blockade..." we said, with the same conviction that in years past we'd talked about the ten million tons of sugar*, coffee growing all around the cities*, and a supposed industrialization of the country that never came. We had to cut short our dreams when the flow of oil and rubles abruptly stopped. The years came of beginning to explain the setbacks and comparing ourselves to the poorest nations in the region to make us feel, if not happy, at least satisfied.

As I began my adolescence, the issue of trade restrictions was on nearly every billboard in the country. At the political rallies we no longer shouted, "Cuba yes, Yankees no" but a new hard-to-rhyme slogan: "Down with the blockade." I looked at my nearly empty plate and couldn't imagine how they had managed to blockade our malangas, orange juice, bananas and lemons. I grew up repudiating the blockade, not because I swallowed the line about the country we could be if the blockade weren't preventing it, but simply because they tried to explain that everything that wasn't working was a result of it.

If my friends were leaving the country en masse, it was because of the United States policy of harassment; if the cockroaches were crawling all over the walls at the maternity hospital, it was the fault of the North Americans; even if a meeting at the university expelled a critical colleague, they explained to us that he had fallen under the ideological influence of the enemy. Today, everything begins and ends with the blockade. No one seems to remember the days when they promised us paradise, when they told us that nothing -- not even the economic sanctions -- would prevent us from leaving behind our underdevelopment.

Translator's notes

F1 cows: A breed that is a cross of Holstein and Zebu (Cebu) cattle. Fidel Castro believed these cattle would allow Cuba to export beef and dairy products. It didn't work out; both meat and milk are severely rationed in Cuba.

Ten million tons of sugar: In 1970 Fidel Castro turned the resources of the entire country to a achieving a record ten-million ton sugar harvest, even "rescheduling" Christmas for July so as not to interfere with the work. The target was missed and Cuba's sugar crop has declined ever since; in 2009 the total was barely over one million tons.

Coffee growing in the cities: Fidel Castro had a plan to grow coffee in Havana despite expert advice that the climate was unfavorable; it didn't work out.

Yoani's blog, Generation Y, can be read here in English translation.

Follow Yoani Sanchez on Twitter: www.twitter.com/yoanisanchez

Comments

[Zapatista]

Ever since JFK, US presidents have been promising the Florida voting block of rabid exiles that the Cuban government will be overturned. And you can give them an E for Effort:. They initiated, promoted or tolerated the Bay of Pigs invasion, 600 + attempts on Castro’s life, sabotage, brutal economic blockade, downing of an airliner, innumerable raids by exiles, bombings in Havana, guerrillas in Escambray mountains, misinformation campaigns and much more.

Then Cuba is accused of being too tough on dissidents, who receive instruction and money from the enemy. What would the US reaction be if under such threat and siege?

[Ira7]

You guys just love referring to them as "rabid exiles," don't you? Kind of how Hitler categorized the Jews?

I don't know WHAT it is with Communists that they have such a problem with freedom of expression.

[SigmundF]

A loved tyrant outside his country but a hated an feared one inside his country..... Castro has managed to keep him self on the power using the love of the outsiders, among them the US establishment, the leftist press and spreading the terror among his landsman by using fire squad, long jail sentences and constant harassment as usual internal policy.

[LMPE]

Without the US blockade against Cuba, Castro might have not lasted very long.

[Ira7]

Another great article, Yoani! Keep your head up and your eyes on the prize--a free Cuba!

[WorkingClass]

What are you saying Yoani? The embargo is a good thing?

[randyjet]

Actually, those folks leaving is because they are trying to get socialism on a grand scale once they get to the USA. They get free food, housing, utilities, health care, drugs, education as far as they want to go, AND spending money while they are in school so that they don't have to work.

It is quite true that many of the problems of Cuba are caused by the government, and is not the fault of the US blockade. It is also true that the blockade does cause many problems as well. To overlook these facts is simply not rational. A good start is to open the political process to other parties and people. One party states will fail every time.

[SigmundF]

Blockade do not exist. What exist is a very nominal embargo that USA still keep for the credits thing. USA wants not to give credits to Castro because he never pay and that will cause that we, taxpayers, will pay for Castro's unpaid debs in the near future.
Here is the true about commerce between USA and Castro:

http://www.cubatrade.org/

[Romeover]

Dictators need an "evil enemy" in order to hold on to power. Castro had the United States. Bush had Bin Laden. Bin Laden had Bush.

[DeSwiss]

"I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabrics of their life." ~ Leo Tolstoy

Thank you.

[pinkibus]

The obvious solution would have been to lift the blockade and see how things went. The trouble is things might have gone well.

In the United States there seems to be no excuse for the subhuman housing that the homeless would love to have. There is no excuse for the incredibly poor education the majority get in the States. Cuba under Castro had no cockroaches crawling up the walls of the hospitals the rich used. They crawled where the poor lived and that is virtually everywhere.

To discuss the failures of Castro's Cuba is to be blind to the successes. I like the successes. Castro might have been the man who showed communism could work quite well. In fact, despite all the attempts to make it fail it hasa survived and has managed to do a lot with a little which is more than America can say. In America wealth is the only goal and poverty is to be ignored. And we all know that the rapture will occur in Alaska which is part of the fifty united states. Anyway, that is what Sarah Palin says. And who wouldn't rather have Sarah Palin to lead us into Armageddon rather than Castro.

[who38]

Great post.

[SigmundF]

This obvious solution you ask is working since long time ego. Since 1964 to 1992 Castro received 5000 millions dollars yearly from USSR, he also received for free wood, cement, paper, machinery, weapons, technology, and a long etc. The total cash received from the soviets was equivalent to 100 Marshall plans...... only one Marshall Plan was enough to raise whole Europa from destruction to welfare after WWII...... why 100 Marshall plans was not enough for Castro????
Well, maybe the answer to this question can be find in the fact published by Forbes magazine..... Castro is among the 10 riches men in the world despite no one single business or property can be proven to belong to him!!!!!.