Vol. 73/No. 16      April 27, 2009

In 1962 U.S. president John Kennedy imposed a ban on all trade with Cuba after workers and farmers there had risen up in their millions to overthrow the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. They used their new revolutionary government to implement a sweeping land reform and literacy drive, outlaw segregation, and nationalize capitalist corporations, placing them under workers control. The Cuban government estimates its economic losses from the embargo are $225 billion.

Within hours of the White House announcement former Cuban president Fidel Castro published an article that welcomed easing of restrictions on Cuban American families but condemned the announcement’s failure to even mention the embargo. In an article entitled, “Not a word about the embargo,” the Cuban leader pointed out that the severe curbs on trade with Cuba “are the most severe of the measures” imposed by the U.S. government. Even medicines and medical equipment that contain tiny amounts of components made by U.S. companies are denied to patients in Cuba.

Travel restrictions the U.S. government imposed on Cuban Americans in 2004—limiting them to one visit every three years to close family in Cuba—are dropped, as are limits on how much money can be sent to relatives in Cuba.

The measures also allow U.S. telecommunications service providers to offer service in Cuba.

The current ban on remittances, gifts, or donations from the United States to officials of the Cuban Communist Party or Cuban government, and to organizations Washington describes as “controlled by the Cuban government,” remains.

The Obama administration announced the moves on the eve of the Summit of the Americas, to be held in Trinidad and Tobago, where some governments will challenge Washington’s anti-Cuba embargo. Every country in the Americas except Cuba is invited to attend.

Castro concluded his article on the measures saying, “Cuba has resisted and will resist. We will never beg. We will move forward with our heads held high, cooperating with our fraternal peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, whether there is a summit or not, whether the president of the United States is Obama or someone else, a man or a woman, a white or a black citizen.”
 
 
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