The Cuba Embargo Case in History

The Cuban embargo is a touchy subject on both sides of the Florida strait.  Cubans in the island, namely the Castro’s government have blamed all their necessities over the past 50 years on the so called oppressive embargo imposed by the much bigger neighbor to the north The United States of America.

Castro’s regime has used the subject to justify everything from his own existence to the weather.  Any totalitarian government needs an enemy to keep their people from seeing many of their daily struggles for what they truly are.  The American embargo is just that, an economic prohibition by the US government preventing American based companies from commercializing with the Cuban government. 

The government of the island has the ability to negotiate and purchase goods and services from every other country in the world and in fact it does as a regular practice including their closest neighbors Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica and lately Venezuela.

If we take the short 90 mile ride to the other side of the Florida strait we find another argument on the same topic, one that may be as obsolete as the one Castro is claiming to have.  A battle has raged for the past five decades over the existence of the Cuban embargo in the many cafes that lineup little Havana in Miami.

Many Cuban American politicians over the years have used the fervor of the Cuban tragedy as their political campaign slogan to promote themselves and secure the votes of their local constituents.  Many argue that the reason for such an embargo is to weaken the Communist regime and some how force a change in the island.  If the embargo has not work in fifty years and has only serve as an excuse for Castro to remain in power, and Cuba can purchase all it needs from other countries, then  one can argue that its main intended purpose failed.

Over the years the older generations of Cubans both in the island and abroad give way to the new generations who tend to see the embargo as nothing more than a nuisance and pay little attention to it finding may other ways of bypassing its ever changing rules by using third countries to travel to see their love ones and send money to their families.