I was watching a speech the other day of a senior American social activist who had just returned from a visit to Cuba.
After describing the increasingly difficult conditions in Cuba he made an important point which was very appealing.
He didn’t just say that we all should try to help Cuba and its people in these difficult times, he instead emphasized that the world owes it to the people of Cuba to help Cuba in its most difficult times because in the past the doctors and medical workers and relief workers of this tiny country, despite lacking resources, have been rushing to so many countries at the time of a disaster or a medical or humanitarian crisis wherever their services were needed, providing invaluable help with great dedication.
There is no other example of such a small country taking up its international responsibilities with such deep commitment.
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It is this very country which is being targeted by the USA and the Trump administration today in very cruel ways, creating such extreme shortages that people may die due to this.
At a time when the world faces a very serious humanitarian crisis as well as a huge shortage of resources to meet the needs of very seriously affected people, President Trump has just gone ahead to create an additional humanitarian crisis very close to his own country.
Of course earlier also the USA had imposed many sanctions on Cuba but Trump has recently done the most he can to make the situation as unbearable for the people of Cuba, including women, children and the elderly, as possible.
Due to completely crazy and unjustified fuel blockade on top of multiple other restrictions and sanctions, Cuba has faced unprecedented fuel, electricity, water and food shortages in recent months while at the same even its most elderly leaders are being victimized in highly unjust ways. So heavy-handed and stupid is Trump’s cruel strangulation of a tiny neighbour that this has become an embarrassment for ordinary decent Americans, as is reflected in criticism of Trump’s Cuba policy even in those media outlets that normally would not touch anything communist with a pair of tongs.
This embarrassment increases further when senior persons in the defence establishment refer to Cuba as a security risk for the USA and also identify those trying to provide a bit of humanitarian help as subversive elements. Are they serious?
‘Veterans for Peace’ organization (VfP) has captured the spirit of the feelings of a very large number of people within the country and outside in a recent statement which states,
“Veterans for Peace condemns the recent report by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, accusing Cuba of interfering in the internal affairs of the U.S. and, conversely, accusing U.S. peace and solidarity activists of being agents of a foreign country, Cuba. Talk about turning things on their head! It is the U.S. that has waged an economic war against Cuba for 64 years with a blockade that prevents it from normal trade relations with the U.S. and other countries, stunts its economic development, and denies it access to medicines and other essentials.”
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Reminding the US elites of historical as well as current facts this statement further says,
“It is the U.S. CIA that organized a failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961, setting the stage for the 1962 Cuban missile crisis that almost led to a nuclear war. It is the U.S. that is currently enforcing a deadly oil embargo on Cuba, and it is the U.S. president and secretary of state who are openly threatening a U.S. military invasion of Cuba. What has Cuba ever done to the U.S.? Cuba is being punished for declaring its independence from U.S. imperialism and for attempting to develop a socialist economic model that is not based on exploitation and profiteering.”
Indicating domestic connections this statement adds,
“We reject the Trump administration’s sudden return to “anti-communism” as a means of undermining the credibility of its political opponents — whether from the Democratic Party or actual left-wing organizations. If this is an attempt to intimidate those who are organizing for a just and peaceful world, it will not work. We will not be intimidated. If Trump’s and Rubio’s sudden obsession with “communists” and “political terrorists” is telegraphing their intention for a clampdown on dissent in the U.S., we take this very seriously. Will the racist ICE attacks on people of colour be expanded to suppress all political dissent? Will the private prisons built with ICE’s billions become concentration camps for peace activists? Will the pretext of foreign interference be used to cancel or undermine the midterm elections? Will illegal and unpopular U.S. wars abroad be accompanied by fascist repression in the United States?”
Further VfP says,
“Many Veterans for Peace members have visited Cuba, and we have made friends in Cuba. We are very concerned that the U.S. blockade — made even more devastating by Trump’s oil blockade — is causing great suffering in Cuba, including many needless deaths. We reiterate our long-time demand for an end to the U.S. blockade of Cuba.Veterans For Peace will not be intimidated. We stand in solidarity with Cuba and with all those who struggle for human rights and democracy in the U.S.”
Despite increasing demands from many parts of the world and repeatedly from the United Nations for ending the USA sanctions and embargo against Cuba, these now exist in increasingly extended and stronger ways. This blockade has resulted in billions of dollars being lost for Cuba in terms of loss of trade and economic opportunities. In fact this loss has now exceeded a trillion dollars.
An even bigger loss of Cuba has been in terms of denial of imports of essential needs like food and medicine. Despite all this, hats off to the determination and hard work of the Cuban people that the latest recorded infant mortality, child mortality rate and life expectancy of people have been more or less the same in Cuba compared to the USA for a long time, and it is only in the recent blockade that the situation deteriorated in Cuba. While the infant mortality rate in the two countries has been between five and six, the under-five child mortality has been between seven and eight, the life expectancy in both countries has been 78 years. The Human Development Index ranking of Cuba in the year 2023 was found to be in the high human development category, despite the fact that already the country had faced decades of very difficult sanctions and restrictions.
The USA-imposed longest ever embargo on Cuba has continued for almost six and a half decades with very limited relaxations for short durations. For over three decades the United Nations General Assembly has been regularly passing resolutions against the USA blockade or embargo for its violation of UN charter as well as international law. It has been common for over 90 per cent of member countries to support this resolution. European Union countries, Canada and other allies of the USA also join and support such resolutions. (The only major country which time and again supports the USA on this issue is Israel).
The expression of such massive international opposition to the blockade of Cuba must have been adequate reason for ending the blockade, but the USA has continued the blockade by passing several laws for this over the years. This has happened despite the fact that several important voices even within the USA have been in favour of lifting the embargo, and some surveys suggest that more US citizens favour a reduction of restrictions on business and travel. At least two US Presidents, Jimmy Carter and Barak Obama, expressed their opposition to embargo, but could introduce only limited relaxations. Whatever they could achieve was moreover hastily undone by their successors. Trump in his first tenure made the embargo more restrictive than before, leading to more problems for Cuban people.
Former Secretary of State George P. Shultz said that this policy (of embargo and isolation) is ‘insane’. Another prominent political leader and a Democratic Presidential candidate George McGovern stated bluntly—It is a stupid policy. Several business leaders in the USA have spoken against it. Several leading human rights groups inside and outside the USA including the Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Inter-American Commission on Human Rights have expressed their opposition to the blockade.
Legal luminaries have also commented on the illegality of the embargo in the context of international law. To give one example Paul A. Shenyer and Virginia Barta have written in a paper titled ‘The Legality of the US Economic Blockade of Cuba Under International Law (Western Reserve Journal of International Law),
“Whatever view is adopted, either that of coercion or aggression, it is quite evident that the imposition of the US economic blockade of Cuba constituted an illegal act…If there still remains doubt as to the illegality of the economic blockade under the traditional view, there is no doubt that the blockade is a fragrant violation of the contemporary standard which is founded on economic principles and sovereign equality between states.”
If the blockade was illegal earlier, it has become more glaringly so now with the latest most extreme and strangulation policies followed by the Trump administration.
Some critics of Cuba’s socialist system have used these difficulties to falsely allege that the regime has failed in meeting basic needs of people. In fact in recent years the agro-ecology approach of Cuba to increase food production in ecologically protective ways has attracted international praise and appreciation, including at UN/FAO level. However the fact that at one time Cuba had become a one-crop land and had become highly dependent on imports, implies that despite several successes, it takes time to achieve self-reliance in diversity of foods needed, particularly when a big and powerful neighbour is creating problems all the time. Similarly despite the widely admired successes of Cuba in health sector, shortages in terms of specific medicines are likely to occur in trade blockade conditions.
Clearly the increasing difficulties Cuba is facing in meeting essential needs are a reflection of unjust actions taken against this small country by its giant neighbour. Let us also not forget that despite these problems Cuba’s doctors have served over 40 countries at the time of special difficulties and disasters.
Hence there is a very strong case now for the USA to respect all the numerous UN General Assembly resolutions and lift the longest ever embargo against Cuba. No more!—this blockade should go away and never return. Meanwhile everyone should try to extend help and solidarity to Cuba as best they can in these extremely difficult times.
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Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Planet in Peril and When the Two Streams Met. His website is bharatdogra.in and his YouTube channel is Bharat Dogra| Save Earth Campaign. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
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