[News] The US Keeps Betting on Cuba Surrendering Out of Hunger and Desperation

[Anti-Imperialist News]

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The US Keeps Betting on Cuba Surrendering Out of Hunger and Desperation
By Gustavo A Maranges on September 4, 2022

photo: Bill Hackwell

Last week, US President Joe Biden extended for one more year the sanctions
on Cuba, arguing the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917. This mechanism has
been used for the last 60 years to back the countless sanctions that make
up the US blockade against Cuba.

This time, Biden only limited himself to saying that it was a “matter of
interest to the United States.” By a stroke of the pen, he condemned the
Cuban people to continue to suffer all the economic shortages caused by the
blockade. Sanctioning and playing with the welfare of millions of people,
with their very lives, seems to be a reflex action of US political class.

For Biden, it was just one of the hundreds of documents he signed last
week. Although, for Cubans, this one is a critical signature that has a
direct impact on their health, food for their families, working conditions,
possibilities to enjoy their country, and everything they do to see their
country flourish. The blockade is, without a doubt, the main obstacle to
Cuba’s development.

Many of our readers know about all the scientific and social achievements
of the island despite the sanctions. Meanwhile, Cubans only think of how
much more they could have done without a blockade. The annual losses to the
Cuban families’ economy are estimated at billions of dollars, but this is
not nearly the worst damage. Enjoying a full childhood or further progress
in gender equality or women’s empowerment is hindered by the sanctions,
something recognized by UNESCO and NGOs such as OXFAM.

Today, Cuba is going through the worst economic crisis in decades, which is
the result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the deficiencies of the national
business system, and the so-mentioned US sanctions. It is not possible to
explain Cuba’s reality without understanding the effect of the blockade,
since it catalyzes every mistake or wrong internal decision while
inhibiting any loophole of development.

However, it has been a long time since the blockade, based on an archaic
Act, ceased to be only economic aggression; it now includes the
psychological level. This is no coincidence since it was its main
objective, as the State Department official Lester Mallory clearly stated
in a memorandum: the blockade main’s intention is to “(…) provoke hunger,
desperation and the overthrow of the government.”

The Trading with the Enemy Act was the legal basis found by the Kennedy
administration in 1962 to sustain sanctions against Cuba by considering it
a “hostile state.” Despite the Cold War scenario, it was not true then, and
it still is a lie now. A lie repeated many times becomes truth, the saying
goes, although this is the exception that proves the rule. No matter how
often they repeat it, no one can believe in such absurdity.

A country that sends doctors to the poorest places in the world, offered
assistance to Americans after Hurricane Katrina, fought cholera in Haiti
and Ebola in Africa, and sent doctors to over 56 countries amid the
COVID-19 pandemic, cannot be a foe. How can Cuba be so hostile if there are
eight bilateral cooperation agreements in force since Obama’s
administration?

Cuba’s response was not long in coming. President Miguel Diaz-Canel and
Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, as well as several high-ranking Cuban
diplomats, criticized Biden’s cowardly decision and ratified Cuban’s will
of not kneeling down before the extortions of any foreign government. Cuba
is socialist because we decided so in 1961 and ratified it after every
Constitution.

Today, despite Cuba’s complex economic situation, those who continue
fighting for their social and political project are more than those who
abandon it. The US government thought it was impossible to survive without
its help in the sixties, then they got ready to return during the special
period. They thought everything would end after Fidel Castro left his
government position or later when he passed away. They bet on breaking us
during the COVID-19 pandemic, and today, they continue to do everything
possible to achieve the long-standing goal. All this shows the
Machiavellian character of the US policy towards Cuba and its shameful
historical amnesia.

Biden has maintained his predecessors’ bet, which confirms his memory is
not the best. Perhaps his case is even more reprehensible, not only because
it goes against his electoral promises, but also because his long years in
politics have allowed him to see all these failures with his own eyes.

Ratifying Cuba as a “hostile state” says more about the current
administration than about the Caribbean island itself. If someone sees Cuba
as a “hostile state”, it is because they feel threatened by its example, by
what it means to Latin Americans and many Americans who want a fairer US.
Cuba has never been hostile to Americans and they will never be. Only those
seeking to crush their neighbors’ sovereignty, stand for imperialist
policies, and this profoundly unequal world order, can see Cuba in that
way. For Democrats and Republican administrations alike, Cuba has always
been a thorn in their side.

Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – US
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