Biden Extends the Embargo Against Cuba
and Díaz-Canel Calls it a ‘Crime’
The embargo is the reason used by the regime to justify the shortage of food, medicines and other multiple problems.
HAVANA TIMES – The president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, criticized the U.S. president, Joe Biden, on Saturday for renewing the Law of Trade with the Enemy, a statute of 1917 that underpins the economic embargo on the island.
“Biden didn’t dare to take away the ’pretext’ from us and signed for the continuity of the blockade,” the Cuban president wrote on Twitter, referring to the memorandum that extends that policy until September 14, 2023.
Díaz-Canel added that “the crime has lasted too long, but the Cuban Revolution will survive it.”
In the same vein, the Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez, said that “Biden becomes the 12th president of the United States to ratify the framework that supports the policy of abuse against Cuba and its people.”
The policy, the Minister of Foreign Affairs added, “is rejected by almost all member countries of the international community.”
Then president John F. Kennedy resorted to the statute in 1962 to impose the economic embargo on Havana, and since then it has been renewed, year after year, by the following presidents.
Cuba is currently the only country in the world sanctioned under that law that authorizes the president of the United States to impose and maintain economic restrictions on states considered hostile.
The embargo has been widely criticized internationally and rejected since 1992 by a large majority of countries in the UN General Assembly.
Systematically called “the blockade” by the Cuban authorities, the embargo is the reason used by the regime to justify the shortage of food, medicines and other multiple problems, even though there is a law that allows Cuba to buy basic goods from the United States, as long as it pays in advance, in cash.
Most of the chicken that Cuba imports come from the United States; in the last 20 years, the United States has exported 2.78 million tons of chicken to Cuba — 39.5% of that in the last five years — for a cumulative value of 2,36 billion dollars, according to data from the beginning of 2022. In addition, the Island also buys other products from the US, such as soy, fruits, coffee, ketchup, fresh vegetables and pet food.
Translated by Regina Anavy for Translating Cuba
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It is time for the world bully to stop giving Cuba swirlys.
If there were no US blockade of Cuba then Cuba would be just like Haiti. US private equity would descend on Cuba and suck all the life blood out of the country.
The Cuban Dictatorship just wants the embargo to be lift to buy on credit and not pay as usual, ask the Paris Club how much the Cuban dictatorship owes them. The fact that Cuba regime has centralized economy and nothing is functioning is not the embargo its the inefficiency of an obsolete dictatorship that is only in power by terrorizing, repressing, incarcerating, intimidating the Cuban people
The US embargo, as an impediment to economic growth in Cuba, is a minor player. Cuba’s biggest problem is Cuba. I challenge any Castro sycophant to share what Cuba can not buy or participate in due to the US embargo. The US embargo affects only private companies. Any sympathetic government could easily do business with Cuba without being sanctioned. So, tell me, what’s the problem?
Inertia appears to be the major factor impacting US-Cuba relations. Cuba, the party who contends they are impacted by poor relations, sits back doing nothing except contending the US must take action to improve the relationship.
So far the only thing that has happened during Biden’s term was the Cuban government’s overreaction to the protests of 11 July 2021 and subsequent actions of 15 November to insure Cuban citizens did not have the opportunity to be heard.
Anyone who believes this problem can be resolved by the US acting unilaterally has not spent enough time to understand the situation. Some of us who spend our time and personal resources trying to assist in solving the problem are beginning to question why bother when the Cuban side does nothing.
Biden is trying to score points by catering to demented extremists who would never vote for him under any circumstances. He broke his promise by not getting rid of the ridiculous sanctions Trump put on the Cuban people.
After the US revolution that rejected colonialism, they were allowed to chart there own future. It was flawed and featured continued slavery and oppression of indigenous people. Cuba, despite some flaws, should have the same right after their revolution and rejection of Spanish exploitation and then US economic imperialism.
If the US removed the blockade, then Cubans could freely evolve without that pretext. They have never had that chance – or always had that excuse – depending on your perceptions.