64 Years of Economic Warfare

The Mexican ambassador to the US told President Kennedy, “If we publicly declare that Cuba is a threat to our security, 40 million Mexicans will die laughing.”

On January 29th, President Trump signed an executive order that declared Cuba an “unusual and extraordinary threat.” Yet, the Wall Street Journal reported, “The Trump administration has assessed that Cuba’s economy is close to collapse.” Trump said, “Cuba literally is ready to fall.” Somehow, Cuba is collapsing AND an extraordinary threat.

On February 3rd, 1962, President Kennedy “signed and made official the policy of economic embargo against Cuba.” The National Security Archive concluded, “the initial concept of U.S. economic pressure was… to deny ‘money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, [and] to bring about hunger, desperation, and the overthrow of [the Castro] government.’”

Despite the fact, as a 1960 State Department memorandum admitted, “The majority of Cubans support Castro.” In 1960, John F. Kennedy explained why Cubans supported Castro. In 1959, U.S. “companies owned about 40 percent of the Cuban sugar [plantations] – almost all the cattle ranches – 90 percent of the mines and mineral concessions… and practically all the oil industry.” Our government advanced “the interests of and [increased] the profits of the private American companies, which dominated [Cuba’s] economy.”

Washington also sent a constant stream of weapons to “the brutal, bloody and despotic dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.” The Batista dictatorship “murdered 20,000 Cubans in seven years… [Batista] turned Democratic Cuba into a complete police state – destroying every individual liberty.”

That rare moment of truth by President Kennedy didn’t stop him from imposing a criminal blockade that continues 64 years later. Cuba is the most sanctioned country in history. For three decades, the UN General Assembly has denounced the U.S. blockade. Last October, 165 countries agreed on the “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba.” In 2024, 187 countries opposed the U.S. blockade.

Washington ignores the world’s opinion as it attempts regime change in Cuba. The Wall Street Journal wrote, “Washington intends to weaken [Cuba] by choking off that oil, which has kept Cuba’s lights on… bringing the economy to a grinding halt.” President Claudia Sheinbaum warned it “could trigger a large-scale humanitarian crisis, directly affecting hospitals, food supplies, and other basic services for the Cuban people.”

The State Department explained the real reason behind the economic strangulation. Cuba represented a “successful defiance of the US.” The United Nations documented, Cuba developed a social model of “universal healthcare, universal education, and extensive social safety nets like subsidised healthcare and food rations.”

Cuba’s social model is a successful defiance of the U.S. system, which is a few corporations and a ruling class that plunders the majority of the population.

Washington wants to return Cuba to the U.S. model. The Miami Herald revealed “Trump’s true intent — to make money in Cuba any way he can: hotels, casinos and golf courses.”

-Anton Porcari

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