OPINION & EDITORIAL
U.S. needs to lift Cuba embargo
Looking for a print version?
Simply choose ‘Print’ on your computer and a printer-friendly document will be generated.
Also by Kristen Green:
Related Stories:
- Cuba not ready for trade with United States (October 1, 2002)
- Oppression and murder only 92 miles away (May 8, 2003)
- Time for U.S. to reconsider Cuba policy (March 23, 2006)
- Confessions of an insolent American male (August 30, 2002)
- Of mustard and udders (April 14, 2003)
by Kristen Green
Friday, February 8, 2002
Just 90 miles from the United States sits a country full of music, color and joy. Having traveled to this country, I can tell you it is lined by incredibly majestic mountain ranges and emerald green waters that hold the coral reefs of the Caribbean Sea.
Its air is filled with lively music and its outdoor cabana clubs with vibrant people dressed in smiles. It is a country where strangers invite you into their home to experience the true essence of their cultural meals. It is a nation that teaches its physicians that, even in the face of its overt poverty, the pledge to heal stands true — and that has infant mortality rates lower than ours.
It is safe. It is appreciative. It is enriching. It is Cuba.
Despite its beauty, Cuba also plays host to housing projects precariously balanced on foundations blanketed with garbage and threatening potholes. In some areas, the air is filled with the gray silence of an oppressed nation and the streets with hungry people begging for dollars, gum, pens — anything privileged foreigners are willing to spare.
There is no denying some of this despair is due to the communist government that holds people in chains. But what most of us fail to realize is that our own overbearing nation supplied the locks for those chains.
In 1940, Cuba came under the reigns of Fulgencio Batista, a vicious dictator who threatened and abused the Cuban people. His offices were gained by fraudulent elections, and his focus was more on securing continued financial support from President Roosevelt than on providing education, health care, agriculture and shelter for his people.
By 1955, half of Cuba’s land, industry and essential services were in the hands of foreign dignitaries, the Cuban people were in peril and Batista and his allies were wealthy.
Cuba’s 1959 revolution, led by Fidel Castro, Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara and several others, was prompted by this terrible plight. The revolutionaries realized their dreams of better things for their people when they overthrew the corrupt government.
Since the American government was Batista’s strongest ally, this revolution began America’s disfavor toward Cuba. Since the mid-1960s, several CIA operations costing over $13 million have attempted to assassinate and overthrow Castro.
In addition, after we were defeated in the Bay of Pigs in 1961, we vengefully enacted a full trade embargo against Cuba and travel to Cuba was banned for American citizens.
In 1992, we completed our attack with the Torricelli Act, which forbids any foreign associate of U.S. companies from trading with Cuba, and bans ships that have docked in Cuba from docking in the United States for the following six months.
These bans on trade and tourism still exist today, and their effects are overwhelming. Traveling to Cuba is like walking into a movie from 1961 — only the movie set has lain dormant for 41 years with no renovation, industrialization or progression.
What is the most ironic in this ultimate human tragedy is that the United States, by inflicting embargos and travel restrictions, has most definitely strengthened the communist ideal in Cuba. We have given Castro an evil neighbor against whom to rebel.
I am not a communist, nor am I Cuban. Yet traveling to this country has given me much more than a history lesson. I have experienced a people who find joy in life despite the fact that rice and beans provide most of their sustenance.
I have danced with people who don’t have the freedom to travel, become entrepreneurs or even express their thoughts out loud. I have had children hug me in gratitude for the $2 that I gave them in return for a ride on their bicycle taxi because they just earned a third of their family’s monthly income. I have heard the words “God bless America” come out of Cuban mouths.
Cuba is not a nation of terrorists and villains — it is our neighbor. Look in your medicine cabinets, kitchen cupboards and bedroom closets and know that you’ll find more supplies than would be found in an entire Cuban city-block.
Ask yourself if 42 years of animosity is a good reason to continue the ignorance and suppression. I certainly don’t think so.
