Embargo no longer serves a purpose

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February 11, 2012

Anonymous Daily Star The Daily Star Sat Feb 11, 2012, 02:25 AM EST

Fifty years ago this week, President John F. Kennedy signed executive order 3447, banning trade with Cuba "in light of the subversive offensive of Sino-Soviet Communism."

As this anniversary passes, it's worth asking whether this policy has had its desired effects and how much longer it should remain in place.

It's difficult to reconcile our policy toward Cuba with our policy toward other communist nations such as China. Any criticism that can be made about human rights in Cuba can also be made about China. Despite its bloody conflict with the U.S. decades ago, even Vietnam has closer ties with us than Cuba.

The hypocrisy of our policy toward Cuba is highlighted at the U.N. General Assembly, where each year for the past two decades a resolution condemning the embargo has been approved by an overwhelming majority of nations. This fall the vote was 186-2, with only Israel joining the U.S. in opposition.

"It's no longer a matter of the United States leading a movement to isolate Cuba in the hemisphere," said former U.S. diplomat Wayne Smith to the Associated Press this week. "Quite the contrary; if anyone's isolated, on this issue, anyway, it's us."

The embargo has done little to weaken Fidel Castro's regime, and in fact has allowed Cuba's leaders -- not to mention regional demagogues such as Hugo Chavez of Venezuela -- to portray the U.S. as a scapegoat and a bully. Even some Cuban exiles have wondered if the embargo has made the Cuban people more dependent on the regime.

"Everything is blamed on the embargo, from the lack of basic civil rights to political liberties," said Cuban exile Alfredo Duran, who fought for the U.S. during the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961. "The only thing it has allowed is Cuba to maintain the status quo and every (U.S.) political candidate to get the votes from Florida and New Jersey by having coffee and talking about Cuba."

Duran's last point is the reason why U.S./Cuba relations are unlikely to change soon. With a presidential election looming this fall, Florida is an important swing state. The Cuban exile community in Florida, as a result, has an outsized influence on U.S. foreign policy.

But attitudes toward the embargo are changing among young Cuban-Americans, and many were supportive of President Barack Obama's move last year to ease travel restrictions to Cuba.

That move was a good first step toward improving U.S./Cuba relations. Let's hope that it's followed by a discussion about ending this spiteful and fruitless relic of Cold War policy.