The U.S. Blockade against Cuba
was signed into law on February 7, 1962 by President J.F. Kennedy. Kennedy was
also responsible for the failed Bay of Pigs
invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Prior to that, during the administration
of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, threats and economic sanctions against Cuba were also
carried out. It was Eisenhower who broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba on January
3, 1961, two years after the Cuban Revolution and two weeks before the end of
his term in office.
Since 1962 every American president has
maintained or stepped up the Cuban blockade. During Jimmy Carter’s presidency
from 1977 to 1981, some noise was made about relaxing the blockade, but nothing
materialized and in the final months of his term Carter launched serious
attacks against Cuba
in the media.
The blockade worsened under the first President
Bush with the 1992 passing of the Cuban Democracy Act, known as the Torricelli
Act after the Congressman who introduced it. This act came into being soon
after the collapse of the Soviet Union and it was the openly-stated plan of the
U.S. government to bring
about Cuba’s
demise at this critical time in its history. The Torricelli Act banned all
trade with Cuba
by subsidiaries of American companies and refused entry to American ports to
those vessels which had previously stopped in Cuban ports. This legislation
violated international law and treaties, including the Letter of the United
Nations, the GATT of 1947 and 1994 and the WTO Charter.
As a result of this act, many countries
passed legislation to protect their own citizens from the extraterritorial
reach of U.S.
laws. Canada,
for example, passed the Foreign Extraterritorial Measures Act (FEMA) in October,
1992 for this precise purpose.
These attacks on the economic front were
coupled with assaults on other fronts as well, including well-documented
terrorist attacks and attempts to undermine Cuba politically on the world
stage, including at the United Nations. When all of this failed to defeat Cuba, the U.S. stepped up its efforts once
again with the passing of the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act in
March 1996, known after its sponsors as the Helms-Burton Act. This was brought
in under President Bill Clinton, who had been a strong force behind the
Torricelli Act previously.
Helms-Burton attempts to strengthen
international sanctions against Cuba,
including Cuba’s exclusion
from international financial institutions and the Organization of American
States (OAS), further threats and sanctions against countries and companies
investing in Cuba, increased
restrictions against Cubans resident in the U.S.
from sending money and goods to their families in Cuba
and restrictions on their right to travel to Cuba. It also openly supports the
organization and financing of anti-Cuban government elements inside Cuba. The
current Bush administration has tightened the provisions of Helms-Burton
further, with more restrictions announced last year and new ones expected
shortly.
In spite of all these actions of
successive American governments, U.S.
companies and many state and local governments continue to pursue trade and
other relations with Cuba.
In addition, an important movement amongst the American people has developed opposing
the attempts to strangle Cuba
and to harm relations between the American and Cuban people. One of these
efforts is the Pastors for Peace Friendshipment
Caravan to Cuba,
which for 17 years has travelled throughout the
country each summer, picking up passengers and medical and other supplies, in
open violation of the blockade. This summer’s Caravan will stop in 120 American
and five Canadian cities, including Winnipeg
on June 20th.