End the Blockade! - Poster of the Week
- politicalgraphics
- Feb 27
- 2 min read
End the U.S. Blockade of Cuban People
Rosa Naday Garmendia
Offset, 2022
Miami, Florida
29627
In recent weeks, the United Nations has warned the world that Cuba is on the brink of a humanitarian crisis due to fuel and oil shortages, caused by the decades long embargo. This crisis has recently been exacerbated because of the U.S. kidnapping of Venezuelan President Maduro, who had been supporting Cuba via oil exports. The U.S. has ended it's support, weakening the Cuban infrastructure and causing blackouts, increasing food prices, and increasing transportation costs. President Eisenhower imposed the first trade restrictions on Cuba in 1960, banning all exports, excluding food and medicine, to the island following the Cuban Revolution in 1959. The revolution was spearheaded by Fidel Castro who ousted the U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista and began nationalizing American-owned property. In 1961, the U.S. sponsored the Bay of Pigs invasion, a failed-attempt to overthrow Castro's government. U.S.-Cuba relations became even further strained after Cuba’s alignment with the Soviet Union and the discovery of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. Unbeknown to many at the time, the Soviet missiles in Cuba were to counter U.S. missiles in Turkey, near the Soviet border. In response to what became known as the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy imposed a complete economic embargo on Cuba. Subsequent trade restrictions include the 1992 Cuban Democracy Act (Torricelli Act) which banned foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies from trading with Cuba and highly restricted travel to Cuba and the 1996 Helms-Burton Act which codified the embargo into U.S. law and imposed penalties on foreign companies for doing business with Cuba. In 2016, President Obama took steps to normalize U.S.-Cuba relationships by relaxing travel restrictions, allowing Cubans to have U.S. bank accounts, and permitting mail between the two nations. Unfortunately, President Trump has worsened the six-decades long embargo on Cuba by pledging to halt any oil from reaching Cuba and signing an executive order threatening to impose tariffs on countries that provide oil to Cuba. On Wednesday, February 27th, Trump partially reversed himself (yet again) when the U.S. Treasury Department announced that they would issue licenses to resell Venezuelan oil to Cuba's private sector. Time and time again, the U.S. continues to control the economy and political standing of other nations, Cuba is no different. The effects of a decades long embargo, culminating in this fuel scarcity, is just another example of U.S. imperialism at play. On the island, food prices are skyrocketing, schools are being closed, and surgeries are being post-poned. Cuban oil experts estimate that Cuban oil could be depleted as early as mid-March, threatening social unrest since the majority of Cuba’s energy runs on oil or oil products. This embargo is inhumane! End the U.S. embargo on Cuba! |
References:
Comments