OUR CONTINUING EMBARGO AGAINST CUBA

2 PARAGRAPHS 4 LIBERTY: 434

For our government to subject any other country to an embargo we must, obviously, comply with our own laws.  The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 [50 U.S.C. Sections 4813(c) and 4826(c)] provides that before we can put an embargo in place the subject country must have been found to be a State Sponsor of International Terrorism.  Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba in 1959, and not only turned Cuba into the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere, he also aligned Cuba with the Soviet Union in sponsoring international terrorism.  Accordingly, our government placed an embargo upon Cuba beginning in 1961. 

But by October 30, 2014, 187 countries of the United Nations voted for a resolution that our embargo against Cuba should come to an end, with only the United States and Israel voting against it.  Seemingly President Obama was listening, because he normalized our relations with Cuba in 2015.  However in 2021, when Cuba refused to extradite United States fugitives back to our country, President Trump re-imposed the embargo.  And that was done even though there were 77 other countries throughout the world that also declined such extradition requests.  Then on January 14, 2025, President Biden (ostensibly) signed a certification agreeing with all other member countries of the United Nations that neither Cuba nor any Cuban organizations was involved in international terrorism, so he canceled the embargo.  Nevertheless, on January 20, 2025, President Trump placed Cuba back upon that list and renewed our embargo, without providing any documentation or rationale provided for that action.

We should all be aware that our embargo is and has been causing severe economic damage to the people of Cuba.  For example, the embargo has kept Cuba from being able to have access to more than 1,000 financial and banking institutions which has, in turn, caused severe shortages of food, medicines and medical equipment. And it is probably also true that the embargo kept Castro in power longer than he otherwise would have been, because he was able (sometimes rightfully) to blame Cuba’s economic problems upon our embargo.  The list goes on, but I expect you get the idea. 

As I have written several times before in this series, it is the duty of everyone in law enforcement in our Great Country to attempt to do the right thing for the right reason, every time.  Among other things, that means that all of our government officers and agents should make every reasonable effort to follow the law or, if they disagree with it, publicly work hard to change it!  Why?  Because our Constitution established us as a nation of laws, and not one of the desires or edicts of any individual.  And that is not happening today in our relationships with Cuba or its people.  So to be lawful, as well as to be a mainstream member of the world community, we should either set forth our reasons for continuing this embargo, or repeal it!