WORLD AFFAIRS

A vote for Cuba

JOHN CHERIAN

The United Nations General Assembly condemns yet again the genocidal economic blockade imposed on Cuba by the United States.

CLAUDIA DAUT/REUTERS

A student kisses President Fidel Castro after receiving her diploma at a ceremony in Santa Clara on October 20. Castro tripped and fell after he delivered his speech.

FOR the 12th consecutive year, the United Nations General Assembly condemned in the last week of October the United States government's policy against Cuba. The number of countries supporting the U.S. on the issue has shrunk dramatically. The only country that Washington can count on to support it on its Cuba policy in the U.N. is its client state - Israel. The resolution states that the U.S. administration has blatantly violated "the principles of international law, multi-lateralism and the will of the international community".

The U.S. government, almost from the day Cuba became independent 44 years ago, has unilaterally imposed economic sanctions on it. The sanctions got tougher after the U.S. was militarily defeated by the Cuban Army in the Bay of Pigs fiasco of 1961. Since Cuba had a market for its goods in the Soviet Union and the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe, the sanctions did not have a serious impact. However, after the collapse of the socialist bloc, Washington thought that socialist Cuba was ripe for the picking.

By the early 1990s, Cuba had lost its main market for its exports, mainly sugar, tobacco and nickel. To isolate Cuba further economically, the U.S. Congress passed the Toricelli Act in 1992. The law banned trade in medicine and food between Cuba and subsidiaries of U.S. companies based all over the world. In 1996, the Helms Burton Act increased the scope of the blockade, affecting all sectors of the economy. For instance, Cuba cannot purchase planes directly from Airbus. Though it is a European company, many parts for its commercial planes are sourced from American companies.

THE election of George W. Bush to the U.S. presidency four years ago brought more bad news for the Cuban people. The extreme rightwing Cuban exile community in Florida played a key role in the flawed election process in that State. Bush did not waste much time in showing his gratitude to the "Cuban mafia", which has a vice-like grip on the politics of the State.

During the last four years Washington further tightened the embargo. Cubans having U.S. citizenship are now allowed to visit Cuba only once in three years. Strict controls have been placed on dollar remittances by Cuban Americans to their relatives back home. American tourists visiting the island have been selectively penalised. Huge fines have been imposed on even elderly tourists. Some of them face the prospect of lengthy jail terms.

The U.S. Treasury Department has collected more than $8 million from U.S. citizens who have visited Cuba without permission from the government. In 2003, the Bush administration, despite bipartisan demands by U.S. Congressmen for the relaxation of the draconian sanctions, imposed harsher economic curbs on the country. The new measures were introduced despite demands by U.S. business lobbies for the lifting of the trade restrictions.

On September 30, 2003, the Treasury Department passed a regulation banning the publication of articles on science written by Cuban researchers in American academic journals. This measure was repealed in April 2004 following intense pressure from the academic and scientific community.

According to Cuban Ambassador to India Juan Carretero Ibanez, a citizen of the Bahamas running a travel agency specialising in guided tours to Cuba was told by the U.S. authorities that his travel visa to the U.S. would be cancelled if he continued to facilitate the flow of tourists to Cuba. His crime was that many Americans used the services of his company to visit Cuba. Since the collapse of the socialist bloc, Cuba had to turn to tourism as one of the means to generate much-needed hard currency.

RAUL CORRALES/GRANMA/AP

Castro with members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces at his base of operations at the Australia Sugar Refinery in Jaguey, near Playa Giron, during the Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961.

In February this year, Bush signed Presidential Proclamation 7757, which bans vessels intending to enter Cuba from leaving U.S. ports. Officials candidly admitted that the goal of the new regulation was "to improve the way the embargo on the Cuban government is applied". Those violating the proclamation can be fined up to $25,000 or jailed up to five years.

Juan Carretero Ibanez said Washington even prohibits the export of "Braille" typewriters for blind Cuban schoolchildren. To add insult to injury, Bush gave his stamp of approval to the recommendations of a so-called Committee for Assistance to a Free Cuba. The committee had come up with recommendations on how to expedite the toppling of the legitimate government of Cuba and the installation of a puppet regime.

CUBANS take the military threat from the only superpower in the world very seriously, especially after Bush, while on the campaign trail, re-interpreted his doctrine of pre-emptive war. The American President said that Washington had the right to attack any country it visualised as a future threat. A close aide of Bush has been quoted as saying that the U.S., as the sole superpower, will keep on "creating new realities" while the international community is analysing events in Iraq and elsewhere.

The Bush administration's preoccupation with Cuba seems to be even greater than its fight against international terrorism. Many Congressmen have criticised the fact that the U.S. Office for Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) employs five times more agents to pursue and investigate violations of the Cuba blockade legislation than it does to trace the finances of Al Qaeda. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate, highlighted this fact in one of the three televised debates he had with Bush.

According to statistics compiled by the Cuban government in 2004, 69 per cent of Cubans were born after 1959, the year Cuba gained independence. In effect, they have always lived under the U.S. sanctions regime. According to the Cuban government, the direct losses suffered by the Cuban people in financial terms till date amount to over $79 billion. According to Cuban officials, this estimate takes into consideration only the direct impact on the Cuban economy. If the draconian sanctions were absent, Cubans would have been able to enjoy a much better quality of life than they do today.

Despite the blockade, Cubans have managed to enjoy an enviable standard of living. The infant mortality rate in the island republic is lower than that of the U.S. Cubans have excellent health care and the average life expectancy is among the highest in the world.

The Cuban government, while calculating the loss incurred owing to the economic blockade, has not taken into consideration the value of goods that ceased to be produced in the country because of the restrictions in terms of investments, trade, banking and international credit.

Washington has seen to it that Cuba is not allowed to avail itself of credit from international banking institutions. Cuba has to borrow money from the international money market at usurious interest. Washington is trying to deny Cuba even this facility. The Swiss bank USB was fined $100 million recently for allowing Cuba access to dollars that were used for importing medicines, food and other consumer goods.

Cuban officials point out that under Article 11 of the Geneva Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the U.S. blockade on Cuba qualifies as an act of genocide and is, therefore, a crime under international law. In a speech, President Fidel Castro said: "We want a world without cruel blockades that kill men, women and children, young and old, like a silent nuclear bomb."

The deep hatred that the Bush administration has for Cuba was in full view recently. When Castro tripped and suffered minor injuries after delivering a speech in the third week of October, many heads of state called him up to wish him a speedy recovery. However, U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher refused to extend even diplomatic lip-sympathy. "The situation of Castro is of little concern to us, but unfortunately of immense importance to the people of Cuba, who have suffered very long under his rule. And we think that the kind of rule that Cuba has had should be ended," Boucher said in response to a question.

Many of Bush's predecessors had hatched plots to assassinate Castro. He has outlived them all, politically speaking. In all probability, Bush the Second will not prove to be an exception.

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