Cuban Trade Embargo Research Paper

The Cuban Trade Embargo: Must End Immediately

The United States trade embargo on Cuba still remains in effect to present date. The point of the trade embargo on Cuba is to force Castro into releasing prisoners,1 opening a free market, and having an elected democracy. However, this Cuban trade embargo should not be supported any longer and should be lifted immediately because Cuba is no longer a threat to the U.S., human rights are being violated, it causes a loss of profit for the U.S. and its corporations, and most importantly, the embargo still has not changed Fidel Castro’s regime into a democracy. Fidel Castro is still in power and is actively oppressing the people of Cuba despite the implemented U.S. trade embargo from long ago. So the

anymore especially since its own forces have been weakened. Cuba’s economy has been weakened to such a state that Castro’s forces have suffered along with the Cuban people who have been enduring this economic crisis for a while now. Ruben Berrios writes, “The trade embargo grew out of a geopolitical concern that no longer exists. Cuba is no longer supporting insurgency abroad. Its troops are out of Angola, Ethiopia, Somalia and other African countries.”2 This illustrates how Fidel Castro had to pull his military forces out of these countries because he could not afford it anymore. If he is not able to afford to send out these troops to these countries, then there is little to no possibility that he would be able to use them against the U.S. There is no reason that the U.S. should upkeep this embargo when there is no evident danger

The people are being deprived of proper food and medicine which is only riling the people up.7 It’s society and citizens are nearing the point of revolution due to Castro’s actions, and removing the embargo would only intensify this by giving the citizens “a taste of capitalism” as Marcus Mabry states.8 As a country that is focused on maintaining a healthy population and preventing the spread of diseases, Cuba would receive a very big blow if the embargo is tightened.9 Cubans will end up having a scarce amount of medicine to cater to their needs,10 referred to by the APHA as “an attempted attack on the health and well being of an entire population”.11 Although they might have access to free medical care, it is of the lowest kind and the resources are limited.12 Not only this, but the people of Cuba are struggling to eat properly, with the country struggling to ration its resources such as food and other necessities.13 The people are starving and have to wait in line for the basic things such as food and toiletries.14 These two alone are an outright violation of the basic human rights that each person should have, no matter the country that they live in. As long as the trade embargo is set on Cuba, its citizens will unfairly suffer in this manner until it is