Menu

11/01/09 - NY DAILY NEWS - President Barack Obama now owns the crippling
Cuba embargo, because he hasn't stopped it

Albor Ruiz
As predictable as the sun rising every day, the United Nations General
Assembly
last Wednesday overwhelmingly condemned, for the 18th year in a row, the
U.S.
embargo of Cuba.

During his presidency - to nobody's surprise - George W. Bush arrogantly
ignored
the UN resolution. This year many believed it would be different. After all,
President Obama had promised a "new partnership" with Latin America and a
"recasting" of relations with Cuba.

Expectations were high that Washington would leave behind the politically
failed
and morally bankrupt embargo.

But his promises notwithstanding, in September the new President signed on
to
the continuation of nine previous Presidents' anachronistic policy by
extending
the blockade (as Cubans call the embargo) for another year.

"It is now the Obama administration supporting and enforcing the embargo -
still
following Bush era rules that thwart U.S. agriculture sales; still levying
stiff
penalties for violations of the regulations; still stopping prominent Cubans
from visiting the U.S.; still refusing to use its executive authority to
allow
American artists, the faith community, academics, and other proponents of
engagement and exchange to visit Cuba as representatives of our country and
its
ideals," lamented Sarah Stephens, executive director of the Center for
Democracy
in the Americas.

Stephens asked if the blockade has now become "Obama's embargo."

The impact of the U.S. policy on the lives of average Cubans is even worse.
Time
and time again the embargo becomes a matter of life or death because it
prohibits exporting medical equipment to Cuba with grave consequences for
the
health of the population. So irrational is this policy that it even prevents
Cuba from purchasing antiretroviral drugs for the treatment of HIV-AIDS from
U.S. The embargo's effect doesn't stop at the border but actually persecutes
and
financially punishes companies all over the world that do business with the
island nation.

"Since the election of President Obama, there has not been any change in the
implementation of the economic, commercial, and financial blockade against
Cuba.
The blockade remains intact," Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez
Parrilla
told the UN.

The embargo was imposed by President Kennedy in 1962, supposedly to isolate
Cuba
and overthrow Fidel Castro. But at Wednesday's UN session it was the
isolation
of the U.S. that was evident: 187 countries voted in favor of ending the
47-year
embargo. Only Israel and Palau voted with Washington against lifting the
economic sanctions.

Obama has taken some positive steps to improve relations with Cuba. He has
made
family travel to the island easier and has supported the Organization of
American States initiative to welcome Cuba back into its fold. He has also
opened negotiations with Havana about migration and direct mail service.

Yet, as Rodríguez Parrilla also told the UN, "The truth is that we have not
even gone back to the situation that had prevailed up until the early days
of
2004, when the U.S. allowed a certain level of academic, cultural,
scientific
and sport exchanges with Cuban counterparts."

It's difficult to imagine Obama - who has vowed to implement a policy of
mutual
respect for Cuba, Latin America and the world - really wanting to adopt as
his
own an inherited Cold War policy that has brought the U.S. unanimous
repudiation.

But it is more difficult to understand what he is waiting for to finally
bring
U.S.-Cuba relations into the 21st century.