It is finished!
If you have a few minutes to spare, read and critique? Cuba is oh so interesting.
Aaron Marks
Period 2
12/20/05
Knowledge
Ever since he became the head of Cuba in 1959, Fidel Castro has had his own personal agenda for the country. His main goal was for Cuba to become a perfect Socialist nation. One of the things that he has put on the back burner is human rights. Human rights are defined as the basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled, regardless of legal jurisdiction, ethnicity, or nationality. Although there is still a vast amount of debate regarding which rights the term Human Rights encompasses, it is understood to include one’s right to well being, freedom of speech, freedom of ideas, and freedom to express those ideas, regardless of their position on the government.
Because Fidel Castro has not expressed any concern for human rights, the people of Cuba have been suffering ever since he came into power. As even Fidel Castro believes, the only way to bring about change is to do something drastic. Thus, the rest of the world should impose an embargo on Cuba until they improve their policy regarding human rights.
Comprehension
Even in the time before Castro came into power, there were issues with human rights in Cuba. People in Cuba mostly came from one of two ethnicities: Spanish or African. The country was severely segregated. The segregation extended to such public places as bathrooms, beaches, and streets. Even the former President of Cuba, Fulgencio Batista, was forbidden from joining the Havana Yacht Club, one of the most exclusive upper class clubs in Cuba. In general, whites were favored over blacks.
Once Castro seized power, the situation became even worse. One basic human right is the freedom to think, speak, and express your beliefs. Freedom of religion is a prime example of this, and is near-always accepted as being a basic human right. The Cuban government clearly denied this right when they seized all religious materials without compensation. They then declared that every citizen must be atheist. This policy was in effect until 1992. In current times, there is some religion allowed in Cuba. Pope John Paul II visited Cuba in 1998, and publicly condemned Castro. There were also 14 priests allowed to settle in the country. Other religions such as Judaism are now allowed to hold public services in the country. Even though the country has made some reforms, the citizens are still not happy. Of the ten-thousand Jews who were in Cuba in 1959, the majority have felt it necessary to immigrate to Israel.
The Cuban government gives itself the power to control all of the press, speech, assembly, association, and movement in the country. They believe that nothing should be allowed to be an obstacle in the way of achieving a perfect Socialist state. They even appoint themselves the power to indefinitely jail a citizen if there is any suspicion that they will commit a crime in the future. The Cuban Constitution of 1976 states:
“None of the freedoms which are recognized for citizens can be exercised contrary to what is established in the Constitution and by law, or contrary to the existence and objectives of the socialist state, or contrary to the decision of the Cuban people to build socialism and communism. Violations of this principle can be punished by law.”(The Situation of Human Rights In Cuba, 1)
The Cuban government has exercised this right in an extreme fashion. The exact number of people executed for counterrevolutionary activities is not known for sure. The Association for the Study of Cuban Economy estimates that the number is somewhere in the range of 15,000 to 18,000. The board of directors of this association is mainly comprised of Cuban exiles, so naturally there would be some bias in conducting the study. They mainly used records from the US State Department and the Organization of American States. The Historical Atlas of the Twentieth Century, on the other hand, says that in all there were somewhere between 5,000 and 12,000 executions. In either case, these are dramatic numbers that show just how far the Cuban government is willing to go to achieve the Socialist state. "The Cuban Constitution of 1976 is derived from an old Stalinist Soviet document (circa 1936) and, like the U.N. Charter of Rights, grants citizens rights that are illusory and, frankly, not worth the paper they are written on." (Faria, 1)
Application
An example of the way in which an embargo can affect a country’s behavior is the embargo that The United States imposed on Cuba. This is an economic, commercial, and financial embargo that was imposed on February 7, 1962. It is still in effect today, making it one of the longest lasting trade embargos in history.
At first, The United States supported the Cuban Revolution. But after Cuba started seizing American owned property, tensions built between Cuba and America. The Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban Missile crisis certainly did not help. After the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the U.S. stopped giving Cuba preferential trade prices for its sugar and crude oil. In further years, this escalated, and many other restrictions were imposed including a ban on travel to Cuba, and a ban on the use of American money in Cuba.
To date, the estimated cost to Cuba of the U.S. embargo is seventy billion dollars. There is estimated to be a one point two billion dollar loss annually to US exporters, but the benefit of not having to be involved with Cuba has justified the losses. After the embargo was initiated, Cuba relied heavily on cheap goods provided to it by the Soviet Union and the Comecon nations. If the whole world were to impose the embargo, Cuba would have nowhere to turn for goods. This would force them to bring about change.
Analysis
To truly understand the effect that a worldwide embargo would have on Cuba, one must examine a case similar to that which is at hand. The closest thing to Cuba’s current situation is the predicament that Libya was in from 1969 until 2004. In 1969, Colonel Muammar Abu Minyar al-Qadhafi became the leader of Libya through a military coup. His system of government, known as the Third Universal Theory, is very similar to Fidel Castro’s. It is a combination of Socialism and Islam, although Socialism seems to be the main focus. It is supposed to be “A unique form of direct democracy.” (Libya, 1) Seeing as their systems of government are comparable, we can learn a vast amount about Cuba’s situation from what happened in Libya.
Seeing himself as a revolutionary, Qadhafi was always working to promote his ideology throughout Africa. He tried to do this through supporting terrorist organizations. Throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s, he used the country’s oil funds to try to end capitalism. What Qadhafi was trying to do is similar to what Castro is doing in his homeland. He uses his essentially unlimited power to spread propaganda, promoting his ideas throughout Cuba.
In 1986 the United States imposed an embargo on Libya, due in part to deterioration of relations, but more directly to the bombing of a German nightclub by three Libyans. Then in 1988, Pan AM Flight 103 was bombed while flying over Lockerbie, Scotland. Two Libyans were held accountable for this act. This resulted in the United Nations imposing heavy sanctions on Libya. These sanctions restricted the trade of arms and air equipment, but more importantly, oil. Because oil accounts for ninety-five percent of Libya’s export earnings (Libya, 1), cutting off their oil supply is essentially doing the same thing an economic embargo would do. They would lose nearly one hundred percent of their export earnings. Most of their imports would be rendered useless, as the main things that they need are arms which have been banned by the UN. What happened to Libya is almost exactly the proposed plan for what is to happen to Cuba; from this, we can receive insight as to what will happen in Cuba if the plan goes into action.
Libya did not make much reform until 1999. It was at this time that they extradited the two terrorists responsible for the bombing of Pan AM Flight 103. Then, in 2004, the U.S. embargo and U.N. sanctions were lifted. This was due to the cooperation of Libya in making reparations to the families of those killed in the plane bombing, and to the government for discontinuing their plans to develop weapons of mass destruction. This would be the desired result of a worldwide embargo on Cuba. Response would not have to be immediate, though. Initially, there might even be a negative effect. But eventually they would reform their human rights policies. Even Fidel Castro would not be able to deal with the 9.25 billion dollars (Cuba, 1) that Cuba receives from imports and exports.
Synthesis
Trying to solve such a great problem as the human rights situation in Cuba is no easy task. The solution must meet a few specific requirements if it is to avoid failure. A worldwide embargo is the solution that best fits all of the requirements, and that will at the same time prove to be effective. Most importantly, an embargo is nonviolent. To engage in a military assault would be sending a mixed message; we are against human rights violations, yet want to bomb their people. It is also a plan that is agreeable by all nations of the world. Fidel Castro has persecuted most cultures of the world to some extent; no one would question a plan that could help people of their homeland.
A solution to such a vast problem must also be well thought out. Each detail must be taken care of. Like many other embargoes, this endeavor would happen in stages. This would prove to be effective because it will not hit Cuba so hard in such a short time that they feel it necessary to retaliate. It would also allow them to improve their human rights policy before they become completely economically cut off. The first products to be cut off would those that are most imperative to the Cuban economy, yet not necessary for human survival. They would most likely be things such as oil and mining supplies. “External financing has helped growth in the mining, oil, construction, and tourism sectors.”(Cuba, 1) Those countries that are imposing the embargo, however, would also benefit from the stages aspect of the embargo. Once Cuba is completely cut off, we could no longer economically benefit from them. If they still had partial access to our goods, then we would still have partial access to theirs.
After they had been mostly to completely economically disconnected from the rest of the world, Cuba would start talks with the United Nations, or another major world power. In these talks, they could decide exactly what conditions need to be met before the embargo is lifted. Cuba would need to officially declare that they are making an effort to improve their human rights policy, revise their constitution, and show physical evidence that change has been made. Similar to how it would be imposed, the embargo would be lifted in stages. As they make progress on their human rights policy, Cuba would become more and more connected to the world economy. We would allow the trade of smaller, less important goods at first, and eventually lead up to larger, more necessary goods. This would provide for a seamless transition into a healthy relationship between Cuba and the world.
Evaluation
It has become fairly evident that Cuba is in need of help when it comes to their human rights situation. It is necessary for the rest of the world to help them if they are ever going to improve. Unlike most situations in the world, this problem can not be fixed by simply intervening, and taking diplomatic or militaristic action. In essence, what we must do is help them by hurting them.
I believe that imposing an embargo on Cuba would be a good thing for them, and for the rest of the world. So often in modern times, we only help a country in need when there are ulterior motives. We may try to liberate a people, only to be searching for oil. We can try to get rid of a mad political leader to help its people, when we are actually trying to make sure we do not fall under fire from nuclear weapons. While these may be statements of opinion, one thing is a fact; if we try to help Cuba’s citizens, we will actually be helping out a country in need for the sake of helping out a country in need. We may even lose some money in the process, but Cuba will be closer to being a major world nation.
Works Cited
The Situation Of Human Rights In Cuba Seventh Report. 4 October 1983. Inter-American Commission On Human Rights. 16 April 16, 2006.
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Faria Jr., Miguel A. The Fall of Fidel Castro (Part III): The Sequel. 17 July 2001. NewsMax.com. 16 April 2006. .
Libya. 29 March 2006. The World Factbook. 16 April 16, 2006. .
Cuba. 29 March 2006. The World Factbook. 16 April 16, 2006. .
