Whats Going On With Cuba and the U.S. And Why You Should Care

What's Going On With Cuba and the U.S. And Why You Should Care http://armengol.blogspot.com As of December 17, the New York Times released an article declaring that the U.S. was to reestablish its ties with Cuba, and soon disregard the outdated trade embargo that has been imposed on the island since 1960, initially under the Eisenhower administration. We will end an outdated approach that for decades has failed to advance our interests, and instead we will begin to normalize relations between our two countries, President Obama said in the article. He also stated, I do not believe we can keep doing the same thing for over five decades and expect a different result. For people who were not around until much later, such as college students, making sense of this may be confusing, or even an afterthought. Its important though, to recognize what this means not only for these two governments, but also for those American citizens who have family on the island, and vice versa. In order to better understand what this recent news really means, heres a very brief breakdown of the history of Cuban relations with the U.S.: The US and Cuba have had a complicated relationship since the Cuban revolution (1953-1959). The revolution served as an armed rebellion against the Cuban government, a dictatorship that had been ruled by Cubas then president, Fulgencio Batista. http://www.telegraph.co.uk Led by Fidel Castro, who eventually served as both Prime Minister and President of Cuba, the revolt finally ousted Batista on January 1, 1959, and replaced his government with a revolutionary socialist state run by Fidel Castro. However, what initially started out as a socialist state began to follow along communist lines and eventually developed into the communist party in 1965. The communist party, now led by Fidel Castros brother, Raúl, still governs Cuba today. This revolution had many national and international implications and consequences, which especially affected Cubas future relationship with the U.S. A U.S. arms embargo, meaning an official ban on trade or other commercial activity, was officially enforced by the Eisenhower administration in 1958 because of the conflict the revolution was creating and in 1960, as a result of the embargo, the Cuban government began to purchase arms from the Soviet Union, another communist state. http://cigarandspirits.com In response, a private American oil refinery in Cuba refused to refine a shipment of Soviet oil, prompting the Cuban government to nationalize (take into public, governmental ownership) all Cuban refineries, which were American-owned. This caused the Eisenhower administration to launch the first trade embargo with Cuba. The Kennedy administration then further extended measures in 1962, including an embargo on all imports of products containing Cuban goods. The embargo also made it illegal for U.S. citizens to make financial transactions in Cuba, therefore making it nearly impossible to travel to the island. This embargo has been the source of the loss of billions of dollars of economic damages to Cuba, including the loss of earnings from tourism, and it has been the source of harmful social effects, including the loss of medicinal products and other goods necessary for the health sector. http://cigarandspirits.com Skeptical discussion on the effectiveness of the embargo has taken place since President Obama has been in office, but nothing was ever officially decided. This is why the news on December 17 was such a big deal. According to the article, President Obama ordered the restoration of full diplomatic relations with Cuba and the opening of an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than a half-century, as he vowed to cut loose the shackles of the past and sweep aside one of the last vestiges of the Cold War. As a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, I was able to participate in my schools first study abroad trip to Cuba this past summer, which was possible due to the laws of recent decades allowing students, as well as certain mission workers, to obtain visas. https://redaccion.lamula.pe In my travels to Havana, the islands capital, as well as other cities such as Santa Clara, Santiago de Cuba, and Cienfuegos, it was a powerful sight to see how much less the people really have as a result of their government, and their cut ties to our country. I experienced extreme culture shock coming from a heavily capitalist society to a place where everything is so much simpler. The embargo has resulted in numerous negative consequences for the island, both economic and social, and an end to it would not bring about immediate change and reform, but its a start in the right direction. These past 50 years have shown that isolation has not worked. Its time for a new approach, Mr. Obama said.