Harry Lam
Journal Contributor
It has been over 50 years since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 led by Fidel Castro and Argentine revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara.
Immediately after the triumph, relations soured between Cuba and the U.S., leading to the U.S. backed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 that almost led to nuclear war, and the U.S. blockade, which still effects the Cuban people today.
The revolutionary Cuban government has done something that many other countries in the world have failed to do- survive constant economic, political and military harassment from the U.S. government and the exiled Cuban community.
Only three years after the revolutionary government came into power, the Cuban people suffered an economic, financial and commercial blockade put up by the U.S. in 1960 after the government nationalized U.S. property. Rita Olga Martinéz, a member of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the People of the World (ICAP), claimed “the sole purpose of the blockade is to topple and isolate the revolutionary government and the Cuban people by focusing on health care, education, and food supply.”
This instead had a reverse effect and increased support for the revolution since the government was still able to provide these things under such difficult economic conditions.
This was only possible at a very high price. Jose Ramon Morales, an agriculture expert in Havana, stated that Cuban researchers have estimated the damages to the Cuban economy from the U.S. blockade at about $200 billion and that it has “impeded about 15 years of development for the Cuban economy.” However, a recent annual report done by the Cuban Government claims the damages to total $751 billion.
Juan Jose Paretas Fernandez, another agricultural expert, noted that the next five years will “stop between $120 – $150 million in agricultural trade between the U.S. and Cuba, which greatly affects Cuban consumers and U.S. agriculturists.” He also noted how the Bush Administration forced researchers from the University of Georgia to stop in the cooperative development of cattle grazing grass with Cuban agricultural experts like Juan.
Aside from agricultural development and trade, the blockade also hurts medical trade for the U.S. According to a report by The Council of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affaris, Cuba has produced over four hundred patents in the biotech field and has created a variety of medical products such as vaccines, cancer and heart attack therapy drugs, and blood derivatives. Cuba exports many of these products to over twenty different countries aside from the U.S.
Like the Western media, many U.S. politicians and critics argue Cuba’s revolutionary government and its ideas are undemocratic and inhumane. If one were to look beyond mere Western propaganda, quite the contrary would be found. Cuba and its government respect the most basic human rights by guaranteeing its people free access to education, health care, shelter and food. One has to imagine what Cuba could have accomplished had it been able to economically develop in a normal political and economical environment for the last 50 years.
