Cuba
It has been over sixty-five years since Fidel Castro entered the scene and almost a decade since he died. His brother Raúl stepped down as head of Cuba’s Communist Party and is now in retirement. Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, is the first non-Castro leader of Cuba since the revolution. Things have changed, and it is finally time for the never-ending, unnecessary drama between our two countries to end.
The United States should lift the misguided, antiquated U.S. trade embargo against Cuba – in its entirety – at once. The steps taken by the Obama administration to restore diplomatic ties between the two countries was a necessary first step, but even those actions did not go far enough.
Although President Obama’s new rules allowed certain American businesses to trade with Cuba, the embargo continued to ban most Cuban exports, prohibit American tourism, and make banking almost impossible. This paradox creates confusion and makes potential investors uneasy.
In his first administration, Donald Trump erased even those minor concessions, restoring travel restrictions on Americans and re-instituting constraints on U.S. investments and commercial dealings in the country. He also limited the amount of money that Cuban Americans can send back to Cuba; established even stricter travel restrictions on U.S. citizens; and sanctioned government officials who allowed medical professionals to work abroad.
For decades, Cuba has sent doctors to other countries as good-will ambassadors, as well as to make money. Even though the number of these professionals has fallen by over half in the past ten years, there are still roughly 24,000 of them working in over fifty countries– including as many as 1,500 of them working in the Caribbean.
Now, in his second administration, Donald Trump is picking up right where he left off, but worse. Secretary of State Marco Rubio – the son of Cuban migrants who fled the island before Fidel Castro’s revolution seized power – has characterized the work of the Cuban doctors abroad as “forced labor,” and said that any Cuban officials involved in the medical program will have their visas to the United States revoked. This time, the policy not only affects the officials but their families as well. It also puts pressure on Caricom, a group of twenty-one countries (fifteen member states and six associate members) in the Caribbean.
This official reasoning makes ZERO sense. The Cuban government does, in fact, take a cut of what the medical professionals make from other governments, but their take-home pay is considerably more than it would be back in Cuba. Beyond that, Caribbean countries need this medical help desperately. … to the point where some Caribbean leaders have said they would forgo their U.S. visas if it came to that. Prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves is one: “I would prefer to lose my visa than to have sixty poor and working people die.”
This makes us look like total jerks.
THE CUBAN EMBARGO SHOULD BE LIFTED FOR AT LEAST FOUR REASONS:
IT IS AN IMPORTANT ECONOMIC MOVE FOR AMERICA.
Even with the trade embargo in place, in 2024 U.S. total goods trade with Cuba were an estimated $591.4 million. U.S. goods exports to Cuba in 2024 were $586.5 million, up 45 percent from 2023. U.S. goods imports from Cuba in 2024 totaled $4.9 million, up 19 percent from 2023. The U.S. goods trade surplus with Cuba was $581.6 million in 2024, a 45.4 percent increase over 2023.
IT WILL VASTLY IMPROVE THE LIVES OF THE CUBAN PEOPLE.
In January 2025, right before he left office, President Biden removed Cuba from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, continuing the tradition of schizophrenic U.S. Cuba policy (President Obama removed Cuba from the list, then President Trump put them back on right before he left office in 2021). Without Cuba, the list consists of North Korea, Iran and Syria.
One of the reasons the Biden administration gave for removing Cuba from the list was to help its battered economy – which many blame for causing Cuba’s dire financial condition that has sparked a humanitarian and migration crisis – because being on the list makes it difficult, if not impossible, to get aid and/or do business with the United States. However, this reasoning makes little sense because Cuba is forced to contend with the U.S. trade embargo either way.
< As for sponsoring terrorism, in 2021 the U.S. Embassy in Cuba said that “for decades, the Cuban government has fed, housed, and provided medical care for murderers, bombmakers, and hijackers, while many Cubans go hungry, homeless, and without basic medicine.” Cuba also “harbors several U.S. fugitives from justice wanted on or convicted of charges of political violence” and “assists Nicholas Maduro to maintain his stranglehold over his people while allowing terrorist organizations to operate.” >
With or without Cuba being on “the list,” America must support the Cuban people in their desire for a democratic government and respect for human rights – encouraging more private enterprise and greater cultural freedom – and, realistically, the only way to truly help them do this is to address the trade embargo directly.
Some people say that easing U.S. sanctions won’t help, pointing to the fact that little changed within the Cuban government when President Obama tried a similar approach, but that’s apples and oranges. Like we said before, Obama’s new rules left too many restrictions in place.
We need to do this asap because the Cuban people are hurting more than ever… not to mention fed-up. Cuba is in its worst economic crisis in decades. There are constantly blackouts, and shortages of everything from medicine to food to soap and toothpaste. Meanwhile, companies run by Cuba’s military have secretly horded billions of dollars.
IT IS AN INCONSISTENT POLICY.
The U.S. trade embargo was enacted, in part, to take a hard stand against a repressive regime. However, it’s ridiculous to still link this embargo to human rights when we have no problem doing business with China, which is way more authoritarian and repressive than Cuba. And remember, the Castros are GONE.
THE EMBARGO HAS NOT WORKED.
Instead of the sanctions punishing the Cuban government and forcing them into submission, the embargo has served as their scapegoat for all of Cuba’s economic hardships and as a way for them to further repress the people of Cuba.
We need to get with the program, America. Fast.