HISTORY

Colonial-spanish time
Slavery was introduced to Cuba by the Spanish during the early 16th century. African
slaves were brought to the island to work on sugar plantations, which became the backbone of
the Cuban economy. The brutal conditions of slavery led to various slave rebellions and
uprisings throughout the colonial period.

US’ meddling
In 1898, the Spanish-American War resulted in Spain ceding control of Cuba to the
United States. A new constitution was written stating that the US have the right to invade the
country for pretty much any reason that they wanted. The U.S. then appointed one yes-man after
another, ensuring that Cuba was less of a country and more like a couple of American companies
in a trench coat. Platt Amendment (1903) | National Archives

Foreign U.S owned companies even began selling Cuban land to Americans. the US “leash” the
guantanamo bay Naval base from Cuba with no say from the Cuban people. Until this day, the Cuban
government has repeatedly requested the Americans to stop violating human sovereignty and leave.

From then on, Cuba was no more than an Uncle Sam's military base populated by bars,
casinos, brothels and a majority illiterate peasant population under the thumb of the US-backed
dictatorship for a wealthy white American tourist. In 1950, Unemployment was constantly at
25% or more. The poorest 20% of Cubans only received 2% of the national income. And the
government was pretty happy to torture/murder anyone who lamented this situation.
“..as Castro's revolutionary threat became progressively more potent... the Batista regime sought to counter
it with a campaign of terror. As regime-inspired terrorism mounted, anti-Batista groups engaged in counter
terrorism against regime supporters and by mid-1958 killings had become widespread and general
throughout the[...] the large-scale campaigns of murders and terrorism characteristic of the last years of
the Batista regime have not occurred during the Castro regime.” CIA. (1965, declassified 2005). Political
Murders in Cuba: Batista Era Compared With Castro Regime

Baptiste predictably wasn’t very popular. In 1956, 84 guys landed a boat on the coast,with 20
survived and among them Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Rampant poverty and widespread
hatred of the regime make it very easy for them to recruit. And so they eventually grew to an
actual army and overthrew the government in 1959.
Beefing with america and so much more
With the fall of America's dictator within Cuba a new era began. The Cuban
Revolutionary government nationalized industries. This included reclaiming Cuban soil and
assets from American control, effectively putting them back into Cuban hands. This makes the
USA very mad because this was the height of the cold war and THAT’S COMMUNISM. And so
Cuba – a small island nation – became the USA’s – a global superpower – official boogeyman.

🦅🦅🦅🦅
Which is kinda bad for Cuba because the US is a thousand times bigger and they’re literally 90
miles apart. And to show their commitment to democracy (FREEDOM RAHHHH ),
the US tried to invade Cuba in the Bays of Pigs invasion, put an embargo on them, which is still
active today (more on that later) and sponsored acts of terrorism to frame them (Ex: Operation
Northwoods). Couple that with America putting their missiles in Turkey and Italy, which
ultimately led to the whole Cuban missile crisis thing where everyone thought the world was
going out with a bang. Although tension remains (even though it should be), things calm down a
little bit relative to what having the US breathing down their necks.

Cuba sought closer ties with the USSR and the socialist bloc, and they were able to
implement a bunch of social programs like universal healthcare (Cultivating next generation of
healthcare leaders in Havana) , free public education at all levels that which ultimately raise
literacy rate to 96% – one of the highest in the world (Education in Cuba) and near guaranteed
housing among other things. In the 70s and 80s, things were going good, not a utopia or
anything, just relatively good compared to what they had before the revolution and the people
were generally optimistic. During this period, Cuba had the resources and the political will to
allow it to project power as far away as in Africa, where it intervened militarily against apartheid
South Africa in the Namibian War of independence and the Angolan Civil War.

The 90s until today

Then in the early 90s, things crashed down as the USSR and most of the socialist bloc
fell. Suddenly, Cuba lost most of its international trade and support, resulting in an economic
crisis known as the special period. Thanks to the US embargo, Cuba didn’t have many other
option to recover economically at the time and its Carribean location, cultural capital and the
allure of its unique society, all make tourism the obvious solution. By the mid late 90s, Cuba had
managed to recover. Since then the tourist industry has only gotten even more important.

Some big things have happened in the meantime, such as improving relations with the US
under president Obama, which later was completely destroyed under Trump with no changes
having been made since then. The death of Fidel Castro, the passing of a new constitution and
the appointment of a president whose last name isn’t Castrro. And most recently, Cuba became
the first Latin American country to mark LGBT History Month and passed one of the most
progressive Family Codes in the entire world.
Prior to the revolution, homosexuality was stigmatized and criminalized in Cuba, reflecting the prevailing
attitudes of the time. Unfortunately, the revolutionary government under Fidel Castro continued this stance
which resulted in a lot of suffering. However, Cuba's stance on LGBT rights has evolved to the point where
it has become a symbol of progress within the Latin American context. In 2010, Fidel Castro himself
admitted that the persecution of homosexuals in the early years of the revolution was a mistake: “If anyone
is responsible, it's me.” - Fidel Castro. (2010). I am responsible for the persecution of homosexuals that
took place in Cuba: Fidel Castro.

THE EMBARGO
Perhaps one of the most detrimental aspects of the cold war brought to Cuba was
the embargo. The embargo intent was stated clearly “it follows that every possible means
should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba. If such a policy is adopted,
it should be the result of a positive decision which would call forth a line of action which, while
as adroit and inconspicuous as possible, makes the greatest inroads in denying money and
supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and
overthrow of government.” - Lester D. Mallory. (1960). 499. Memorandum From the Deputy
Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Mallory) to the Assistant Secretary of
State for Inter-American Affairs (Rubottom)

But the embargo can’t be that bad right? It only impedes trades with the US and it’s also exempt
from medicine and food. It’s not that simple.
1. In order to safely trade with Cuba, a company literally has to have no assets in the USA
because otherwise they would be at risk of freezing for breaking the embargo. They also
punished the parent company of the subsidiaries if they traded with Cuba.
⇒ Let’s say you’re a big company, and you have to choose between access to the US – the
world's biggest economy and financial hub or Cuba – a tiny little island nation. You would
obviously choose America
2. Cargo traffic to/from Cuba can’t go to the USA for 6 months.
⇒ Cuba can’t even secure transport for its trade because most shipping companies would
choose America since both countries are right next to each other.
3. Let’s say your company doesn’t do business with the US at all. Companies with no US
link are still targeted. To try to discourage trade with Cuba as much as possible,
executives are banned from entering the USA and any assets that they have there are
seized.
⇒ if you’re a businessman, not being able to enter the world’s global and financial business hub
is a big deal.
4. On paper, the food and medical exemption are designed to be as unclear as possible in
order to create legal uncertainty.
⇒ In practice, shipping food and medicine to Cuba is so prohibitively difficult that most
companies don’t even bother to try jumping through all those loops. (The Cuban Embargo under
International Law: El Bloqueo 121)

It is designed to leverage the USA's dominant global economic position to disencourage

as much trade around the world as possible and to punish anyone who dares to even try.
The blockade causes Cuba $15 million worth of losses every day (The constant
pandemic/hurricane of the blockade on Cuba - Report in advance of UN vote).

because Cuba is prevented from importing enough fuel, plants that generate electricity
frequently have to shut down. Since Cuba is prohibited from purchasing spare parts,
when equipment at these plants break it can be next to impossible to fix. The same goes
for modern agricultural machinery. Storms like Hurricane Ian, intensifying because of
 climate change, often cause major damage to crops – which cannot be replaced with
imports due to the blockade.

The point of the Cuban embargo is simply to make the Cuban people suffer and as long as the US
maintains it, it has no claim in caring about them at all. “The [calling for an end to the U.S.
economic embargo on Cuba] was approved by 185 countries and opposed only by the United
States and Israel... It was the 30th time the United Nations has voted to end the embargo”
-Reuters. (2022). Cuba and U.S. spar over U.N. resolution calling to end embargo.

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There is a second currency that is pegged to the dollar

28% unemployed by the state