BLOCKADE OF CUBA

Blockade of Cuba

Blockade of Cuba

There is a long history of hostile relationship between America and Cuba since Castro's illegal accession to the presidential palace in Havana in 1959. The Cuban Missile Crises at the height of the Cold War further intensified the tensions between the two nations and there have been good many examples when America has provoked sanctions on Cuba to gain political influence (McGillion, 2007).

At the same time, Cuba's ability to challenge U.S. regional interests had waned considerably. Latin America had managed temporarily to ride out the debt crisis of the early 1980s without a political explosion and to contain the social costs of austerity measures and economic restructuring demanded by the United States, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and other external creditors in return for new aid packages and lines of credit. By the end of the decade, Washington arguably never had an alignment of regimes so favorable to its economic agenda or so desirous of establishing stronger links with the region's hegemonic power - an outcome it could certainly take some credit for bringing about (McGillion, 2007).

Inside Cuba, the impact of the Bush statement on those pushing for reforms promised to be no less counterproductive. It threatened the limited political space that had opened up for dissidents and human rights organizations, leaving them with no room to maneuver. Many dissidents had been urging the United States to lift the embargo and tone down the level of its anti-Castro rhetoric on the grounds that such a move would create space in which a political opposition could develop. Ricardo Alvarez San Pedro of the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation explained the internal dynamic: “The formula is simple.

When we have a more rigid economic and social [situation], the government tries to maintain ...