Under such leaders as Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, among others, the Cuban Revolution burst onto the international scene on January 1, 1959, -- overthrowing the U.S.-supported dictator Fulgencio Batista -- with a commitment to feed, clothe, house, educate, employ and provide health care for its entire population, a formerly unrealizable dream.

History

• The one component of the Cuban strategy that immediately put them at odds with the United States was land reform. During the 1800's and early 1900's, U.S. companies and individuals had bought up large amounts of Cuban land, under regimes friendly to U.S. interests. The majority of the Cuban people had little or no say in this process. In 1959 75% of Cuban land was controlled by non-Cubans.

• The Cuban revolutionary government began to nationalize U.S. property (with an offer of compensation which was rejected.) The U.S., in retaliation, initiated the embargo.

• When the Soviet Union offered to become Cuba's new supporter, and preferential trading partner, Cuba agreed, thus setting the stage for four decades of enmity and confrontation between the U.S. and Cuba.

• In 1989, when the Soviet bloc began to disintegrate, the U.S. moved to normalize relations with all the communist and formerly communist countries. China, the largest communist country, was granted "most favored nation" status. The embargo was even lifted against Vietnam, with whom we had fought a brutal war in which millions perished.

• But during this time of normalizing relations, the embargo against Cuba has been strengthened, first with the Cuba Democracy Act of 1992 which deprived Cuba of the right to trade with U.S. subsidiaries (at the time, $700 million worth of trade); then with the Helms Burton Act of 1996, which codified the embargo and deprived the President of any discretionary power to end any aspect of the embargo.

• Whereas formerly, the U.S. justified the embargo on the basis of Cuba's alliance with the Soviet bloc and support for armed revolution in Latin American and Africa (none of which pertains today), now the U.S calls for the complete overthrow of Cuba's (elected) government prior to any negotiation toward a normalization of relations.

• The U.S. now rationalizes the embargo by claiming that Cuba is the most egregious violator of human rights in this hemisphere. Respected human rights organizations, however, have never accused Cuba of the kinds of genocide, torture, disappearances, maltreatment of children, women and minority religious/ethnic groups, that go on routinely in countries all over the world with which the U.S. has perfectly normal, even preferential, relations.

• Is Cuba a threat to U.S. national security? A Center for Defense Information study notes that Cuba spends in one year on its military what the U.S. spends in 12 hours.

Achievements of the Cuban Revolution

	1959	1999	Rank in Latin America
Life expectancy	60 yrs	76 yrs	#1
Infant mortality rate	64/1000	7.5/1000	#1
Literacy	62%	98%	#1
Number of Doctors	3,000	65,000 (1/200)	#1

Cuban Americans

• Until recently the only voice speaking for the large (one million) Cuban American immigrant population was the ultra conservative Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), which has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the coffers of politicians willing to support legislation in support of the embargo. The day Senator Jesse Helms addressed a luncheon vowing to sponsor the Helms Burton Act, he received a $75.000 donation. President Clinton received an initial $300,000 for supporting the Cuba Democracy Act of 1992. CANF has also been accused of illegally working within the U.S. to assassinate Fidel Castro and otherwise sabotage Cuban enterprises.

• Today there are increasing numbers of more moderate voices in the Cuban American community, lobbying for an end to the embargo, although many fear for their lives and property due to the aggressive tactics often employed by their right wing opponents. See Cuban American Alliance Education Fund.

Food and Medicine

• Through their state-supported agricultural system and ration program for basic nutrients, Cuba had become the first underdeveloped country in the world to totally wipe out hunger and malnutrition.

• Cuba's public health system, with its comprehensive family doctor program and tertiary care facilities that deliver services on a part with the developed world, had been recommended as a "model for the world" by the World Health Organization.

• Cuba had wiped out the infectious disease and epidemics that plague other developing countries. Cubans now suffer and die from the exact same diseases that afflict persons of the developed world -- primarily heart disease and cancer.

• Now because of the dissolution of the Soviet bloc, internal inefficiencies and mostly, the tightening of the U.S. embargo, Cuba's amazing progress in the provision of food and medicine to her people, is compromised.

• The U.S embargo is unusually harsh because it includes a ban on sales of food and medicine to Cuba, not only by U.S. companies, but by foreign companies selling medicines or equipment with U.S. components.

• According to the American Association for World Health and the American Public Health Association, the embargo has caused a significant deterioration in Cuba's food production and health care sectors including the following problems:

• The embargo effectively bans Cuba from purchasing nearly one half of the new world class drugs on the market.

• Of the 1,300 medications available in Cuba in 1991, physicians now have access to only 890, and many of these, including drugs for cancer, diabetes, heart disease and asthma, are available only intermittently.

• The deterioration of Cuba's water supply has led to a rising incidence of water borne diseases such as typhoid fever, dysentery and viral hepatitis.

• The outright ban on the sale of American food- stuffs has contributed to serious nutritional deficits, particularly among pregnant women, leading to an increase in low birth weight babies.

• Daily caloric intake dropped 33 percent between 1989 and 1993.

• Food shortages were linked to a devastating out- break of neuropathy in 1993-94 affecting the tens of thousands, leaving 200 people permanently blind.

Travel to Cuba

• The United States, in violation of its own constitution and international law, maintains travel restrictions against Cuba which prohibit U.S. citizens from spending money in Cuba in connection with travel, even for socially responsible and educational purposes, without a special license. Penalties for violating the restrictions include hefty fines and a long prison term.

• The Freedom to Travel Campaign, a coalition of some fifty organizations across the U.S., has challenged the Administration on this policy, even bringing a lawsuit against the policy. The Campaign accuses the U.S. of interfering with the first amendment rights of U.S. citizens (freedom of speech and association) and with the right "to know."

• The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in the Treasury Department is accused of administering the travel regulations in an arbitrary and discriminatory fashion. OFAC has attempted to bring legal action against U.S. internationalist organizations such as Global Exchange and Pastors for Peace, for organizing travel to Cuba for educational and humanitarian purposes.

Sustainable Development

• Because the embargo hampers their ability to purchase agricultural inputs, pharmaceuticals and advanced technology for energy and industrial production, and because they have educated 35,000 scientists who research and develop alternative technologies in over 200 scientific institutes, Cuba has made some remarkable progress this decade in the area of sustainable development.

• Cuba's Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment has said, "One day we may build a monument to this 'special period' because it has forced us to find more sustainable and more truly Cuban methods to meet our food, medicine and energy needs."

• Cuba is engaged in the most massive conversion from chemical to organic agriculture any nation has yet attempted.

• Cuba could meet ALL of its electricity needs utilizing biomass conversion of the waste products from the sugar cane harvest if it had access to a more sophisticated technology. Currently the 160 sugar mills produce all their own electricity by such methods and Cuba has received a UN grant for a pilot study on expanding electricity production.

• CubaSolar, an NGO of 400 scientists, has installed solar panels on over 300 family doctor clinics in remote mountainous regions. One village, Magdalena, is entirely powered by solar energy.

• Cuba allows its doctors to get advanced certification in natural and alternative medicine and has identified 60 indigenous herbs with proven medicinal value. In the last decade it has opened natural medicine clinics in every major city specializing in herbal treatments, acupuncture, homeopathy and mind-body medicine.

Recommendations

The U.S. embargo against Cuba is cruel, anachronistic and counterproductive of stated U.S. foreign policy goals. Two steps should be taken immediately to end it:

• Restrictions on the sale and shipping of food and agricultural supplies and of medicines and medical equipment, should be lifted. In the current Congress, legislation to this effect is being introduced by Representatives Rangel (D-NY), Serrano (D-NY) and Leach (R-IA), as well as Senators Dodd (D-CT) and Warner (R-VA).

• All restrictions on the rights of U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba for educational purposes should be lifted. Legislation to this effect has been introduced by Representative Serrano (D-NY).

• President Clinton should actively work with Congress to pass these bills this year.