Now however, as we approach the millennium, the political situation has entirely changed. The Cold War has been over for ten years; the Soviet Union no longer exists, the U.S. has normal trade and diplomatic relations with all the countries of the former Eastern bloc, and in fact, has granted the largest Communist country, China, its Most Favored Nation status.

Struggling with its own economic problems, Cuba no longer has the capacity to support armed revolution abroad. In fact, according to one Center for Defense Information Study, Cuba spends on its military in one year what the U.S. spends in ten hours. Yet, with two successive acts of Congress, the Cuba Democracy Act of 1992 and the Helms Burton Act of 1996, both signed into law by President Clinton, the U.S. has tightened the blockade against Cuba.

While politicians persist with failed policies, the lives of people in Cuba are made increasingly difficult and U.S. citizens are denied the opportunity to study first hand one of the only models of alternative economic development in the hemisphere.

In each of the last seven years, the United Nations has condemned the U.S. blockade of Cuba, most recently by a vote of 157-2. In addition, major human rights organizations, including those inside Cuba, call for an end to the blockade. Clearly, a U.S. policy that encourages dialogue with Cuba, at both governmental and grassroots levels, is long overdue. And yet, in defiance of any sense of reason or proportion, the U.S. blockade of Cuba is continually reinforced, tightened and codified.