Laura Frey
April 2009
“You can read countless pieces about crumbling Havana buildings, the lack of freedom of expression…a pervasive sense of sadness…a Cuban’s reticence to speak about political issues. Indisputably, these are real issues, but there is so much more to Cuba than this. Who are the people living inside these buildings? What do people think and what are their aspirations? Most accounts about Cuba do not do justice to the Cuban people…Cuba is portrayed as a two dimensional photograph of Fidel Castro in power…a one-party State, and a socialist economy on the brink of collapse. But Cuba is so much more than these flat descriptions: it is neither the paragon of revolutions nor is it a Siberian archipelago; it is neither heaven nor hell. Cuba is Cuba. Cuba is rich, cultured, textured, historic…complex, multifaceted, developed and, yes, partly unfathomable.” (Vigil xi)
Maria López Vigil’s description of Cuba highlights the country in a way we often overlook in the US. Since 1902, when Cuba officially became independent, there have been both positive and negative moments in the relationship between these two countries. The dark spot that remains is the economic embargo imposed by the US on Cuba after the Bay of Pigs in 1962 (BBC). The US is often quoted as stating that the embargo is meant to weaken the Communist government of Fidel Castro, which will eventually crumble under pressure, and democracy will then emerge from the ashes. After 47 years, the embargo has proven to be not only inefficient in changing the Cuban government, but also has largely contributed to an extreme lack of resources that directly impacts the Cuban people. While both the US and Cuban government continue to squabble over who is responsible for the situation, countless people, members of God’s creation, continue suffering everyday. As Christians, we cannot just sit back idly. It is time to create solidarity between peoples, to come together as God’s kingdom and work as a power under the government and change the situation of our neighbors by working for an end to the US Embargo on Cuba.
When Cuba began tying itself to the Soviet Union in the 1960’s under the newly established rule of Fidel Castro, the US imposed trade embargo was a clear Cold-War strategy (BBC). Cuba continued to receive substantial funding from the USSR, until the end of the Cold War in 1989 and the consequent collapse of the Soviet Union’s power (Vigil 4). It would seem that, given the original purpose of the embargo, it would’ve been lifted after the collapse. However, this has clearly not been the case, as the restrictions the US places on Cuba have only continued to intensify.
The Cuban Democracy Act of 1992, “prohibits foreign subsidies of US companies from trading with Cuba” (Brown), and is an example of how far-reaching the US embargo on Cuba has become. In 2003, Fidel Castro responded by banning transactions in US dollars and imposing a 10% tax on dollar-peso conversions (BBC). The back and forth responses of both governments continued in 2005, when then-US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced the continued work of the US government to “accelerate the demise” of Fidel Castro’s regime (BBC). In light of US economic ties with the extremely powerful Communist state of China, the embargo on Cuba makes even less sense and seems to be more directed at ruining Fidel Castro than the Communist State. In China, human rights have clearly taken a back-seat to trading policies, and yet there is no embargo imposed by the US government.
Throughout the constant tit-for-tat between the US and Cuban governments, one thing seems to have been forgotten: the Cuban people. Not only have the 11 million Cuban citizens been denied the human rights of freedom to assemble and freedom of speech under Communist rule, but have also been victims of an embargo that places more importance on the US opposition to communism than it does on human lives. While not all of Cuba’s human rights problems can be attributed to the embargo, it is certain that it has been ineffective in ending Communist Rule and has only been successful in making the quality of life worse for 11 million members of God’s creation.
As a Communist State, Cuba most values the basic human rights to food, shelter and healthcare, while the US, as a Democratic/Capitalistic nation, first and foremost guarantees the freedoms of speech, religion, and assembly. This is the most basic reason why the two governments have continued to collide ideologically since Castro came to power. While the US values ideological freedoms, Cuba places more importance on feeding and caring for the health of its people. The embargo has made it more difficult for Cuba to fulfill these basic needs. The embargo includes an outright ban on the sale of food, and does not allow Cuba to purchase medicine on the open market (Offredy 270). As US Senator Chris Dodd pointed out in 1999, the US embargo “denies food to hungry Cuban children…severely limits the availability of medicines and medical supplies to the Cuban people…and denies American children access to certain innovative and highly effective Cuban vaccines” (Brown). American children have been denied access to the meningitis B vaccine that Cuba developed in 1983, which is considered to be one of the most advanced in production (Brown). Until 1990, all women of the age of 35 living in Cuba received mammograms regularly, but in 1994 and 1995, the unavailability of x-ray film halted all mammograms in Havana (Brown). In 1998, a Swedish corporation was prohibited by US sanctions from selling a piece of medical equipment to Cuba because it contains a single filter that is patented by the US (Brown). These are just highlights of the countless number of situations that, in 1997, led the American Association for World Health to conclude that “the embargo has closed so many windows that in some cases Cuban physicians have found it impossible to obtain lifesaving medicines from any source, under any circumstances.” (Brown)
As Christians, our call to love all people cannot support an embargo that restricts food and medicine from some of our closest neighbors. Reverend Raul Suarez, a Cuban Baptist pastor who founded the Martin Luther King Center in Havana in 1987, once said, “Convince me. Show me the passage in the Bible that justifies policies that blockade a country, that make a people weak with hunger.” (Vigil xvii) Throughout the Cold War, and the long continued blame-game by the US and Cuban governments, the people of Cuba have been too far from our hearts. Too often the church in the US ties itself to the political ideologies of democracy, believing in God’s “blessing” of the US as a “chosen nation,” and we often forget about God’s greatest commandment, found in Romans 13:9 “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Loves does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” We are called to fulfill God’s law to love our neighbor by creating solidarity with all of God’s creation. As the Council of Cuban Bishops articulated in 1986, “The Church does not want to present itself before civil society as one power facing another, or above the social structures as a kind of high tribunal that judges and enumerates the good and the bad. The church is amidst its people as a servant and teacher of the truth and justice in life, and aims to achieve it in the search for the common good.” (Vigil 232) The church is not on the side of democracy or communism, it does not preach on the evils of Communism while idolatrizing Democracy, or vice versa. Rather, the body of the church is meant to be a people set apart to live the kingdom of God on the earth: to live for God’s creation.
What then, do Christians do about the US embargo on Cuba that continues oppressing people and affecting their quality of life? Programs such as Amnesty International and the United Nations have continually pushed for an end to the embargo, citing that it is “highly detrimental to Cubans' enjoyment of a range of economic, social and cultural rights, such as the right to food, health and sanitation – particularly affecting the weakest and most vulnerable members of the population.” (Cuba) However, the cry for an end to the embargo has continually fallen on deaf ears in Washington: in 2007, even a UN vote of 184-4 against the embargo had little to no effect on US policy concerning Cuba (Siegelbaum). It is time for Christians living in the US to remember that the US government is by the people, and we can begin working through strategies of solidarity and “power under” the government to work for change.
Groups such as the American Friends Service Committee, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church, United Church of Christ and United States Catholic Conference have all been vocal in the need for the end of the embargo in Cuba and the establishment of normal relations between the countries (Vigil 304). The United Church of Christ, for example, specifically has petitioned Congress to rescind the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992, and, “encourages…members…to…undertake travel to Cuba to visit church groups and to seek knowledge, understanding and friendship with our neighbors to the South” (Vigil 304). Christians in both the US and in Cuba can work to create solidarity between people in their respective nations, opening communication about problems and ideas about ways to work for a peaceful end to the embargo. María López Vigil cautions that, “such solidarity, if it is genuine, must begin with a lifting of the US blockade…it must be based, above all, on a profound respect for the dignity and sovereignty of the Cuban people” (xxi).
For the last 50 years, US foreign policy towards Cuba has been trying to demonstrate to the world that communism cannot work, while doing everything in its power to insure it does not by imposing an unjust, inhumane economic embargo. Not only has the embargo been ineffective in ending communist rule in Cuba, but also has worsened the quality of life for the Cuban people. As Christians, we can no longer stand by silently in feigned indifference as a nation we are citizens of unjustly oppresses our neighbor. As eternal citizens of God’s kingdom, we are called to live with our neighbor on this earth, and the first step to creating solidarity with our Cuban neighbors means lifting the embargo. As María López Vigil says, “We don’t want a martyred Cuba, a Cuba resisting until death. We want a living Cuba, demonstrating its capacity to live.” (97) It’s time to end the embargo and let our neighbors live.
Works Cited
"BBC NEWS | Americas | Timeline: US-Cuba relations." BBC NEWS | News Front Page. 31 Dec. 2008. BBC. 28 Mar. 2009 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/3182150.stm>.
Brown, Brian. "Strangling Cuba." Commonweal 126 (1999). Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Bluffton University, Bluffton.
"Cuba: Submission to the UN Universal Periodic Review: Fourth session of the UPR Working Group of the Human Rights Council, February 2009." Cuba: Submission to the UN Universal Periodic Review: Fourth session of the UPR Working Group of the Human Rights Council, February 2009. 8 Sept. 2008. Amnesty International. 28 Mar. 2009 <http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR25/002/2008/en>.
"New Cuban leadership can improve human rights | Amnesty International." Amnesty International | Working to Protect Human Rights. 19 Feb. 2008. Amnesty International. 28 Mar. 2009 <http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/new-cuban-leadership-can-improve-human-rights-20080219>.
Offredy, Maxine. "The health of a nation: perspectives from Cuba's national health system." Quality in Primary Care (2008): 269-77. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Bluffton University, Bluffton.
Siegelbaum, Portia. "U.N. Condemns U.S. Embargo Of Cuba - CBS News." CBS News - Breaking News Headlines: Business, Entertainment & World News. 29 Oct. 2008. CBS News. 28 Mar. 2009 <http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/29/world/main4556348.shtml>.
Vigil, María L. Cuba: Neither Heaven nor Hell. Washington, DC: Ecumenical Program on Central America and the Caribbean, 1999.
