During the past several months, some prominent Americans have visited the shores of Cuba, including Jimmy Carter, Jesse Ventura and just last week, Steven Spielberg.
I have been surprised by the angry responses these visits have provoked from a small, yet vocal minority of Americans. Even in Madison, another campus paper published an opinion piece last month that lambasted Americans for even suggesting we normalize relations with Cuba.
Two weeks ago, I returned from spending 10 days in Havana with a human rights delegation and after my trip I became more certain that the United States must end its embargo against Cuba.
The Bush administration would have you believe the island nation is a communist hell full of starving children, poverty and oppression. However, I experienced a very different Cuba. Unlike nearly all developing countries, there are virtually no homeless people and no children skipping school to beg. There is little violent crime and, at 98 percent, the literacy rate is the highest in Latin America.
Like any country, Cuba does indeed have its problems. However, many of these problems are due to the 40-year-old economic blockade the United States has instituted against the nation. And instead of letting the embargo die a death along with the Cold War, our government has continually reinforced it. The Helms Burton Act of 1996 banned food and medicine sales to Cuba, not only by U.S. companies but also by foreign companies selling medicine or equipment with the United States.
Due to this embargo, Cubans lack basic medical, food and even school supplies. While Cuba once had a public health system extolled by the World Health Organization as a \model for the world,"" it is now suffering due to dangerous shortages of medical supplies. Due to the blockade, many drugs for cancer, diabetes and asthma are available only periodically. In fact, the embargo prevents Cuba from purchasing nearly one half of the new drugs on the market.
The United States is waging this embargo not against Castro, but against ordinary Cubans. The American Association of World Health led a delegation to a Cuban pediatric ward that had been without nausea-preventing drugs normally used in chemotherapy for almost a month. The 35 children in the ward were vomiting an average of 29 times a day.
The outright ban on sales of American foodstuffs contributes to serious nutritional deficiencies, especially in pregnant women who then give birth to underweight babies.
Even for a cold, heartless American who is only concerned with U.S. interests, there are still compelling reasons to end the embargo. The United States could benefit by selling its products to the country of over 11 million people. The Washington-based Cuba Policy Foundation estimated that U.S. farmers lose an estimated $1.24 billion annually because of sanctions against Cuba. Living in Wisconsin, we all know America's farmers need all the help they can get.
Not only does the embargo hurt American business interests; the travel ban violates Americans constitutional and international rights. Under the Helsinki Agreements of 1975, the U.S. is committed to the free flow of people and ideas across national frontiers. Also, the travel ban violates Article 12 of the United Nations International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, and Article 13 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
Our government has ignored these reasons to end the embargo for several reasons, the first stemming from a supposed respect for human rights. This excuse is laughable. True, Cuba does violate some of its citizen's rights. However, human rights organizations have never accused Cuba of the kinds of genocide, torture and abuse of women and minority groups that go on in countries with which the U.S. has perfectly normal relations.
Over the past 20 years our government has ignored, even supported regimes in places such as Chile and Guatemala that have murdered and ""disappeared"" thousands. More recently, the United States has ignored abuses in countries such as China because it serves its economic interests. The Taliban's horrendous treatment of women did not stop the United States from doing business in Afghanistan prior to Sept. 11.
The United States also uses the outdated excuse that it cannot trade with a communist nation. Yet China, the largest communist country, has been granted ""most favored nation"" status. The embargo against Vietnam has even been lifted.
The Bush administration now claims Cuba is a terrorist nation. However, many security experts disagree. A Center for Defense Information study notes that in one year Cuba spends on its military what the United States spends in 12 hours. Not to mention that the Cuban government immediately condemned the attacks of Sept. 11, expressed solidarity with the American people and offered assistance such as blood donations, medical personnel and the use of its air bases.
Regardless of whether or not Americans think the original embargo was justified, it is clear that in a post-Cold War world, there is no reason for the embargo to exist. It is an inhumane, indiscriminate blockade that hurts the entire Cuban population by denying them access to food and life-saving medical supplies and has been condemned by the United Nations for the last 10 years. All the embargo is doing is hurting Cubans and isolating the United States at a time when it needs to be building international support.
