Cuba Responds to Perpetual Blockade
When Newsweek reports on Cuba's response to President Trump's 'humanitarian threat' statements, it glosses over the crucial context of the US embargo, often referred to by Cuba as a blockade. This enduring policy, which intensified under various administrations, has crippled the island's economy, yet it is perversely rebranded as an attempt to aid the Cuban people rather than to destabilize the
Cuban government. This is not a new tactic. The economic strangulation of Cuba dates back to 1960, when Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Lester D. Mallory penned a memo stating that the US aim was to 'bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government' through denying money and supplies. Fast forward to 2017, the US Office of Foreign Assets Control still levied sanctions totaling
millions against foreign entities for doing business with Cuba, illustrating the active, continuous nature of this economic warfare, which costs Cuba an estimated $130 billion as of 2019. The double standard is glaring: a sovereign nation's right to develop its own economic and political system is continuously undermined by a superpower, while the resulting hardships are then falsely attributed to
the 'failure' of that system rather than the deliberate external pressure. What would readers not know? They wouldn't know that the very word 'embargo' (a partial restriction) is insufficient; Cuba experiences a full-blown blockade, meticulously enforced to limit its access to global trade, medicine, and critical supplies. This sustained campaign aims not at humanitarian relief, but at regime