Sanctions as Act of War: Havana's Empty Skies
THE CLAIM: A major news outlet attributes Cuba's fuel shortage and grounded flights to 'Trump administration pressure' tightening oil supplies during the peak tourist season. THE EVIDENCE: The current 'pressure' is not novel. The US embargo against Cuba dates to 1960, formalized in 1962, following Cuba's nationalization of US-owned properties. Its stated goal, as detailed in a declassified State
Department memo from April 6, 1960, was 'to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation, and overthrow of government.' (Lester D. Mallory, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs). This objective has been consistently pursued through various administrations via mechanisms like the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992 and the Helms-Burton Act of 1996, which
codified the embargo into law, making its lifting conditional on fundamental changes to Cuba's political system. The Trump administration's actions, including restricting remittances and increasing enforcement of existing sanctions, intensified this framework, particularly targeting shipping companies involved in transporting oil to Cuba. THE CONTRADICTIONS: The framing of 'pressure' as distinct
from a 'blockade' is a semantic obfuscation. A blockade, under international law, typically refers to naval operations, which are not currently in place. However, the extraterritorial application of US law, penalizing third-country entities for engaging in commerce with Cuba, functions as an economic embargo with similar coercive effects. For instance, in 2019, the U.S. sanctioned Cuba’s state oil