Embargo on Cuba
We do not wish to write a history, but the most talked-about and longest-lasting embargo of all time is a response by the United States to the expropriations carried out by the government of the so-called Cuban Revolution—expropriations of U.S. citizens’ properties in Cuba without compensation and conducted with despotic and brutal diplomacy (those who wish to go into detail should refer to the history of the embargo).
We oppose lifting the embargo; this position is not about going along with trends, pageantry, or the whims of any particular interest. Maintaining the embargo protects the Cuban people from becoming cheap labor for foreign capital, where their work would be paid to the oppressive regime in dollars while workers are paid in pesos, and the dollars would only serve to strengthen the repressive machinery, benefit a small clique, and enrich others, while Cubans would continue to be deprived of their most basic needs and rights as human beings. Opposing the lifting of the embargo means not rewarding the regime with a victory for holding records in human-rights violations, political repression, and retrograde, manipulative discourse. Maintaining the embargo means denying credit and access to technology that the government would use for its own benefit while the people would receive nothing. Defending the embargo is far more important for the long-suffering Cuban people than what the international chorus claims—that it would benefit the people—because Cuba, unfortunately, is not synonymous with People-Government, and the end of the embargo would benefit only the government, not the people. The Cuban government imposes a blockade of freedoms and rights on its people that is more cruel than the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba.
We prefer to think that cultured Europe plays the role of useful fools to the Cuban government without bad intentions, rather than that it does so simply to oppose the United States at the United Nations or to display political independence at the expense of our oppressed country. What a great service to anti-democracy civilized Europe provides.
Every week there are several Havana–Miami flights. Businesspeople, politicians, musicians, students, Cubans who leave the Island permanently, and Cubans traveling for humanitarian and family reasons fly—along with, regrettably, a small group of Cubans who have no compelling reasons to travel and do so anyway. Tons of food and medicine are sold directly from the United States, and in other ways merchandise reaches Cuba through creative means, including breaches of the embargo by the people or the government. These are just a few points; the reality is much broader. This shows that the embargo is largely symbolic, yet the dictator continues to shout from the rooftops for it to be lifted without taking a single step toward democratic freedoms, while daily violating human rights. What he truly seeks are credit, technology, and investments in the country, with companies acting as intermediaries so he can profit from the exploitation of his own workers. There is no government in Cuban history that has practiced more immoral and shameless plunder against the Cuban people, with international complicity, save for isolated cases.
We are not friends of embargoes—least of all against our people—but this one is against the dictatorship, and it is well and solidly justified.
— Board of Directors —
Republican Party of Cuba