anyone who knows anything about embargos knows that they are designed to starve the general population into a state where they will overthrow their government.
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The Politics of Starvation
Cuban expropriation of American property and land reform policies motivated the United States into decreasing Cuba's sugar subsidy and implementing an embargo that intended to starve Cuba of spare parts for the U.S. machinery that powered their economy. The Soviet Union aided Cuba in these unfortunate years by purchasing sugar at inflated market prices and forwarding strategic materials to the island. Cuba's alliance with the Soviet Union strengthened Uncle Sam's determination to cripple Cuba by embargo. Although the reasons for the embargo faded with the years and became totally unnecessary after the fall of the Soviet Union, the United States, still wanting to overthrow the Castro government and catering to the Cuban exile community, tightened the embargo. In 1992, congress passed The Cuba Democracy Act, 1992. This act forbade United States subsidiaries to trade with Cuba, and
deprived the island of $700 million in trade, 70% of which had been in food and medicine. The Act also prohibited U.S. citizens to spend money in Cuba. It allowed private groups to deliver food and medicine. Although the United Nations general assembly on November 2, 1995, voted 117 to 3 to recommend an end to the U.S. embargo against Cuba, President Clinton on March 12, 1996 signed into law The Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, otherwise known as The Helms-Burton Act. This Act
imposed penalties on foreign companies doing business in Cuba, permitted U.S. citizens to sue foreign investors who make use of American-owned property seized by the Cuban government, and denied entry into the U.S. of the investors in Cuba. The tightened embargo reinforced Cuba's suffering after Russia withdrew subsidies.
The pre-90's Cuba had been credited with eliminating hunger and malnutrition, wiping out infectious diseases and received applause from the World Health Organization for its public health system. Cuba of the mid-90's portrayed another image. The American Association for World Health and the American Public Health Association determined that the embargo caused significant deterioration in Cuba's food production and health care:
* Cuba is banned from purchasing nearly 1/2 of new drugs on the market.
* Physicians have access to only 890 medications, down from 1,300 in 1989.
* Deterioration of water supply has increased water borne diseases.
* Daily caloric intake dropped by 33% between 1989 and 1993.
New Jersey Congressman Torricelli predicted that his Cuban Democracy Act would bring Castro's downfall within one year. That has not happened. Humanitarians, such as Congressman Torricelli, have been eager to take advantage of the sufferings of the Cuban people and intensify them for political purposes rather than affording the people a means to recover from the tragedy. This procedure is equivalent to hitting a person you don't know as they are falling down. Cuba claims that forty years of trade embargo has cost the Caribbean island $60 billion. In 1998,they estimated their losses at $800 million. Due to the European nations refusal to abide by the embargo, and increased tourist revenues, the economic war against Cuba is slowly being lost.
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