President George Bush should terminate the economic embargo on Cuba, which is a failed policy.It imposes indiscriminate hardship on the Cuban people and impedes democratic change. If the goal is to improve human rights conditions in Cuba, then the embargo should be ended. Washington needs a smarter approach.
The U.S. embargo of Cuba has dramatically affected the health and nutrition of large numbers of ordinary Cuban citizens. As one of the most stringent embargos ever enacted, we declare it a complete failure. The health and well-being of untold thousands and perhaps millions of people are adversly effected by the embargo. We call on the United States Government to end the embargo and normalize relations with Cuba.
It is an all-or-nothing approach aimed at overthrowing the Castro government, which does not allow for any relaxation in response to measurable improvement in Cuban human rights practices. It therefore does nothing to encourage such improvements, instead providing the Cuban authorities with a convenient justification for their repressive policies. It also hurts the Cuban population as a whole by eliciting a nationalistic response from Cubans, it helps the government shift blame for the country's problems.
For the past ten years, the embargo has been condemned in the General Assembly of the United Nations by an overwhelming margin. Resentment of the embargo dissuades other governments from being more vocal about Cuba's poor human rights conditions.
The travel ban, violates the rights of U.S. citizens by limiting their ability to share information and ideas with Cubans. As the visit of former President Jimmy Carter exemplified, U.S. visitors may be the emissary of democratic values and ideas, enriching Cuba's relatively closed society.
