Why do we embargo goods to Cuba?

On Saturday, Aug. 18, a band of citizens – of which I was a part – drove to a remote corner of Maine to cross into Canada with a load of badly needed health supplies for the people of Cuba. Our government tried to stop us from delivering these life-giving goods. The question is, why?

The answer given by our government is that the group responsible for this humanitarian act didn’t take out a license to ship these goods to Cuba, and if we had, then they could have cleared U.S. customs without a problem. This story is a bunch of malarkey.

Such a license is not customary for most other countries. Imagine the bottleneck if all the humanitarian aid sent south after Hurricane Mitch that hit Honduras and Nicaragua had needed permits.

For years our government has imposed an economic blockade upon this tiny Caribbean nation. During this time period, even humanitarian goods like health supplies were not allowed to be shipped to Cuba. It has only been through continuous concerted actions like the ones staged this summer at Coburn Gore that concerned people in our country forced the government to allow the passage of some goods into Cuba. And that is why we continue to stage these trips.

Historically, licenses have not been needed to ship goods to communist countries. Right after the World War II our government encouraged private individuals to help our neighbors who were less well off by facilitating the shipment of CARE packages to Europe. These packages went to communist countries as well as non-communist countries. Later, nonprofit organizations like CARE acquired U.S. government agricultural products such as powered milk to be shipped to underdeveloped countries, including communist ones. No license was required for each individual shipment. So, what is the fuss all about?

When Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, he nationalized some of the assets of U.S. corporations that would help in the development of his own country. That fact alone gives us the clue to why a license is now required. Our government punishes foreign nations who reclaim assets in their country for their own development.

At midpoint in the last century, our government made a secret foreign policy decision outlined by George Kennan of the State Department. In that secret statement Kennan admitted that the United States controlled more than 50 percent of the world’s wealth and we had only 6.3 percent of the world’s population. He stated at that time that the priority in our foreign policy was to keep it that way and to use any means at our disposal to do so. He also said in that memorandum, forget about humanitarian values, raising the standard of living of other countries or, helping them to achieve democracies.

Cuba isn’t the only country where business interests have guided foreign policy. In secret actions later revealed through the Freedom of Information Act and investigative reporting, we learned that our government paid for and trained the opposition that assassinated the democratically elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende, for doing the same thing with copper assets in Chile.

In addition to the Bay of Pigs attempt to overthrow Castro, the CIA attempted many times to assassinate Cuba’s leader. Unable to oust him or murder him, our government imposed a huge embargo of any item that could help improve the economy of Cuba. This policy imposed restrictive conditions that strangled the Cuban economy and kept its citizens impoverished. Some Americans have worked hard to break that embargo and our government has had to relent to some extent. Yet, our government still tries to thwart citizen action by imposing these restrictive regulations.

Some of our citizens still believe that our government is dedicated to protecting freedom and democracy around the world. The spin doctors have been in control too long. It is time we know and understand what our government officials are doing in our names.

I respect the Cuban government for trying to protect the country’s resources from exploitation by American businessmen and using them to improve the standard of living of its own citizens. If Cubans can continue to improve their citizens’ well-being in the face of the enormous pressures our government has brought to bear by embargos, then we as citizens should help them.

The next time we go with medical supplies, I would like to see a convoy of a thousand vehicles. Our country is not made up of only greedy businessmen. Corporate money flowing into our own democratic system is weakening our democracy. By demonstrating with these methods of nonviolent protest, we can enlarge the circle of citizens that understand the issues.

Russ Christensen was a recent Democratic candidate for the Maine Senate and is a former U.S. immigration political asylum hearing officer. He lives in Temple.