On February 3, 1962, the then president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, decreed the total "embargo" of trade between the United States and Cuba, in compliance with section 620 (a) of the Foreign Assistance Act.
This proclamation would go down in history as Presidential Proclamation 3447 and would officially start the economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba, which has remained the central axis of United States policy towards the Island and has intensified opportunistically since unprecedented levels, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 60 years of blockade, the costs of this policy for an economy like Cuba's have been enormous and its consequences, which go beyond the mere economic impact, are reflected in all spheres of national life.
The period between January and July 2021, which marks the beginning of the government of President Joseph Biden and the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic, demonstrates as much as the previous year the cruel and inhuman nature of this policy due to its effects on the health and nutrition of the Cuban population.
On the other hand, the blockade produces a very serious human damage that is impossible to quantify. It is aimed at injuring the conscience of Cubans, frustrating their development paradigm and inducing them to discontent. Although it is not measurable or quantifiable, the damage remains and reaches all Cubans in one way or another, even those who reside outside our borders.
Several generations of Cubans have been born and lived under the siege of this criminal policy, applied viciously and intentionally to harm the most sensitive economic and social sectors.
This is demonstrated by the infamous memorandum of the then Assistant Vice Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs of the United States Department of State, Lester Mallory, who on April 6, 1960 noted:
“The majority of Cubans support Castro… the only foreseeable way to reduce his internal support is through disenchantment and dissatisfaction arising from economic malaise and material difficulties… all possible means must be used quickly to weaken the economic life of Cuba … a line of action that, being as skillful and discreet as possible, achieves the greatest progress in depriving Cuba of money and supplies, to reduce its financial resources and real wages, cause hunger, despair and the overthrow of the Government.”
The US institutions themselves recognize the extent and character of the economic, financial and commercial blockade against Cuba and its people.
In 2017, the United States Government Comptroller General Department (USGAO), through its Report “Economic Sanctions: Agencies Face Competing Priorities in Enforcing the US Embargo on Cuba”, recognized that “ it is one of the most comprehensive sets of sanctions imposed by the United States on any country.”