Cuba is a sovereign nation. It thus has “the right to choose, without external interference, its political, economic, and social system and to organize itself in the way best suited to it,” as recognized by both international law and incorporated into U.S. law as “the supreme law of the land” based on Article VI of the U.S. Constitution.¹ Despite the accompanying “duty to abstain from intervening in the affairs of another State,” ² the U.S. from 1898 to 1959 dominated Cuban affairs until a popular revolution overthrew the brutal Batista dictatorship and set its own priorities such as universal & free healthcare and free education to the highest levels, in a non-capitalist economy.³ Since 1960, the official U.S. assessment was that since “[t]he majority of Cubans support Castro … [t]he only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship,” thus justifying a U.S. policy seeking to “bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.”⁴

According to the U.S. government (Nov. 2007): “The embargo on Cuba is the most comprehensive set of American sanctions ever imposed upon a country.”⁵  It is also the longest lasting, over 54 years so far. For 23 consecutive years a worldwide consensus in the UN General Assembly has declared the “Necessity of Ending the Economic, Commercial and Financial Embargo imposed by the U.S.A. against Cuba”; the vote was 188 to 2 in Oct. 2014.⁶ These sanctions are more than a simple embargo, as they prevents third countries from trading with Cuba, if their corporations have significant U.S. ownership or their products have U.S. components. E.g., medical textbooks from Spain and pacemakers from Sweden could no longer be sold to Cuba after the scope of these sanctions was expanded in the 1990s.⁷

Even under President Obama, the extraterritorial effects of this U.S. policy have expanded, with banks in France, Switzerland and Ireland being fined billions of dollars and/or intimidated so that they will no longer handle legal transactions by their customers with Cuba.⁸

According to court-released U.S. documents in 2013, our government “has between five to seven different transition plans” to overturn the Cuban Revolution.⁹

The Associated Press has revealed a series of US AID programs designed to recruit Cubans and build opposition in Cuba, relying increasingly on social media & deception. One of them sent young Latin Americans to Cuba, falsely pretending to be health workers sponsoring HIV workshops.¹⁰ Another program set up a fake twitter program, hiding U.S. government sponsorship, & seeking to determine the political leanings of some 700,000 unsuspecting Cuban cellphone users, based on their responses to psychologically developed messages ¹¹ The U.S. has spent millions on such programs; this does not count unreported efforts by the CIA or the NSA.¹² Nor does it count some 3,500 Cubans killed by decades of terrorism based in the U.S., according to Cuba’s count, with the perpetrators still being harbored in the U.S.¹³

INTERNET ACCESS: AN EVOLVING SITUATION

This is indeed an issue in Cuba, and must be seen in the context of the U.S. attempts to deny Cuba modern technology, while now attempting to use social media to encourage unrest (see above). E.g., in 1996 under Pres. Clinton, the U.S. seized used laptops donated for Cuba’s medical system, & these were only released after Rev. Lucius Walker & others from Pastors for Peace went a hunger strike/”fast for life” for 94 days.¹⁴

According to the London Economist & other sources, the US has long prevented Cuba from internet access via underwater cables that serve the rest of the Caribbean. As a result, Cuba had to access the internet by satellite, which is very expensive and resulted in very limited bandwidth to the island. Cuba attempted to prioritize public access through schools and community centers. Email access was often unreliable, and even professional had to share accounts. Venezuela has worked with Cuba to address this, first establishing cable connections last year.¹⁵ Since then 100’s of internet linked centers have been opened, but they remain expensive and have long lines.

According to major European media, “Once on line, censorship is almost non-existent with only pornography and a handful of political websites are out of bounds.”¹⁶ The BBC reported in August 2014 that 300 public centers recently opened; that mobile phones could access email but not the internet; “Cubans are quite ingenious … Growing number have smart phones, … packed full of offline applications”: Wikipedia, games, and “for a small fee” can get flash drives loaded full of films, TV shows, books & including current  magazines from abroad.¹⁷

THE RIGHT TO TRAVEL: CUBANS ARE NOW FREER TO TRAVEL ABROAD THAN WE ARE TO TRAVEL TO CUBA.

U.S. law still asserts that all U.S. residents and citizens must be “licensed” to engage in any transactions for travel to Cuba – at the risk of ten years in prison and large fines.¹⁸ Today most Cubans have no restrictions from their government to travel abroad, including to the U.S. But the U.S. denies the majority of visa applications from Cubans to visit here, after charging them $160 in U.S. hard currency (arguably equal to a half year’s wages for many Cubans). ¹⁹ In contrast, Cuba routinely issues tourist visas to U.S. people at the airport with no questions asked, and for c.$25.

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