Sierra Vista, AZ: Our View: Embargo has run its course
Published on The Sierra Vista Herald (http://www.svherald.com)
Our View: Embargo has run its courseOn Sunday, we reported that a Bisbee resident had joined a group on a trip to Cuba.
Since the 1960s, a trade ban and a travel ban have existed between the U.S. and that communist country.
Cecile Lumer was one of 85 people who ignored the ban with a trip organized by the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization/Pastors for Peace.
The group took with it more than 100 tons of humanitarian aid, including several school buses, for use by Cuban churches, hospitals and schools.
Departing via Mexico, upon their return to the U.S., members reportedly told the truth that they had been to Cuba. No real action was taken by the government, and no penalties ensued.
We disagree with the group thumbing its nose at what is U.S. law. But we do agree with one of their stated reasons for visiting that country. And that is the longstanding embargo on that nation has run its course.
The blockade has stayed in effect long after the Cuban missile crisis. But it has done so not because of some high standard of upholding freedom. Instead, Congress enacted and continues to pass laws calling for the Castro government to satisfy claims against it by private U.S. companies that had been taken over by the state at the time of the communist revolution.
But over time, U.S. businesses have, in fact, found ways to do business with Cuba anyway. Sources say 6.6 percent of Cuban imports come from America.
On the emotional side, former President Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state, George Schulz, called the embargo “insane” in a 2005 interview.
On a more logical note, the Cato Institute says, “The embargo has been a failure by every measure. It has not changed the course or nature of the Cuban government. It has not liberated a single Cuban citizen. In fact, the embargo has made the Cuban people a bit more impoverished, without making them one bit more free. At the same time, it has deprived Americans of their freedom to travel and has cost U.S. farmers and other producers billions of dollars of potential exports.”
The fact is much has changed since the 1950s. Much more continues to change.
Communist countries around the world have wilted. And they have done so not because of bans on travel or trade. Instead, the world’s economics have forced them to change. The open exchange of free people mixing with those under a totalitarian regime has forced them to change.
People, who learn more and are exposed to freedom, soon become people yearning to be free.
It’s time to end the embargo.
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