The US government is expanding its sanctions against Cuba (“U.S. Imposes New Travel Curbs on Cuba,” Wall Street Journal, June 4, 2019). It will make it more difficult for the slaves of the Cuban state to earn a living in the tourist industry. Writes the Journal:
Analysts say the U.S.’s latest action will be devastating to a growing private sector of Cuban entrepreneurs who operate thousands of bed-and-breakfasts in private homes, drive private taxis, and run private restaurants in Havana and throughout the island.
The official goal of the US government is to force change in the political regime of sovereign Cuba. (Not that one should defend national sovereignty at any cost, but the current US president professes to do so. A and non-A.) The US government apparently expects the harmed Cubans to stop or diminish their support to the communist regime.
The sanctions, however, directly hurt American citizens who want to travel to Cuba and American companies transporting them. The new travel curbs are imposed on Americans. They are directed against Americans and will only indirectly hurt Cubans and, it is hoped, their government as a consequence of hitting Americans first.
International sanctions are often similar to import tariffs or other trade barriers. A ruler takes his own subjects hostage and uses them (or threatens to use them) against another ruler’s subjects—like saying “If you don’t stop harming your subjects, I will harm mine.”
READER COMMENTS
Hazel Meade
Jun 5 2019 at 4:46pm
I’m surprised it took Trump this long to get around to reversing one of the signature acheivements of the Obama administration – finally ending the embargo against Cuba and normalizing relations. Hopefully he will not be in office long enough to entirely reverse it.
Fred
Jun 6 2019 at 11:28am
The end result of five decades of US sanctions against Cuba was that Fidel died of old age in great comfort having never missed a meal. I notice that Kim Jong-un doesn’t look like he’s missed supper very often either.
Mark Z
Jun 7 2019 at 12:07am
Well, politicians of rival countries do often have a symbiotic relationship with each other: American presidents have gotten to posture themselves as ‘tough’ while foreign dictators are given an opportunity to blame their people’s woes on America. Trump and (now Raul) Castro, friends in real life, even if they play enemies on TV.
Benjamin Cole
Jun 8 2019 at 5:47am
The human rights violations of Cuba are bad! bad! bad!
The human rights violations of China are not a topic.
So what that Saudi Arabia cuts journalists up into little pieces?
Unless Cuba does business with multinationals, it will always be bad!
Comments are closed.