The Embargo

The political pressure in the White House and Congress to forge a stronger Cuba policy has increased since the incident of the shooting down of the two pirate planes.   Yet efforts to tighten sanctions and enforce business and travel restrictions will likely only reinforce a Cuba-U.S. antagonism, by placing the US in role of aggressor in the eyes of Cuban youth.

Many people believe that the U.S. embargo, in place since 1961 (the longest embargo in modern history), has failed to accomplish its objectives; along with Israel, the U.S. is the only country to recognizes the embargo which violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of which the US is signer. Ironically, American sanctions, if successful, would result in mass immigration to American shores by Cuban expatriates, as happened in spring of 1980 under President Carter's administration.

"It's a completely political issue," said a Miami Herald commentator,  "Miami is the only city in the country where the mayor is elected on his foreign policy views; he's got to be more anti-communist than the next guy. If I were advising Clinton on what the Cuba policy should be, I'd quit. He needs to walk a thin line -- to sound tough, but do nothing."

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