Fernando Damaso, 22 September 2015 — The hackneyed topic of the blockade or embargo continues to be among the priorities that the Cuban government demands that the United States of America resolve, the objective being to assure stable and mutually advantageous relations.
However, there is a matter that the American government should solve unilaterally, without trying to achieve any type of accord with the Cuban one, being that it was imposed on the latter. The argument turns out to be rather puerile, if one takes into account that when it came time to revoke the Platt Amendment (also imposed unilaterally by the American government), many conversations and accords were mediated between both parties. In politics, to dialogue and reach agreements is a common practice, as seen throughout history. Pigheadedness has never led to anything positive.
Maintaining this position would make it seem, as many believe, that the Cuban government is not really interested in the end of the blockade, because up to now it has served as a cover-up to hide the government’s grave errors and inefficiency in the economic arena.
Besides, the blockade is a subject that began being dusted off a little more than 20 years ago, when the abundant subsidies received from the now-extinct Soviet Union and other socialist countries ceased. While these funds were flowing in–and even being squandered on foreign adventures of all kinds, and in pharoah-like and absurd national plans–nobody ever talked about the blockade. Moreover, if it was ever mentioned, it was as an object of ridicule–even unto calling it “a sieve,” being that Cuba, despite the blockade, did business with most of the countries of the world, with the exception of the United States.
It was as of then that the blockade started to be held responsible for all the ills of the nation, principally the economic ones–a view that continues to be maintained today, obviating the culpability of socialism as a failed system incapable of producing wealth and wellbeing.
As long as the Cuban government continues blaming its problems on others, and does not assume accountability as the primarily responsible party, the Nation will not come out of its prolonged economic, political and social crisis.
Translated by: Alicia Barraqué Ellison
