Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0100/01004.txt

Text File | 1991-06-24 | 11KB | 184 lines

$Unique_ID{COW01004}
$Pretitle{352}
$Title{Cuba
Chapter 4F.   Relations with the United States}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{James D. Rudolf}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{states
united
cuba
cuban
political
relations
government
caribbean
central
embargo}
$Date{1986}
$Log{}
Country:     Cuba
Book:        Cuba, A Country Study
Author:      James D. Rudolf
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1986

Chapter 4F.   Relations with the United States

     Relations between Cuba and the United States deteriorated rapidly after
1959. On October 19, 1960, the United States instituted an economic blockade,
banning all exports from the United States except food and medicines. On
November 10 all United States ships were prohibited from carrying cargo to or
from Cuba. In January 1961 diplomatic relations were severed, and later in the
year the Foreign Assistance Act, Section 20, authorized the president to
establish and maintain a complete commercial embargo of Cuba. On December 16
the United States instituted a ban on all remaining exports to Cuba. A
complete commercial embargo followed in February 1962. In March 1962 the
embargo was extended to cover all products that in whole or in part
contained any material originating in Cuba, even if manufactured in another
country. In August 1962, urged by the United States, the OAS passed a
resolution asking its member to cease economic and diplomatic relations with
Cuba. All members complied, save Mexico. In October 1962 the United States
announced that it would refuse assistance to any country that permitted
its ships to carry cargo to or from Cuba. The Cuban Assets Control
Regulations, announced in July 1963, forbade United States citizens to have
commercial or financial relations with Cuba (see The End of Prerevolutionary
Institutions, 1959-60, ch. 1).

     Tensions between the two countries were relaxed somewhat after the
beginning of informal government contacts in the early 1970s. An antihijacking
agreement was reached in February 1973. In November 1974 informal discussions
concerning the trade embargo, compensation for US$1.8 billion in United
States property expropriated by Cuba after 1959, release of US$30 million in
Cuban assets frozen by the United States, release of political prisoners in
Cuba, reunion of Cuban families, and the status of the United States Naval
Base at Guantanamo Bay began. In March 1975 United States secretary of state
Henry Kissinger indicated that the United States was prepared to "move in a
new direction" in its policy toward Cuba, and the following August the United
States relaxed the provisions of the trade embargo. As part of this
relaxation, licenses were granted to allow commerce between the subsidiaries
of United States firms and Cuba for trade in foreign-made goods. Nations whose
ships and aircraft carried cargo to Cuba were no longer penalized by the
withholding of United States assistance, and such ships and aircraft were
allowed to refuel in the United States. Talks between the two governments were
suspended, however, after Cuba deployed troops to Angola in 1975.
Nevertheless, the United States voted in favor of lifting OAS sanctions
against Cuba in 1975.

     Beginning in 1976 there was a marked improvement in relations. The United
States granted visas to selected Cuban citizens for visits to the United
States, lifted the ban on travel to Cuba, permitted the resumption of charter
flights between the two countries, cut back reconnaissance flights over the
island, and concluded a bilateral agreement on maritime boundaries and fishing
rights. Cuba released several United States citizens living in Cuba to depart
along with their families. Interest sections opened in Havana and Washington,
operating out of the Swiss and Czechoslovak embassies, respectively, in 1977.
A dialogue between United States residents of Cuban origin and the Cuban
government began, leading to the release of some 3,600 political prisoners in
Cuba.

     This relaxation of tensions between the two governments ended after
Cuba's deployment of troops to Ethiopia in 1977 and the alleged involvement of
Cuban troops stationed in Angola in an invasion of Shaba Province in Zaire by
Katangan exiles. Relations deteriorated further after the arrival of Soviet
MiG-23s in Cuba and the public disclosure in the United States of the
existence of a Soviet combat brigade in Cuba in 1979. A coup in Grenada in
March 1979 and the coming to power of the Cuban-supported Sandinista
government in Nicaragua further heightened tensions. The United States renewed
reconnaissance flights over Cuba, established a Joint Caribbean Task Force at
Key West, and held military maneuvers at Guantanamo Bay and throughout the
Caribbean.

     Beginning in 1981 the United States, seeking to limit Cuban influence,
increased its economic and military aid to countries in the Caribbean Basin.
The Joint Caribbean Task Force was upgraded, and a series of large-scale
military maneuvers began. The United States moved to tighten the economic
embargo, sharply reducing travel between the United States and Cuba and
investigating the operations of firms located in other countries suspected of
buying United States goods and shipping them to Cuba. The United States blamed
Cuba for the turmoil in Central America, accusing it of supplying arms to
antigovernment guerrillas in El Salvador. Nevertheless, the United States held
at least two informal talks with officials of the Cuban government aimed at
resolving regional differences. In November 1981 United States secretary of
state Alexander M. Haig met with Cuba's Carlos Rafael Rodriguez in Mexico
City. In March 1982 United States ambassador-at-large Vernon Walters met with
Castro in Havana. These discussions did not appear to have resolved their
disagreements.

     In April 1982, during a meeting with 10 United States academics and
journalists, Cuban officials reportedly indicated an interest in reducing
tensions with the United States. According to professors Seweryn Bialer and
Alfred Stepan of Columbia University, who participated in the meeting, Cuban
officials indicated that Cuba was prepared to seek a "relative accommodation"
and to practice "mutual restraint." Indeed, Cuban officials stated that they
had begun to use restraint by refraining from shipping arms to El Salvador
during the previous 14 months. They were also willing to enter into broad
negotiations with the United States on such multilateral issues as southern
Africa and Central America, including the creation of an international
peacekeeping force in El Salvador. Finally, according to Bialer and Stepan,
Cuba would no longer insist on the lifting of the United States trade embargo
as a condition for negotiations.

     Soon thereafter, negotiations over immigration matters began, leading to
an agreement in December 1984 on the return to Cuba of refugees in the United
States found "excludable" under United States immigration law. In early 1985
Castro, in a series of interviews with journalists from the United States,
indicated that he was interested in pursuing further negotiations on other
matters. The United States remained concerned, however, about Cuban
involvement in Central America and the Caribbean, its activities in southern
Africa, and its deepening military alliance with the Soviet Union. Further,
United States officials indicated that an improvement in relations depended
on Cuban deeds rather than on Cuban words. For its part Cuba continued to fear
hostile United States military actions, particularly in light of the 1983
United States military intervention in Grenada and the ongoing United States
military exercises in Central America.

                                 *     *     *

     Generally, the literature on the Cuban political system suffers from a
lack of detailed information concerning political events on the island. The
Cuban government is responsible for this, for it does not publish information
concerning internal policy debates, but the United Sta