Cuba and the United States have had a had a very long history. Early U.S. support of Castro soured when nationalization of American businesses began in the hemisphere's first communist state. The Cuban Trade embargo was put in place in October of nineteen sixty. In October of nineteen sixty one the United States officially broke all diplomatic ties to the island. Gradually, the embargo has been loosened. Just recently President Clinton proposed a changed the embargo rules. Cuba is effected greatly by this embargo. With the United States not funding Cuba, most of the country is in poverty. I think that the Cuban trade embargo should be removed because over the past thirty years, it is obvious that Castro does not care. The citizens of Cuba are suffering because of the mistakes of their leader.

Cuba's geography has had a play in the embargo. As seen on the map on the previous page, Cuba is ninety miles from the Florida coast. On October sixteenth, nineteen sixty two John F. Kennedy was presented with a very large problem. The CIA had discovered Soviet nuclear missile installations in Cuba. The picture below shows Soviet-supplied truck-mounted multiple-rocket launchers on display in Havana. John F. Kennedy announced a naval blockade of the island to prevent further Soviet shipments of arms from reaching Cuba. After several days of negotiations during which nuclear war was feared to be a possibility, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev agreed, on October twenty eighth, to dismantle and remove the weapons, and this was subsequently accomplished. Through out the sixtys the US Cuba relationship was very hostile.

Cuba's leader, Fidel Castro (pictured at botton right), born on August thirteenth, nineteen twenty six, has lead Cuba since nineteen fifty nine. He attended good Catholic schools in Santiago de Cuba and Havana. In nineteen forty five he enrolled at the University of Havana, graduating in nineteen fifty with a law degree. Before Castro, Fulgencio Batista was the leader of Cuba for around twenty years. Castro, a lawyer at the time, promised a better life for the Cuban people. Castro brought faith to the Cuban people, and they followed him. On July twenty sixth, nineteen fifty three, Castro led an attack on the Moncada army housing. This attempt failed but brought him national prominence. Following the attack on Moncada, Castro was tried and sentenced to fifteen years in prison but was released in nineteen fifty five. He then went into exile in Mexico, where he founded the twenty sixth of July Movement, vowing to return to Cuba in order to fight against Batista. In December nineteen fifty six, he and eighty one others, including Che Guevara, returned to Cuba and made their way to the Sierra Maestra, from which they launched a successful guerrilla war. Castro proved himself a strong leader; he also demonstrated shrewd political skills, convinced that he had a historic duty to change the character of Cuban society. Unable to count on the support of the United States, Batista fled on January first, nineteen fifty nine.

Cuban culture is a combination of Spanish and African traditions. Their music blends Spanish guitar, and African drums. There are some forms of folk music, but this has been greatly effected by European music. Cuba has many important natural resources. Nickel, chrome, copper, iron are just a few common metals found there. Some of the wild animals that can be found in Cuba are wild turkey, quail, finch. Cuba's climate is semitropical, meaning very hot and lots of rain. Most of Cuba is heavily forested. Cuba get's about fifty two inches of rain each year. Most of this rain (More than sixty percent) comes between May to October. Between August, September, and October Cuba will be struck with violent tropical hurricanes. The island receives a lot of damage from these severe storms.

The Cuban population is made up mainly of three groups. Approximately sixty six percent of the population is white and mainly of Spanish descent; twenty two percent is of mixed racial heritage and twelve percent is black. Almost all of the people are native-born. More than seventy percent of the population is classified as urban. The population in nineteen ninety one was ten million seven hundred thirty six thousand people. Cuba has about two hundred thirty eight people per square mile.

Cuban school is free, and offered to children between the ages of six and twelve. The country's higher educational institutions enrolled about two hundred sixty two thousand two hundred students; the largest university was the University of Havana, founded in seventeen twenty eight. The nation's adult literacy rate exceeds ninety five percent. Credits and subsidies from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to Cuba totaled some thirty eight billion dollars between nineteen sixty one and nineteen eighty four and up to five billion dollars annually in the late nineteen eighties.

The collapse of the Soviet bloc in the late eighties to the early nineteen nineties, depriving Cuba of its leading aid donors and trade partners, resulted in the Cuban economy almost collapsing. Now sugar and sugar products make up about seventy five percent of annual Cuban exports. Tobacco, nickel and copper ores, foodstuffs, and petroleum products are other important exports. Major imports include food products, fuel, raw industrial materials, motor vehicles, machinery, and consumer goods. Before the embargo, most Cuban trade was done with the Unites States. Now Cuba's chief trade partners were Argentina, Bulgaria, China, and the countries of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Cuba's government is very interesting. Cuba is governed under a constitution adopted in nineteen seventy six, as subsequently amended. It defines the country as a socialist state in which all power belongs to the working people. The Communist party is Cuba's only legal political party. The central legislature of Cuba is the National Assembly of People's Power, whose five hundred ten members are elected to five-year terms by direct universal voting. This panel elects a Council of State. This council includes a president, who is the country's head of state; a first vice president; and five other vice presidents. Cuba is divided into one hundred sixty nine municipalities and fourteen provinces. Each municipalities have local governments that are elected to terms of two and one-half years.

Cuba seems to be all over the news today. Just recently President Clinton has proposed a changed the embargo guidelines. "These steps are designed to help the Cuban people without strengthening the Cuban government," Clinton said. Clinton's proposal would: "Permit any U.S. resident to send up to one thousand two hundred dollars annually to needy Cubans. Under present rules, only Cuban Americans can that amount.

Allow the sale of food and agricultural supplies, including machinery, to Cuba for the first time. The United States has previously banned all commercial agricultural exports to the island.

Open direct mail service between the United States and Cuba. Mail deliveries between the countries are possible but often take months.

Expand direct flights between the United States and Cuba. Such flights were legal until nineteen ninety six when Cuban MiG jet fighters shot down two unarmed Miami-based planes north of the island, killing the four men aboard. Clinton retaliated by banning direct charter flights, but reinstated them last March. Under the new proposal, restrictions would be eased to allow flights from United States cities other than Miami.

 Increase exchanges of athletes, scientists and others, including streamlining the approval process for such visits." (taken from CNN.com)

 Removing the Cuban trade embargo would do a lot for Cuba. As stated earlier, before the embargo, Cuba did much of their trading with the United States. If the embargo was removed, the Cuban economy would dramatically increase do to the trade with the United States. This economy increase would help the Cuban people by providing increased wages, and better working conditions. Cuba could also join NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), giving it even more trading opportunities. Just making the embargo guidelines less and less strict every year is not the answer. I think that we should try to reason with Cuba. The Embargo was applied over thirty years ago, times have changed, and this conflict may be able to be resolved. If the embargo is not removed Cuba's economy will fall lower than it is now. The United States' influence will start to control other countries. Cuba's options for import and export will get smaller and smaller. By this time, Castro will be dead, or out of office. Cuba will have no one else to turn to, and they will fall into an economic depression.

Bibliography:

Comptons Interactive Encyclopedia '98

Encarta Interactive Encyclopedia '95

CNN.com

The Ann Arbor News

aol.com

http://www.seas.gwu.edu/nsarchive/nsa/cuba_mis_cri/cuba_mis_cri.html

http://satie.arts.usf.edu/~sromero/castro.html