Questions You Should Be Asking
1. What is the cost to us taxpayers to pay for this blockade?
Estimates are hard to come by, since transparency is hard to come by. As line items in recent government cutbacks however, blockade programs managed to dodge DOGE. We do know that even 20 years ago, government appropriations for just one of scores of blockade tactics topped $500 million. That was just to beam U.S. propaganda into Cuba with special TV and radio stations. Millions more go to the so-called National Endowment for Democracy (NED) which funds campaigns to disrupt the Cuban government. Making money from the blockade became the reason for the blockade for many. The blockade itself, with all its bureaucratic architecture and bureaucrats, all its apparatus and technology, became a self-perpetuating investment bank for a few people, and a big debit for the rest of us.
2. With so much talk now in the news every day about trade and “trade deals,” why would we not make cooperative “deals” with a country that is so close, and could trade with the small businesses in this country who could benefit?
Good question! Cuba has gone on record repeatedly saying that they are ready, willing and able to talk, as long as our government is respectful as to Cuba’s independence. Hundreds of businesses in our country—agricultural producers, hospitality and travel trades, even CEOs from companies like Ingersoll-Rand, Archer Daniels Midland have spoken in favor of commercial trade with Cuba. The United States Chamber of Commerce even had a page on its website calling for normalization of relations with Cuba, until the recent Trump Administration came in. It would be common sense to trade with Cuba.
3. Why would our government have a policy that bars us from achieving better health?
The details on this one boggle the mind. Cuba has many medications developed by their very advanced scientific community. For example, one of them is called “Heberprot-P.” Heberprot-P is used very successfully to cure diabetic foot ulcers. Those ulcers get infected and often the patient loses a foot or toe due to amputation. In the U.S., 160,000 people lose a foot or toe every year—and within five years, 80% of them die! Cuba has this unique medication and has been using it successfully for 15 years. They have an advanced theory of immunotherapy and have a whole portfolio of cancer fighting drugs. But because of our government’s policy, we cannot benefit from these products. It makes no sense.
4. Why would a U.S. government policy exist that is so harmful to everyday Americans?
Exactly our question. This is an “America last” policy! If the provisions of this blockade were lifted, we Americans could access better health, more convenient and interesting vacations, more business opportunities. It would be common sense to scuttle this policy.
5. Why would our government attack doctors who travel to foreign lands to provide care for underserved populations?
Seems wrong, right? Those doctors, and by extension, Cuba’s health care delivery system, are Cuba’s most treasured asset. So, if the blockade is about attacking Cuba’s assets, this would be at the top of the list… shame might also be a factor. Cuba’s doctors who volunteer for overseas service have provided more care in the 60 years of their programs for underserved populations than the entirety of the “G7” plus the EU, combined.
6. Why is the Cuban volunteer medical brigade named after an American?
In August of 2005 after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and killed 1800+ poor, Black, Americans, Cuba offered to send a team of 1586 volunteer doctors and disaster relief workers to New Orleans to help. Cuba’s government named this volunteer brigade the “Henry Reeve Brigade,” to honor a young man from Brooklyn. Reeve went to Cuba in 1869 as a volunteer to join the fight against the Spanish colonizers and the slave trade there. He gave his life in that battle in 1876. But President George Bush refused Cuba’s 2005 offer of help. Apparently, the embarrassing prospect that Cuba’s teams of doctors and nurses might have something to contribute to New Orleans residents outweighed any calculus that could actually deliver help to Katrina’s victims.
7. Why are Americans not free to travel on vacation to Cuba’s beautiful beaches that are hundreds of miles closer to us than the rest of the Caribbean? Why can we not just go there, to take in the country’s music and dance scene?
Great question! Makes no sense! The Executive Branch of our government bans us from being tourists in Cuba. There are ways to travel to Cuba legally—but going as a tourist is forbidden.