Life Under The Embargo: How Cuba Overcomes Imperialism

Life Under The Embargo: How Cuba Overcomes Imperialism

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Political Science and International Affairs, University of BBBB BBBBBBBB

March 6th, 2025

Life Under The Embargo: How Cuba Overcomes Imperialism

The embargo imposed on the Republic Of Cuba by the United States has been an abject failure in its intention to cripple the Cuban economy. While economic violence on part of the United States has placed significant strain on Cuba’s imports and exports, leading to delayed growth, forced liberalization policy, and increased dependence on Chinese investments and aid, the country has almost miraculously maintained democratic health and national stability, while simultaneously surpassing the aforementioned aggressing state actor by nearly every public welfare measure. 

United States imperialism in Cuba began in the 1890s when the Cuban people overthrew Spanish rule with assistance from the United States government (Kinzer, 2016). However, rather than finding liberation in 1898, at the end of the war, the Cubans were met instead by a replacement in subjugation — the Platt Amendment granting Washington the right to intervene militarily in Cuban affairs (Kinzer, 2016). American military occupation turned to political interference, when the United States installed the fascist Fulgencio Batista regime, which was allowed to rule the country unilaterally so long as American corporations were able to funnel natural resources off of the island and into the mainland United States. The people of Cuba would only see true liberation in 1959, when the Communist revolution saw the toppling of the US backed dictatorship and the establishment of the Republic of Cuba as a worker democracy, but even still, the Republic of Cuba remains under a suffocating economic warfare waged against it by the United States government.

In response to the liberation of Cuba, the United States imposed a full economic embargo in 1958 — later being codified into law by the Helms-Burton Act (1996), which extraterritorially penalized third-party countries trading with Cuba (Feinberg, 2017). The embargo not only prevents Cuba from trading with the United States, but prevents any ally of the United States from trading with Cuba, under threat of economic retaliation.

During the Cold War, the Cuban economy saw relatively steady development with assistance from the Soviet Union — with subsidies accounting for 20% of GDP by 1989 (Saney, 2004). However, after the illegal dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Cuban government has been forced to seek involvement, albeit limited, with the People’s Republic of China and the “BRICS” economic union (Kaplan, 2016). Said involvement with these state capitalist nations, such as accepting foreign investments from China, has forced Cuba to impose limited liberalization reforms — the resulting shock therapy leading to volatility in previously stable command markets (Feinberg, 2017). This has been counterbalanced somewhat by unconditional economic aid from the Chinese government, however, Cuba’s economy remains largely isolated in its inability to engage in trade, and almost entirely reliant on the tourism industry. 

In spite of the extreme pressure put on its economy by foreign actors, the Republic of Cuba has, for over six decades, paradoxically maintained what may be the healthiest participatory democracy in the Americas, if not the world. Cuba’s state is composed of 169 municipal assemblies, each of which undergoes a popular election every two and a half years (August, 2013). 

Every five years, representatives are elected to the national parliament from each municipality. While political parties are legally allowed to exist, they are prohibited from endorsing political candidates. Candidates are prohibited from advertising their campaigns, or discussing the approaches they plan to take in terms of policy if elected. Instead, each candidate is asked to provide a brief summary of their life and personal background on a single sheet of A4 white paper, which is to be pinned to a bulletin board along with the others in a respective municipality.  The Communist Party has largely taken on the role of facilitating the equitable distribution of resources, and is entirely detached from politics (Cuba’s Municipal Elections, 2010). All of this to say, the decentralization of governance and elections have been the primary factors for Cuba’s maintenance of healthy, participatory democracy. 

The Republic of Cuba has not experienced military conflict since the revolution and the “Bay Of Pigs” invasion, and is actually capable of projecting power by offering military assistance to other Latin American countries. Cuba’s medical industry is on the bleeding edge of what is possible, and the Cuban government routinely dispatches doctors abroad to assist during crisis situations. The Cuban people enjoy socialized healthcare, housing, education, etc. Cuba has a higher life expectancy than the United States and a lower infant mortality rate than Washington DC. Homelessness has been eliminated, and while wages are relatively low, purchasing power is comparatively high and housing is provided by the state (Hamblin, 2016). 

The state guarantees housing, eliminating homelessness — a feat unmatched in the Americas. Rationing systems ensure food security despite import restrictions, though shortages persist (Hickel & Hallegatte, 2021).  Literacy rates have sat comfortably over 99 percent for over a decade — higher than much of the “developed” world, including the United States (World Bank). Cuba’s reliance on Soviet, and later Chinese aid, potentially lends credence to dependency theory, where Global South nations are structurally disadvantaged in global trade (Kaplan, 2016). However, Cuba’s diversification into biotech and tourism demonstrates agency in mitigating dependency, and even in being “dependent” on other socialist nations, the nature of socialism negates the historically negative consequences of dependency. The UN has voted repeatedly since 1992 to condemn the embargo, with 184 nations opposing it in 2023 (UN General Assembly). This isolation of the U.S. weakens the embargo’s legitimacy. Cuba’s BRICS membership offers trade alternatives, reducing U.S. leverage. The bloc’s New Development Bank provides loans without neoliberal conditionalities, challenging IMF/Washington Consensus dominance (Xianglin et al., 2015).  

The embargo placed on the Republic of Cuba by the United States has long been condemned by the United Nations, and while It has been thought to be an effective measure in imperialism by the American controlling class, it has been a universal failure in nearly every respect. Cuba has not only survived the imperial onslaught against its economy, but thrived in the inhospitable environment in which it has been placed. It stands as a testament to command economics, non-revisionist Marxist-Leninist policy, and the spirit of the Cuban people. 

References

August, A. (2013). Cuba and its neighbours : democracy in motion. Fernwood Publishing.

Anna. (2018, January 22). Hur fungerar valen i Kuba? (uppdaterat mars 2018) | Svensk-Kubanska Föreningen. Svensk-Kubanska Föreningen. https://svensk-kubanska.se/val-i-kuba/

Cuba’s Municipal Elections. (2010, May 19). Global Research. https://www.globalresearch.ca/cuba-s-municipal-elections/19230

Democracy Before the Revolution. (n.d.). https://cuba-solidarity.org.uk/resources/democracyfactsheet2015.pdf

Feinberg, R. E. (2017). Bienvenida—Maybe: Cuba’s Gradual Opening to World Markets. Social Research, 84(2), 305–330. https://doi.org/10.1353/sor.2017.0021

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Cuba, Volume VI - Office of the Historian. (n.d.). History.state.gov. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v06/ch10

Hamblin, J. (2016, November 29). How Cubans Live as Long as Americans at a Tenth of the Cost. The Atlantic; The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/11/cuba-health/508859/

Hickel, J., & Hallegatte, S. (2021). Can we live within environmental limits and still reduce poverty? Degrowth or decoupling? Development Policy Review, 40(1). https://doi.org/10.1111/dpr.12584

Kaplan, S. B. (2016). Banking unconditionally: the political economy of Chinese finance in Latin America. Review of International Political Economy, 23(4), 643–676. https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290.2016.1216005

Kinzer, S. (2016, December 14). US imperialism in Cuba, 1898-1901 | libcom.org. Libcom.org. https://libcom.org/article/us-imperialism-cuba-1898-1901

Saney, I. (2004). Cuba : a revolution in motion. Zed Books.

Secretary-General, U. et al., 2019. Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba : report of the Secretary-General, UN. United States of America. Retrieved from https://coilink.org/20.500.12592/9w4fb1 on 29 Apr 2025. COI: 20.500.12592/9w4fb1.

Xianglin, M., Hearn, A. H., Weiguang, L., Wilson, T. D., & Cypher, J. M. (2015). China and Cuba: 160 Years and Looking Ahead. Latin American Perspectives, 42(6), 140–152. https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X15594395

Disclaimer: I do not use AI, but I have been told that my nonfiction writing has that tone. All I can do is promise you that this is my writing and my writing alone.