By Joey Clavette

Fifty-eight years and a Cold War ago on March 14, the United States imposed an arms embargo on its southern Caribbean neighbour, Cuba. From then on, tensions worsened, and after a successful socialist revolution, the embargo was expanded into a full-fledged blockade of trade, which remains to this day.

CubapicSixteen people protested the Cuban embargo at the U.S. embassy on March 17 — some of whom have been supporting Cuba since the 1959 revolution that overthrew Batista — which was organized by Ottawa Cuba Connections (OCC). Along with a sister movement in Vancouver, they meet on the 17th of every month to protest the ongoing blockade and the United States’ occupation of Guantanamo Bay. The blockade is estimated to cost the United States 1.2 Billion USD every year and Cuba $685 Million. This ends up being 0.007 per cent of U.S. GDP, adding up to $3.75 per citizen, while Cuba suffers the equivalent of 1 per cent of their GDP and $62 per citizen where the average income is equivalent to 211 USD.

The significance of protesting every seventeenth is that on Dec. 17, 2014, all of the “Cuban Five,” Cuban political prisoners arrested in the U.S. in 1998, were released. Prior to this, OCC had been lobbying for their release and protesting on the fifth of every month. Seeing the release as a happy victory, sometimes referred to as the start of the “Cuban Thaw,” OCC decided to continue working toward equitable relations between the United States and Cuba.

This thaw has been the mark of a development in Cuba-United States relations, with President Barack Obama meeting Raul Castro in April of 2015. This was the first meeting of American and Cuban heads of state since the Cuban revolution. Subsequently, embassies were reopened in Havana and Washington, Cuban-Americans, missionaries and students have been allowed to travel to Cuba and at least one company has been given the go-ahead to create a tractor factory in Cuba. This would be the first significant American investment in trade with Cuba since the revolution.

As Louis Lang, one of the protestors present, pointed out, however, President Obama does not have the full ability to reverse the embargo. The embargo is upheld by a number of laws, which only the Congress can overturn. Lang also pointed out that President Obama is, however, completely free to discontinue the American occupation of Guantanamo Bay, a detail which sticks out like a sore thumb in reference to opening diplomatic relations.

Only time will tell when the blockade will be lifted but it definitely seems imminent. Until then, you can find the OCC every month chanting at embassy, “U.S.A., end the blockade now!”

This article first appeared in the Leveller Vol. 8 No. 6 (March 2016).