Erik Wolf | Contributing Writer

There are a lot of issues that we face today, from climate change to terrorism; however, one issue that has not been addressed recently, is the President’s renewal of the Cuban Trade Embargo, which includes a statute that makes trade between America and Cuba a treasonable offense. This is a relic of a very old version of America that includes the Cold War, Segregation, and Joe McCarthy.

The Embargo was initially created to stop Cuba’s human rights violations. The problem with the Embargo is that it doesn’t work. Cuban cigars and other goods make it to the U.S., and Jay-Z and Beyoncé went to Cuba in recent years. The only thing that the embargo accomplishes is the destruction of Cuba’s economy and infrastructure. In fact, much of Cuba blames the U.S. for all or most of their nation’s problems.

It can be said that Cuba has serious human rights violations. In fact Freedom House, a company that measures a country’s human rights violations, found that Cuba scored a six, which, with a top score of seven seems high. And sure, industrial nations such as The U.S., Canada, France, Germany and The U.K. received scores of one, the lowest score; however, Russia received a score of five, and we don’t even have trade restrictions with them, and China received the same score as Cuba.

In fact there are ten countries that received the high score of seven, and none of them are Cuba. These include North Korea (who was taken off the list in 2008 by George W. Bush, after he stated it was no longer necessary to boycott them, after he claimed they were part of the axis of evil in the early 2000’s), Syria, Sudan and Saudi Arabia, none of which receive even a legalese version of a slap on the wrist.

The problem with the United States’ trade embargo against Cuba is that it lacks support. The only nation to support the U.S. embargo of Cuba is Israel, who is not exactly impartial seeing as their entire existence and survival are hinged on the fact that they stay on the good side of the United States. That is correct: nt a single nation in the entire world that is unpaid for has spoken in favor of the Cuban embargo.

In fact, 188 countries have spoken against it; there are 193 countries in the United Nations (UN) total. This means that only five countries, including the U.S. and Israel, have either supported, or not given an opinion on the matter of the Cuban Trade Embargo, which is about 2.6% of the worlds most powerful countries, which is a statistic so low, the congressional approval ratings look optimistic when compared.

The problem with this embargo is that it does not affect us; the U.S. has had this embargo in place since 1962 under the Kennedy administration. Then it was a justifiable reaction to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Cuba was not only an enemy but a threat to the safety of any and all American’s. Today, America is safe, at least from Cuba. Their infrastructure and economy is almost identical to Haiti, or other African nations.

Now we need to ask ourselves, does blocking them out help them, or does opening up, and sharing our culture, and our love of freedom with them, so that they will learn to defy those who censor and control them? Obama even admitted in 2004 that the embargo had failed and needed to be repealed. There is nothing that suggests this embargo is necessary, let America and Cuba trade again, please, let this era of fear and intolerance end.

Graphic by Justice Gage