Talk:Embargo/Archives/2013

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Cuban embargo as genocide?

A considerable number of people in Cuba (particularly gov't officials) say that the US trade embargo against Cuba is a form of genocide as per Section C of Article 2 of the 1948 Genocide Convention (deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part), quoting a declassified State Department memo dated April 6, 1960 (see http://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v06/d499): "Every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba. ..... to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government." The purpose of the trade embargo outlined in the memo (to incite a popular uprising against the Cuban gov't by bringing hunger and disease to the Cuban populace) may sound somewhat inhuman, immoral, and unethical by today's standards, but it's rather remarkable that there have been no recorded deaths in Cuba that can attributed to the effects of the trade embargo, and that there have no reports from Cuba of an embargo-induced famine or disease. Moreover, it seems that the US has been aware of the fact that the purpose of the embargo as outlined in the 1960 memo is a bit far-fetched because the US has never used hunger and disease to try to coerce oppressed peoples to accept democracy. Further undercutting the supposedly genocidal nature of the embargo, the vast majority of patients in Cuba who are suffering cancer and other health problems and have to undergo unnecessary surgery because of prohibitions on sell US-made medical equipment to Cuba appear to be closer to death, only to have well-experienced Cuban doctors save the patients from death the last minute using medical tools either made in Cuba or non-US countries. Therefore, it would be cynical for embargo critics to label the embargo as "genocidal". Barack Obama could at least inform the Cuban government that the embargo is not genocide by reminding the State Department's top officials that the purpose of the trade embargo as stated in the 1960 memo doesn't conform to modern ethical standards because embargoes are not meant to coerce peoples to accept US-style democracy by bringing hunger and disease. Do you agree with my assessment that the US trade embargo against Cuba as implemented today in terms of its nature in no way fits the definition of genocide set out in the 1948 Genocide Convention? 68.4.28.33 (talk) 21:13, 9 January 2013 (UTC)Vahe Demirjian

As fascinating a topic of discussion this is, I don't see it leading to anything in the article itself. Drmies (talk) 21:14, 9 January 2013 (UTC)
- Regarding the question of whether embargoes can sometimes be genocidal in nature, as far as I'm aware, when the UN imposed sanctions against Iraq after the Persian Gulf War, there were reports of drought and starvation in the country despite attempts at humanitarian aid to the Iraqi people because Saddam Hussein would constantly confiscate UN aid packages earmarked for the Iraqi people (the UN estimates that 1-2 million Iraqis died of malnutrition and other health problems in the 1990s). At one time in 1999, a former UN official condemned UN sanctions against Baathist Iraq as tantamount to genocide (http://www.news.cornell.edu/chronicle/99/9.30.99/Halliday_talk.html), so there may be a considerable number of individuals and large numbers of left-wing organizations who believe that embargoes only bring misery and suffering to peoples who struggle under one-party dictatorships. How would the international community and humanitarian groups like it if the US imposed a trade embargo against China because of China's refusal to allow itself to be cowed down by internal demands for multiparty democracy? 68.4.28.33 (talk) 16:35, 10 January 2013 (UTC)Vahe Demirjian

Future references

I plan on working on this in the future. Very complicated topic. Dropping some resources for others to use and that I'll use too:

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Cpt_ricard (talk • contribs)