March 23, 2026 – Sixty-four years ago, on March 24, 1962, the U.S. Treasury Department announced the prohibition of entry into U.S. territory of any article made, totally or partially, with products of Cuban origin, even if it was made in a third country.
This measure was not the first public or secret aggressive action by Washington against the Cuban Revolution, which triumphed on January 1, 1959, but it was an important step in the implementation of the blockade against Cuba decreed by the then President of the United States, John F. Kennedy.
Starting at 12:01 AM on February 7, 1962, with the intention of economically suffocating the island’s population, an unprecedented act of genocide against its people began, which has lasted for more than six decades.
Since February 6, 1959, the National Bank of Cuba had reported that its deposit of 424 million dollars in North American banks was stolen by ringleaders of the overthrown dictator Fulgencio Batista and, despite the official claim, not a single cent was returned to the Republic of Cuba.
Days later, on February 12, 1959, the United States National Security Council denied a modest loan requested by the National Bank of Cuba to support the Cuban currency.
On June 24, 1959, the State Department of the US government under President Dwight D. Eisenhower convened a meeting to threaten that: “it was incumbent upon the United States Government to immediately assume a very firm position against the Agrarian Reform Act and its implementation,” and warned that “the best way to achieve the necessary result is through economic pressure.”
On April 6, 1960, the State Department of the Washington government promulgated the Mallory Memorandum, which acknowledged that: “The majority of Cubans support Fidel Castro (…) there is no effective political opposition (…) the only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through discontent and discouragement based on dissatisfaction and economic hardship,” and thus began its strategy of attrition in Cuba.
In April 1960, the transnational corporations Esso, Texaco, and Shell, at the request of the United States government, restricted fuel exports to Cuba, and in June of that year, President Eisenhower decreed a reduction of 700,000 tons of the Cuban sugar quota in the North American market.
On September 24, 1960, the United States Government notified the suspension of operations of the Nicaro nickel plant, owned by the Government of that country.
Following the policy of economically strangling the nascent Cuban Revolution, on October 19, 1960, general measures were enacted prohibiting American exports to Cuba. On December 16, Eisenhower completely eliminated the Cuban sugar quota for the first three months of 1961.
On January 3, 1961, the United States broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba, and on March 31, President John F. Kennedy completely eliminated the Cuban sugar quota in the North American market for the entire year (three million tons).
In January 1962, the United States deployed an intense maneuver in the Organization of American States (OAS) that culminated in sanctions and the breaking of diplomatic relations with Cuba by most Latin American countries, with the honorable exception of Mexico.
Finally, on February 3, 1962, through President Kennedy’s Executive Order 3447, the total “embargo” of trade between the United States and Cuba was formally implemented.
In reality, it was the formal beginning of a process of economic, commercial, financial and diplomatic blockade that began to take shape from the very triumph of the Cuban Revolution and which, according to international conventions, is classified as an act of genocide.
In July 1963, the Regulations for the Control of Cuban Assets came into effect, prohibiting all transactions with Cuba and freezing Cuban state assets within the United States.
In May 1964, the U.S. Department of Commerce implemented a total ban on shipments of food and medicine to Cuba, although in practice these shipments were no longer being made.
More than six decades after the blockade was implemented, 13 administrations have passed through the United States government, and the international community, represented in the United Nations General Assembly, has condemned this inhumane and cruel web of laws, decrees, and extraterritorial measures 33 times, with an overwhelming majority. These measures did not even respect the global Covid-19 pandemic to prevent us from acquiring oxygen.
During his first term, the US government under Donald Trump imposed more than 240 unprecedented measures against Cuba, mostly actions to intensify the blockade, with the aim of economically suffocating the country, subverting the internal order, creating a situation of ungovernability, and overthrowing the Revolution.
During that period, Cuba was spuriously included in the list of state sponsors of terrorism in January 2021, alleging its mediation in the peace negotiations between the Colombian government and the guerrillas in its country.
Other intensified measures included restrictions on travel by Americans to Cuba, limits on the amount of remittances, and a campaign to discredit Cuban medical cooperation in different countries around the world.
Also, regulations to hinder trade and business, persecution of Cuban banking and financial transactions worldwide, and sanctions against those who trade with Cuba in any other country.
None of that changed during President Joe Biden’s term in office.
From the beginning of his second term, Trump lashed out against the island, implementing a strict energy blockade against Cuba at the end of January, preventing the arrival of oil and gas with his naval means, and pressuring Havana’s traditional suppliers with heavy fines and tariffs.
In the face of this, revolutionary Cuba has resisted, resists and will resist, with the support of friendly countries and international solidarity, confident of its final victory until consolidating a free, sovereign, independent, prosperous and sustainable homeland for which we have been fighting for several centuries.
