For sixty years, the US empire has waged a relentless economic war against the Republic of Cuba. This comes in the form of the imposition of unilateral sanctions, which to date have cost the island nation more than $130 billion.

The US sanctions, or the “blockade,” touch every part of Cuban life. They restrict access to medicine, food, building supplies, and, crucially, materials for vaccine development, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sanctions are also designed to smother Cuba’s economy by restricting travel and prohibiting businesses from trading with Cuba if they also wish to trade with America. What justification does the United States give for this inhumane blockade?

In the face of widespread Cuban support for Fidel Castro and the Revolution in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the US State Department admitted that the only way to undermine the regime was to foster internal dissent by imposing economic hardship on the Cuban population. According to a now-infamous internal memo written by Lester D. Mallory, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, in 1960: