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Today's U.S. sanctions policy against Cuba, as laid out in the Helms-Burton Act of 1996, clearly benefits wealthy corporations at the expense of the average American. Driven by special interest lobbyists, American policy in regards to Cuba is meant, at its root, to provide leverage for those large property owners in Cuba who lost their property as a result of Communist nationalization when they attempt to stake their restoration claims after the eventual fall of Castro's regime.

The original embargo on Cuba dates to 1958, when the U.S. prohibited arms shipments to the island during a period violent civil unrest, which resulted in the fall of the Batista regime in 1959. That embargo was expanded after the new Cuban government led by Fidel Castro signed a trade agreement with the USSR, and the U.S. officially broke diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961. But it wasn't until the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1963 that the U. S. imposed full sanctions on Cuba. (The Organization of American States followed suit the following year.)

But in 1991 everything changed. Cuba's sponsor, the Soviet Union fell, and the Cold War was over. The reason for the sanctions no longer existed. Cuba had long ceased being a threat to regional security (the OAS lifted its sanctions in 1975). The U.S. Congress, however, under pressure from the anti-Castro lobby in Washington passed the Cuban Democracy Act in 1992, which was an attempt to change the rules of the game and to justify extending sanctions that were no longer needed to suppress a country that no longer posed a threat to the U.S.

America's move was condemned universally. The United Nations voted nearly unanimously to condemn the continued U.S. sanctions against Cuba and have continued to do so every year since.

Also, since then, Asian and European investors have been gaining an economic foot hold in Cuba, placing themselves in a better position to capture Cuban markets once they are eventually opened.

Which brings us to the Helms-Burton Act of 1996, which nominally attempts to protect American interests in Cuba by attempting to criminalize the actions of foreigners in foreign countries (telling all foreigners that the U.S. will arrest them if they conduct business in Cuba). The EU, Canada and Mexico have all passed laws making Helms-Burton illegal, and all those who follow it are subject to prosecution in those countries.

More to the point, however, Helms-Burton emphasizes property restoration. When Communism falls in Cuba, and it will fall, there will be a legal free-for-all in regards to property rights. And Helms-Burton is an attempt to protect those large property owners who lost property during the Communist nationalization process. Small, independent property owners are explicitly not protected under Helms-Burton.

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