FamineCuban embargo prevents food supply and results in massive disease outbreaks

Kirkpatrick 96 – Anthony Kirkpatrick, After nearly twenty years of dedicated service to the University of South Florida College of Medicine in Tampa, Anthony F. Kirkpatrick, MD, PhD, left to establish the RSD / CRPS Treatment Center and Research Institute, the world's first institute of its kind, dedicated exclusively to RSD / CRPS. The Institute opened its Center in February 2008 and is headquartered in Tampa. (“Role of the USA in shortage of food and medicine in Cuba”, “The Lancet Vol. 348”, 11/30/1996, http://www.cubasolidarity.net/Kirkpatrick-lancet.pdf, accessed: 6/27/13, ckr)

The US Government acknowledges that there is no exemption for food items; it simply notes that there are “ample suppliers” of foodstuffs elsewhere, that Cuba receives donations of food, and that the food shortages are not due to the embargo, but, rather, are caused by the “Regime’s failure to alter Cuba’s inefficient centralized economic system”.10 This argument rings hollow. First, even if Cuba can buy food elsewhere, the inclusion of food in the US trade embargo remains in violation of international law. Second, a small amount of food is donated by US organisations,4,10 but that is a poor substitute for removing provisions that prohibit its sale. Third, although Cuba can buy food elsewhere, it must often pay higher transportation costs than would be the case with the nearby USA. Fourth, in 1992, the US Government ignored the warning of the American Public Health Association that the tightening of the embargo would lead to an abrupt cessation of supplies of food and medicine to Cuba resulting in widespread “famines”.4 In fact, 5 months after the passage of the Act the worst epidemic of neurological disease this century due to a food shortage became widespread in Cuba. 12 More than 50 000 of the 11 million inhabitants were suffering from optic neuropathy, deafness, loss of sensation and pain in the extremities, and a spinal disorder that impaired walking and bladder control.11–13 Furthermore, as recently as November, 1995, WHO reported more people with neurological disease in Cuba due to malnutrition.14 In June, 1993, a delegation sponsored by the American Public Health Association travelled to Cuba to assess the impact of the embargo on the public health of the Cuban people. The Association’s report notes that the policies of the Castro regime give a high priority for health care, which has contributed to a large reduction in infant mortality and improvements in health. However, the Association found that the tightening US embargo, through the enactment of the CDA, has been associated with a decline in the health of the Cuban people.15 The US Government often speaks of violations of human rights in Cuba. Such claims should perhaps be viewed against the background of an Amnesty International report, which catalogues human-rights abuses in the USA, such as torture, ill-treatment of prisoners, and excessive use of force by police.16 In addition, it should be noted that Washington has been deemed to have exaggerated Cuba’s abuses of human rights, to the extent of codifying such claims into US law.17 These reports should be borne in mind when the US blockade of food and medicine to Cuba is considered.

Embargo causes malnutrition in Cuba

Amnesty International 09 – Amnesty International is a global movement of 2.2 million people in more than 150 countries and territories, who campaign on human rights (“The US Embargo against Cuba”, Amnesty International, 2009 (no spec. date), http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR25/007/2009/en/51469f8b-73f8-47a2-a5bd-f839adf50488/amr250072009eng.pdf, accessed: 7/4/13, ckr)

The negative impact of the US embargo on the Cuban health care system and on the right to health of Cubans during the 1990s has been documented in a 1997 report by the American Association for World Health (AAWH).45 The 300-page document is still the most comprehensive study on the issue. Based on a fact-finding mission to Cuba, the AAWH identified that the embargo contributed

particularly to malnutrition affecting especially women and children, poor water quality, lack of access to medicines and medical supplies, and limited the exchange of medical and scientific information due to travel restrictions and currency regulations. The AAWH found that “a humanitarian catastrophe has been averted only because the Cuban government has maintained a high level of budgetary support for a health care system designed to deliver primary and preventive health care to all of its citizens… Even so, the U.S. embargo of food and the de facto embargo on medical supplies has wreaked havoc with the island's model primary health care system.”46During the first three decades of the embargo, the export of medicines was allowed for “humanitarian” reasons only. In 1992, with the passage of the CDA, the sales of medicines were exempt from the embargo. However, access to medicines became virtually impossible for Cuba. Every export of medicine required that “the President of the USA certify, through on-site inspections approved by the President, that all components of a shipment of medical products to Cuba were used for the purpose intended.” 47 The tightening of the US embargo during the 1990s exacerbated the economic crisis in Cuba as the country had lost the economic support from the Soviet Union.48 This affected the capacity of the Cuban health system to deliver to the population the same standards of health care as before the economic crisis

Lack of imports due to the embargo means Cuba doesn’t have enough foodGarfield 99 – Richard Garfield, Richard Garfield, nurse and epidemiologist, is professor of clinical international nursing at Columbia University. He is the co-chair of the Human Rights Committee of the American Public Health Association and director of a PAHO/WHO collaborating centre at Columbia University. He worked in the ministry

of health in Nicaragua. (“The Impact of Economic Sanctions on Health and Well-being,” Relief and Rehabilitation Network Paper, November 1999, http://www.essex.ac.uk/armedcon/story_id/The%20Impact%20of%20Econmoic%20Sanctins%20on%20Health%20abd%20Well-Being.pdf, accessed: 7/2/13, amf)

Cuba About half of all proteins and calories in Cuba were imported prior to sanctions. Importation of foodstuffs declined by about 50 per cent from 1989 to 1993 and milk production declined by 55 per cent from 1989 to 1992 due to loss of imported feed and fuel. Reduced imports and a shift toward lower quality protein products are significant health threats: a daily glass of milk used to be provided to all children in schools and daycare centres through age 13; it was subsequently provided only up to age six.

It is estimated that sanctions on Cuba create a ‘virtual tax’ of 30 per cent on all imports. These have higher purchase and shipping costs because they have to be purchased from more expensive and more distant markets.

Embargo interferes with Cuba’s food and economyJolly 8- Schona Jolly, internationalhuman rights and equalities lawyer and writer, (“Of Demons and Hurricanes : Cuba's Embargo Must Be Lifted Immediately,” 2/08, http://www.cubaabsolutely.com/AboutCuba/article_economic.php?id=Of-Demons-and-Hurricanes, 7/3/13, CAS)A 2007 report [PDF] by the UN special rapporteur on the right to food highlights the devastating impact that the embargo has had on Cuba's food production and importation. The report states, by way of example:Over 80% of dairy imports to Cuba consist of milk powder for use in the social programme, imported from New Zealand and the European Union. Rice is shipped from China and Vietnam, taking 45 days to reach Cuba. By way of comparison, it would cost one-third of the price to ship from the United States and would only take two days. Increased transaction costs also affect the import of food.

US products must be paid for in advance in cash or through letters of credit drawn on third country banks. The [Cuban] government estimates that incremental (transaction) costs for food and agricultural imports incurred in 2006 due to the embargo amounted to $62.8m.An embargo "to bring democracy" is a tool of warfare, and needs to be recognised as such. Cuba, however, is dealing with enough of her own demons at present. Whirling winds have wreaked a war-like devastation on a land that has stayed determined to seek its own course through history. It is high time the embargo is lifted, not just for 90 days, but for good. According to the Cuban government, the embargo has cost the Cuban economy over $89bn since its introduction and resulted in $258m of losses in the food sector from May 2006 to April 2007.