Cubas Current Problems And How They Relate To America

Modern Cuba has been shaped by the U.S.'s abhorrence for the communist government. Today there are many problems in Cuba such as its waning economy, its health care issues, even its pollution, but almost all of them stem from the U.S. unwillingness to cooperate with the Cuban government, and ultimately, the U.S.'s goal to spread "freedom and liberty" to Cuba's "oppressive communist regime"

The U.S. embargo is a cease-trade between the U.S. and Cuba which the U.S. put in place after the new communist government came to power, and is the root of many of the problems in Cuba today, whether directly or indirectly. "The Cuban embargo represents America's last, futile hope of...destroying the communist regime which has such a strangle hold over the country..." ; though it has not had the desired effect of toppling the Castro government, it has hurt the Cubans in just about everyway imaginable in terms of economy.

Cuba is renown for its literacy rate, however, ironically the educational system is what hardest hit by the embargo. From pencils to computers, most school supplies are a rare commodity in Cuba. This combined with the limited access to the Internet leaves Cuba behind in terms of technology. The school supplies must be purchased from other countries such as Canada, which spike the price and cost more to ship. The teachers are underpaid as well, and with wages that are barely enough to live on. "Teachers receive a salary of some 300 Cuban Pesos [about $15US], teachers and professors have difficulty with personal expenses still less can they pay for some things out of pocket as is often the case in US school systems" . Part of the problem is Cuba's devalued currency, a problem that also comes, in part, from the U.S.'s embargo.

After the revolution, a Cuban Peso, Cuba's form of currency, was equal to one American dollar. However, the embargo hurt Cuban sugar trade, which was one of the main staples of the Cuban economy. The U.S. refused to buy Cuba's sugar crop. This made it difficult for Cuba to back currency with actual wealth such as dollars, but the government continued to print money, despite the lack of actual value. This, coupled with the fact that Cuba had little economy elsewhere, brought the country to its knees, money-wise. The Soviet Union stepped in and supported Cuba, selling it petroleum, buying its sugar crop, giving it funds that it needed to help sustain its government programs, and giving the Cuban peso more value. The Soviets, however, could only sponsor Cuba for so long, and after the fall of the Soviet Union in the 80's the Cuban peso's value fluctuated. Currently, the rate of exchange for Cuban to American currency is 24 pesos for one dollar. Because of this devalued currency, health care within Cuba suffers as well.

Although Cuba's health care is regarded as one of the best in the world: "the superb quality of [the health care] within the Cuban state is possibly the most important factor of the communist government's endurance" , it too suffers from the embargo in more ways than may seem apparent. The first, and most obvious problem it faces is lack of medicine and medical machines from the U.S. Cuba must import all of its medical, like its school supplies, from other, more distant countries, who will not only charge a higher price, but also cost more in terms of shipping the equipment to Cuba. This paired with Cuba's devalued currency makes the basics of health care, such as rubber gloves, syringes, and basic medications and anesthetics hard to come by. Most of the country's medical machines are extras, donated by the Soviets in the 60's, 70's and 80's when they were supporting Cuba. And just like the teachers, doctors and nurses face problems with their salary, as well as occasional black outs, and malfunctioning machines.

Apart from the health care directly, the embargo hurts the importation of food to Cuba, and with its devalued currency, food becomes even more expensive. Though there are rations, many must wait for food, and it is only just what is needed to live on. To a certain extent, this lack of nutrition allows the citizens of Cuba to acquire disease more easily, and cost the health care system more, even after it is already strained.

The embargo also affects the quality of the air in Cuba, which would have an importance in one's personal health. Because of the U.S.'s refusal to trade, and the devalued Cuban peso, Cuba is unable to receive newer, more energy efficient vehicles. Most of the vehicles in Cuba were made before the 1959, before anyone was really considerate about the pollution from cars at all. Because of this, the vehicles that Cuba relies on give off much more smog and wreck the air around Cuba, leaving its residents more vulnerable to disease of the lung, and generally weakening their immune system . This, coupled with lack of medical equipment needed to detect problems like cancer, and the lack of medicines and materials needed to treat such diseases causes many problems for the otherwise superb medical system.

Though the embargo is the largest crippler of Cuba's economy, the U.S. has had, and currently has many plans within Cuba to bring upon the fall of the communist government through failed economics. Between plans to poison Cuba's crops to attempts at assassinating their leader, Fidel Castro, the U.S. has had its hands full trying to bring about the end of the Castro regime.

The U.S. has released many different viruses, bacteria, and poisons upon Cuba's crops, which has hurt Cuba's mainly agriculturally-based economy, further weakened the value of the peso against the dollar, as well as created food shortages and hurt farmers' production. The first proven incidence of this sabotage was in 1972, though it was later proven in 1980, when CIA agents first introduced a swine fever virus into Cuba in 1972. Cuba had to sacrifice 500,000 pigs to fight the epidemic. Between 1979 and 1981 hemorrhagic conjunctivitis, dengue, sugarcane mildew and tobacco mold were introduced into Cuba, by the CIA, to hurt the agricultural Cuban economy. In 1979, The Washington Post reported the CIA had been introducing chemical agents into Cuba, and had been executing operations against the Cuban's crops in order to hurt its economy. The CIA had also been developing new biological agents for the same purpose. The U.S. has been caught many other times for similar acts of bio-terrorism against Cuba.

The CIA has also been part of the covert "Operation Mongoose"