The American trade embargo against Cuba, created in 1962 in response to the Cuban Revolution that instituted the Communist regime of Fidel Castro, and later the Cuban Missile Crisis, has managed to last 47 years. It somehow survived the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and 10 American presidential administrations. This is thanks to, in part, the Cuban lobby in the crucial swing state of Florida. However, the embargo is a Cold War relic that must be ended completely. Common sense must overrule political pandering.

1. The embargo has failed completely. The Castro regime and Communism are still in place in Havana.

2. The embargo is a source of propaganda. Instead of bringing down the Castro regime, the blockade has become a source of propaganda for our enemies everywhere. Although the embargo may have weakened Cuba, it has given Fidel and Raul Castro an easy excuse for every problem they have, especially poverty.

3. We’re not blockading China. Plenty of countries other than Cuba could threaten American interests more easily, but we don’t have an embargo against any of them. Take China, for example. China is more of threat to the US than is Cuba, and yet we have had normalized relations with them for decades, not to mention a strong economic relationship.

4. Cuba is no threat to the US. Cuba poses no threat to the United States. Their military is a joke, and they are no longer spreading Communism through Latin America. Other countries realize this. Every year, Cuba brings a resolution to the UN General Assembly calling on the United States to end the embargo; last year the vote was 183 to 4 against the embargo, with superpowers like the Marshall Islands and Palau standing with us.

5. Ending the embargo, ironically enough, will be more likely to cause regime change in Cuba than will continuing the blockade. If the government allows for US companies to build and profit in Cuba, everybody wins. Cubans gain access to cheap, better goods, and American companies gain a whole new market a mere 90 miles off our coast. Eventually, this increased economic activity could create pressure on the Castro regime to liberalize markets, and maybe even liberalize the political system. We are watching this happen before our eyes in modern China, where increased capitalist success in the country has stressed the Communist regime there.

Two weeks ago, the Fifth Summit of the Americas was held, and U.S.-Cuban tensions were spectacularly low. Now is the perfect time to end the embargo.

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