Torricelli Act

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The Torricelli Act , officially The Cuban Democracy Act , is a law under the United States' embargo policy against Cuba . The law was passed in 1992 on the initiative of the then member of the US House of Representatives Robert Torricelli and with the support of Senator Bob Graham by the US Senate and put into effect by the then US President George HW Bush .

background

The Torricelli Act marked the first significant changes in US economic policy with Cuba since the embargo imposed by John F. Kennedy shortly after the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion . The law represents a dramatic tightening of the economic restrictions against Cuba. The goal of the Torricelli Act was to paralyze the Cuban economy to an extent that would lead to the overthrow of Cuban President Fidel Castro within a few weeks , as Robert Torricelli explained in 1992. He was then Latin America advisor to presidential candidate Bill Clinton . Clinton wanted to win the votes of the Cuban community in exile and thus the state of Florida . President Bush was initially against this law, but then signed it so as not to give Clinton an advantage in the election campaign.

Content

The Torricelli Act prohibits subsidiaries of American companies abroad from trading with Cuba. Ships of foreign companies docking in Cuban ports will be banned from entering US ports for 180 days. Foreign ships that trade with Cuba must also expect confiscation as soon as they are in US waters. Members of Cuban families are prohibited from sending money to Cuba. Furthermore, US citizens were banned from entering Cuba.

Effects on Cuba

The Cuban government describes the sanctions imposed by the USA as a blockade. The laws that have been imposed prevent Cuba's normal relations with foreign states and institutions. The difficult supply situation with food and medical equipment led in the following years to a series of health deteriorations of the Cuban population. Despite the fact that Cuba has one of the lowest child mortality rates in the world, nutritional deficiencies have resulted in an increased rate of underweight births in pregnant women. A lack of chemicals and a lack of technical water treatment equipment led to increased illnesses and deaths caused by unclean water. In 2000, the United States eased the embargo on food and drug exports through the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act, and over the next decade became the largest supplier of food for the Cuban population. However, since 2008 the island nation has steadily reduced its imports from the USA. Under President Barack Obama , the embargo was further relaxed, which his successor Donald Trump partially withdrew.

See also

Web links

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  1. ↑ William M. Leogrande, Peter Kornbluh: backchannel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana, The University of North Carolina Press, 2014, ISBN 978-1469617633 , pp 269-271
  2. ^ Denial of Food and Medicine: The Impact Of The US Embargo On The Health And Nutrition In Cuba - An Executive Summary American Association for World Health Report, March 1997
  3. ↑ Jürgen Klein: Cuba Embargo: The Cold Trade War of the USA (PDF, 468 kB), in: Information from the Delegate of German Business in Washington, DC on February 2, 2012, accessed on November 22, 2012