The Cuban Bloqueo: The Impact of Unilateral Sanctions and the Issue of Their Legitimacy under International Law

The Cuban Bloqueo is the sanctions regime imposed over 60 years ago by the United States of America as a response to the government that took power in 1959 after the Cuban Revolution guided by Fidel Castro. This thesis aims to examine the history, the legitimacy, and the effects of the sanctions in Cuba. Starting from the Spanish colonial period, then going through the US imperialistic approach towards Cuba and retracing Castro’s government, including the Cold War period until the new millennium, following the red thread of the Cuban sovereignty as curtailed, and the endless resilience of the Cuban people. The main documents of embargo will be analysed and questioned on their legality in public international law, assuming firstly the illegality and then the legality of the unilateral economic sanctions per se, and subsequently exploring the concepts of sovereignty, self-determination, coercion, human rights. Lastly, a few of the numerous consequences of the Bloqueo on practical daily life matters of the Cuban people will be considered. The illegitimacy of the sanctions regime is nowadays internationally recognized as obvious by International Organizations and States from all around the world, and there have been many calls to stop the Bloqueo, which however do not meet the US perpetual aspiration of an American (and not only) empire where their State sovereignty is heavier than the others. The Cuban people found themselves to fight and to show resistance against the embargo, in the name of a revolution that most of them today didn’t even experience, and to acknowledge more than ever that time has come to end this US decades-long desire for a world at its service.