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Plan Against Cuba
Eisenhower approves a covert action plan against Cuba. Intended to Overthrow Castro, they stopped the sugar purchases, stopped oil deliveries, and continued the arms embargo. -
Partial Embargo
October 19. U.S. imposes a partial economic embargo on Cuba that excludes food and medicine. -
Total Embargo
Congress prohibits aid to Cuba and authorizes the President to create a "total embargo upon all trade" with Cuba -
You No Go To Cuba
The Kennedy administration prohibits travel to Cuba and makes financial and commercial transactions with Cuba illegal for U.S. citizens. -
Negotiations?
President Kennedy asks French journalist Jean Daniel to tell Castro that he is now ready to negotiate normal relations and drop the embargo. According to former Press Secretary Pierre Salinger, "If Kennedy had lived I am confident that he would have negotiated that agreement and dropped the embargo because he was upset with the way the Soviet Union was playing a strong role in Cuba and Latin America…" -
Looking Better
The U.S. announces that it will allow foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies to sell products in Cuba, and that it would no longer penalize other nations for trade with Cuba. -
Travel Ban Dropped
U.S. President Carter drops the ban on travel to Cuba and on U.S. citizens spending dollars in Cuba. -
Family Time
Cuban-Americans are permitted to visit their families in Cuba. More than 100,000 visit in the coming year. -
Reagan Tightens Chains
Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as U.S. President, and institutes the most hostile policy against Cuba since the invasion at Bay of Pigs. Despite conciliatory signals from Cuba, the new U.S. administration announces a tightening of the embargo. -
Cracking the Whip
The Reagan Administration reestablishes the travel ban, prohibits U.S. citizens from spending money in Cuba, and allows the 1977 fishing accord to lapse. -
Cuban Democracy Act
U.S. Congress passes the Cuban Democracy Act, which prohibits foreign-based subsidiaries of U.S. companies from trading with Cuba, travel to Cuba by U.S. citizens, and family remittances to Cuba. The law allows private groups to deliver food and medicine to Cuba. (At this time, 70% of Cuba's trade with U.S. subsidiary companies was in food and medicine. Many claim the Cuban Democracy Act is in violation of international law and United Nations resolutions that food and medicine cannot be used as -
UN Tries to End it
For the 3rd year in a row, the United Nations General Assembly votes overwhelmingly for a measure to end the U.S. Embargo of Cuba. The vote is 101-2, with 48 abstentions, and only Israel votes with the U.S. -
Suing US
In a more symbolic than legal decision, Cuban courts order the US to pay $121 billion in damages for the 4-decade-long embargo. A similar lawsuit in November 1999 found the US government liable for deaths and damage from "aggressive policies towards Cuba," in the amount of $181 billion. Observers content that both lawsuits came about in response to a ruling by a US federal judge in Miami ordering Cuba to pay $187 million to families of pilots shot down by Cuban fighter planes in 1996. -
Trying To Get Back In Business
In Washington, the Cuba Policy Foundation releases a poll in which a majority of Americans are said to support the idea of doing business with Cuba and allowing travel to the island. Most agree with the decision to reunite Elián González with his father in Cuba. -
Freedom To Travel
US Senator Michael B. Enzi introduces the "Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act" on the floor of the senate: "If you keep on doing what you have always been doing," he says, "you are going to wind up getting what you already got. …We are not hurting the Cuban government; we are hurting the Cuban people. …It is time for a different policy."
