Fidel Castro Quotes on Embargo: 5 Messages From Cuban Dictator

In the aftermath of the 1959 Cuban Revolution led by Fidel Castro, President Dwight D. Eisenhower imposed trade restrictions with the island on everything except food and medical supplies. As Castro consolidated his power, seized assets, and expanded ties with the Soviet Union, President John F. Kennedy made it a permanent embargo. That embargo has stood ever since. It is the longest economic embargo in modern world history.

In late 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama said he would restore diplomatic ties and ease economic restrictions after the release of U.S. aid worker Alan Gross. Obama has since met with current Cuban leader Raul Castro. Shortly after that, Cuba was officially removed from the U.S. list of states that sponsor terrorism.

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Here are five quotes from former Cuban leader Fidel Castro about the decades-long embargo:

1. "I don't trust the policy of the United States, nor have I exchanged a word with them, but this does not mean I reject a pacific solution to the conflicts. We will always defend cooperation and friendship with all the people of the world, including with our political adversaries."
– In a widely-reported letter published in Cuba’s Communist Party newspaper Granma, January 2015.

2. "I want to remind (U.S. President Barack Obama) of a basic ethical principal [sic] related to Cuba: Any injustice, any crime in whatever time has no excuse to go on. The cruel blockade (embargo) against the Cuban people costs lives, costs suffering."
– To Cuba’s state-run media, April 2009, via Reuters.

3. In 2002, Castro told Barbara Walters on ABC’s "20/20" that the embargo “doesn’t make sense.”



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4. "This gesture of yours, this action, has truly become a waterfall. If Moses could open a path in the sea, you have also created a waterfall in the desert for us, because for so many years we have suffered injustice, for more than 30 years, without any reaction from the world. It has really been a terrible injustice, because there are things which have happened over time, for many years, and sometimes the significance of what the embargo means is not recognized. Really, the blockade, as we call it, is an enormous injustice which we have endured for many years, without enough understanding in the world, whether because of ignorance or confusion, or because the mass media are controlled in one way or another or are at the service of certain interests. People have not been aware of the terrible injustice of this embargo.”
– In a speech to Pastors for Peace in Havana, reported by the Havana Cuba Vision Network, 1992.

5. "We don't have any embargo against the United States. If at any time they need sugar we are ready to sell it to them."
– Speaking to Canadian reporters at the Canadian embassy in Havana about the embargo, 1975.

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