United States embargo against Cuba

The United States embargo against Cuba is the only active embargo within the United States, preventing U.S. businesses from conducting trade or commerce with Cuban interests since 1958. Modern diplomatic relations are cold, stemming from historic conflict and divergent political ideologies. U.S. economic sanctions against Cuba are comprehensive and impact all sectors of the Cuban economy. It is the most enduring trade embargo in modern history. The U.S. government influences extraterritorial trade with Cuba.

The U.S. government first launched an arms embargo against Cuba in 1958 during the U.S.-backed Fulgencio Batista regime. The Cuban Revolution saw nationalization, high U.S. imports taxes, and forfeiture of U.S.-owned economic assets, including oil refineries, without compensation. The U.S. retaliated in 1960 with total embargo on Cuban trade, with exception for food and medicine. Cuba held nuclear missiles for the Soviet Union during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, which led the U.S. to impose a full-scale blockade against the island. The severity of the sanctions brought on by the U.S. has had the United Nations pass annual resolutions to suspend the embargo intermittently since 1992.

The embargo is enforced mainly through the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917, the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, the Cuban Assets Control Regulations of 1963, the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992, the Helms–Burton Act of 1996, and the Trade Sanction Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000. Relations remain tense due to stark differences on immigration, counterterrorism, civil and political rights, human rights on the island, electoral interference, disinformation campaigns, humanitarian aid, trade policy, financial claims, fugitive extradition and Cuban foreign policy.