Whenever the Cuban government nationalized U.S. citizens, the U.S. government took counter-measures, which led, on October 19, 1960, to a ban on all exports to Cuba. As a result, Cuba began to consolidate its trade relations with the USSR, leading the United States to sever all remaining official diplomatic relations. Later that year, U.S. diplomats Edwin L. Sweet and William G. Friedman were arrested and deported from the island after being charged with «promoting terrorist acts, granting asylum, financing subversive publications and trafficking in weapons.» On January 3, 1961, the United States withdrew diplomatic recognition from the Cuban government and closed the embassy in Havana. In October 1960, an important incident occurred: Eisenhower`s government refused to export oil to the island, so Cuba depended on Soviet crude oil, which American companies in Cuba did not want to refine.
This led the Cuban government to nationalize the three U.S. oil refineries in Cuba. Refinery owners were not compensated for the nationalization of their assets. The refineries were part of the state-run Company Unién Cuba-Petréleo. [19] [20] This led the Eisenhower administration to adopt the first trade embargo – a ban on the sale of all products except food and medicine to Cuba. The Cuban regime responded by nationalizing all U.S. companies and most U.S. private property on the island. No compensation was awarded for the seizures and a number of diplomats were expelled from Cuba.
The Escambray Rebellion was a six-year rebellion (1959-1965) in the Escambray Mountains by a group of insurgents who resisted Fidel Castro`s Cuban government. The insurgent rebel group was a mixture of former Batista soldiers, local peasants and former allied guerrillas who had fought alongside Castro against Batista during the Cuban revolution. As the state continued to intervene and acquire private enterprises, trade restrictions increased for Cuba. The United States stopped buying Cuban sugar and refused to supply its former trading partner with much-needed oil, which had devastating effects on the island`s economy, leading Cuba to turn to its new trading partner, the Soviet Union, for oil. In March 1960, tensions escalated when the French cargo ship La Coubre exploded in the port of Havana, killing more than 75 people. Fidel Castro held the United States accountable and compared the incident to the sinking of Maine, but acknowledged that he could provide no evidence of his accusation. [40] In the same month, President Eisenhower implicitly authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to organize, train and equip Cuban refugees as a guerrilla force to overthrow Castro. [41] On September 7, 1962, Kennedy formally extended the Cuban embargo to all Cuban trade, with the exception of the unsubsidized sale of food and medicine, and Obama became the first current U.S. president in nearly ninety years to visit the island state. Obama meets with Raul Castro and dissidents. His trip comes a month after Cuba and the United States signed an agreement for commercial flights between the two countries for the first time in more than 50 years. The first passenger flight will take place in August, and in the weeks that follow, several United States.
