Eisenhower presidency , Washington, D.C., 1960 The United States imposed an arms embargo on Cuba on March 14, 1958, during the armed conflict of 1953-1959 between rebels led by
Fidel Castro and the
Fulgencio Batista régime. Arms sales violated U.S. policy which had permitted the sale of weapons to Latin-American countries which had signed the 1947
Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (Rio Treaty) as long as the weapons were not used for hostile purposes. After the Castro socialist government came to power on January 1, 1959, relations were initially friendly between Castro and the
Dwight D. Eisenhower administration. In December 1959, less than twelve months after the
Cuban Revolution, the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) developed a plan for paramilitary action against Cuba. It was approved and implemented in March 1960. The CIA recruited operatives on the island to carry out
terrorism and
sabotage, kill civilians, and cause economic damage. In April, the U.S.
Department of State issued a memorandum acknowledging majority support within Cuba for the Castro administration, the fast spread of communism within the country, and the lack of an effective political opposition. the Soviet Union responded by agreeing to purchase the sugar instead. In June 1960, Eisenhower's government refused to export oil to the island, leaving Cuba reliant on Soviet crude oil. Cuba and the Soviet Union signed a trade agreement according to which the Soviet Union would provide 900,000 tons of oil to Cuba. The U.S. viewed the agreement as a provocation, and successfully urged
Esso,
Texaco, and
Shell to refuse to process Soviet crude in their Havana and Santiago de Cuba refineries. This prompted the Eisenhower administration to launch the first trade embargo—a prohibition against selling all products to Cuba outside of humanitarian aid. Cuba's nationalization laws required the government to compensate the owners of seized property, but compensation was to be made in Cuban bonds, an offer rejected by American authorities. No compensation was paid. Other countries which had their assets nationalised, including Switzerland, Canada, Spain, and France, were more agreeable to Castro’s terms, seemingly convinced that they would not be able to get a better deal. The second wave of nationalizations prompted the Eisenhower administration, in one of its last actions, to sever all diplomatic relations with Cuba in January 1961. The Cuban government's nationalization of U.S. owned property is the “largest uncompensated taking of American property by a foreign government in history.” Assets seized, included vacation homes and bank accounts of wealthy individuals, but most seized property was owned by large American corporations, including sugar factories, mines and oil refineries. It aligned with the Soviet Union. On September 4, 1961, partly in response, Congress passed the
Foreign Assistance Act, a
Cold War Act that prohibited aid to Cuba and authorized the President to impose a complete trade embargo against Cuba. On January 21, 1962, Cuba was suspended by the
Organization of American States (OAS), by a vote of 14 in favor, one (Cuba) against with six abstentions. Mexico and Ecuador, two abstaining members, argued that the OAS Charter did not authorize expulsion. Multilateral sanctions were imposed by OAS, led by the U.S., on July 26, 1964, but were later rescinded on July 29, 1975. Relations between
Cuba and the OAS have since warmed and the suspension was lifted on June 3, 2009. Starting in November, the U.S. engaged in a violent campaign of
terrorism and
sabotage against civilians and military targets on the island, known as the
Cuban Project. As well as the removal of the Castro government, the U.S. sought to force the Cuban government to introduce intrusive civil measures and divert precious resources to protect its citizens from the terror attacks. Kennedy extended measures by executive order, first widening the scope of the trade restrictions on February 8 and then again on March 23, 1962. These measures expanded the embargo to include all imports of products containing Cuban goods, even if the final products had been made or assembled outside Cuba. On August 3, 1962, the Foreign Assistance Act was amended to prohibit aid to any country that provides assistance to Cuba. On September 7, 1962, Kennedy formally expanded the Cuban embargo to include all Cuban trade, except for the non-subsidized sale of food and medicines. Following the
Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, Kennedy imposed travel restrictions on February 8, 1963, and the
Cuban Assets Control Regulations were issued on July 8, 1963, again under the Trading with the Enemy Act, in response to Cuba hosting Soviet nuclear weapons. These measures froze Cuban assets in the U.S. and consolidated existing restrictions.
Rapprochement with Cuba The restrictions on U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba lapsed on March 19, 1977; the regulation was renewable every six months, but President
Jimmy Carter did not renew it and the regulation on spending U.S. dollars in Cuba was lifted shortly afterwards. President
Ronald Reagan reinstated the trade embargo on April 19, 1982, though it was now only restricted to business and tourist travel and did not apply to travel by U.S. government officials, employees of news or film making organizations, persons engaging in professional research, or persons visiting their close relatives.
Increasing legislation The embargo was reinforced in October 1992 by the
Cuban Democracy Act and in 1996 by the Cuban Liberty and Democracy Solidarity Act (known as the
Helms–Burton Act) which penalizes foreign companies that do business in Cuba by preventing them from doing business in the U.S. Justification provided for these restrictions was that these companies were trafficking in stolen U.S. properties, and should thus be excluded from the United States. The
European Union criticized the Helms-Burton Act because it felt that the U.S. was dictating how other nations ought to conduct their trade and challenged it on that basis. The E.U. eventually dropped its challenge in favor of negotiating a solution. After the
Cuban military shot down two airplanes operated by
Hermanos al Rescate (Brothers to the Rescue) in 1996, killing three Americans and a U.S. resident, a bi-partisan coalition in the U.S. Congress approved the Helms–Burton Act. The Title III of this law also states that any non-U.S. company that "knowingly traffics in property in Cuba confiscated without compensation from a U.S. person" can be subjected to litigation and that company's leadership can be barred from entry into the United States. Sanctions may also be applied to non-U.S. companies trading with Cuba. This restriction also applies to maritime shipping, as ships docking at Cuban ports are not allowed to dock at U.S. ports for six months. This title includes waiver authority, so that the President might suspend its application. The waiver must be renewed every six months and traditionally was until U.S. President
Donald Trump in 2019. In response to pressure from some American farmers and
agribusiness, the embargo was relaxed by the
Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act, which was passed by Congress in October 2000 and signed by President Bill Clinton. The relaxation allowed the sale of agricultural goods and medicine to Cuba for humanitarian reasons. Although Cuba initially declined to engage in such trade (having even refused U.S. food aid in the past, seeing it as a half-measure serving U.S. interests), the Cuban government began to allow the purchase of food from the U.S. as a result of
Hurricane Michelle in November 2001. In some tourist spots across the island, American brands such as
Coca-Cola can be purchased. Ford tankers refuel planes in airports and some computers use Microsoft software. The origin of the financing behind such goods is not always clear. The goods often come from third parties based in countries outside the U.S., even if the product being dealt originally has U.S. shareholders or investors.
Cuban thaw and
Raúl Castro at the Palace of the Revolution in Havana, 2016 In April 2009, President Barack Obama first attempted to warm relations by easing the U.S. travel ban, allowing Cuban-Americans to travel freely to Cuba.
Ana Cecilia became the first officially approved ship to sail in July 2012 from Miami to Cuba. Two years later, in 2014, the
Obama administration announced its intention to formally re-establish relations with Cuba and later completed a prisoner exchange. President Obama and
First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Raúl Castro met on April 11, 2015, the first meeting in over 50 years. On May 29, 2015, the U.S. removed Cuba from its designated list of
state sponsors of terrorism. It was later re-added under the Trump administration six years later. American banks then were temporarily allowed to open accredited accounts in Cuban banks. Relations were officially established on July 20, 2015, with increased travel licenses, amended civil aviation and commercial passenger aircraft regulations, and normalized import-export license requirements announced in September. In February 2016, the U.S. agreed to allow two American men to build a $5-10 million tractor factory in Cuba. The deal was later disallowed by Cuban authorities because one of the investors was a Cuban permanent resident and Cuba does not allow large investments by Cubans who live on the island. In his final eight days in office, Obama formally discontinued the
wet feet, dry feet policy, announcing that all illegal immigrants from Cuba would be subject to removal, in an effort to promote legal alternatives.
Renewed embargo On November 8, 2017, it was announced that President Trump's administration had enacted new rules which would re-enforce the business and travel restrictions which were loosened by the Obama administration and would go into effect on November 9. In 2019,
ExxonMobil, the largest American energy producer, sued the Cuban government for their theft of U.S. oil assets in the 1960s. Immediately following Cuba's re-designation as a state sponsor of terrorism in January 2021, the State Department launched new political sanctions against Cuba's support of Venezuela and their president,
Nicolás Maduro. That month the U.S. Treasury additionally sanctioned the Cuban Ministry of Interior for
human rights abuse in Cuba. , 2021 In July 2021, under President
Joe Biden, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Cuba's domestic police force and on two of Cuba's leaders in response to
political violence related to the
2021 Cuban protests. Cuba attempted to embargo the U.S. by banning U.S. cash deposits at Cuban banks in 2021 but had to reverse the ban due to economic distress in 2023. The U.S. government eased select financial sanctions against companies that serve Cuban interests but have no link to the Cuban government in 2024. President Biden authorized additional sanctions against Cuba during the
2024 Cuban protests which caused further diplomatic strain with
First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Miguel Díaz-Canel. First Secretary Díaz-Canel was joined by former First Secretary Raúl Castro in a protest with "tens of thousands of Cubans" against the U.S. embargo in December following the re-election of President Trump.
"Total pressure" embargo The U.S. government significantly tightened its economic sanctions against Cuba in January 2025, orienting around a "total pressure" or "maximum pressure" strategy. In addition to re-designating the island as a state sponsor of terrorism for a third time, the State Department announced further sanctions against Cuban military contractors and further restricted Cuba's access to the U.S. dollar. U.S.
Homeland Security and
Coast Guard soon thereafter restricted immigration of
economic refugees from Cuba, along with Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. The U.S. re-activated Title III of the
Helms–Burton Act, an international deterrent against foreign investment in Cuba. The U.S. government halted foreign aid funding, expanded visa restrictions, and formally cautioned against Cuban forced labor in February. President Trump issued a
presidential directive in July for greater enforcement of the
Cuban travel ban, further isolating the
tourism industry of Cuba. The U.S. government banned First Secretary Díaz-Canel along with two ministers from entering the U.S., later restricting access to the Cuban luxury real estate sector. In January 2026, the U.S. introduced an extraterritorial tariff mechanism aimed at halting the supply of crude oil and refined petroleum products to the island. The UN publicly criticized the American trade policy, calling it a "fuel blockade". ==Impact==