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LET'S FIGHT BACK
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Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Economic Sanctions and Property Rights

the AZEL

PERSPECTIVE

Commentary on Cuba's Future, U.S. Foreign Policy & Individual Freedoms - Issue 83
 


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Libertarians would all agree that the fundamental reason for the existence of governments it is to protect our life, liberty, and property. These are the principles articulated by John Locke (1632-1704).  Locke, who deeply influenced our own Declaration of Independence, is regarded as the principal architect of liberal thought in the historical European use of the term.
Within a democratic realm, citizens are expected to rely on domestic institutions for the protection of these rights. For instance, an independent judiciary is essential for the resolution of property claims and other matters. But what is a citizen to do when his property rights are violated by a foreign totalitarian regime where no recourse to the rule of law is available?
 
It would seem that, when a U.S. citizen’s property is expropriated by a foreign government, the property rights principle, so dear to libertarians, would take center stage.  And yet, libertarian think- tanks such as the Cato Institute and politicians such as U.S. Representative Rand Paul take a different view.
 
They argue that unilateral economic sanctions do not work, and that individuals should be free to invest as they choose and undertake the risk of their investments. Agreed, but that leaves open the question as to how a government should protect its citizen’s property rights when a foreign government capriciously and arbitrarily changes the rules of the game.
 
U.S. economic sanctions against Cuba are a case in point. The sanctions were first authorized in 1961 when President John F. Kennedy issued an executive order in response to the Cuban government’s expropriation without compensation of American assets-an issue that remains unresolved.
 
It is valid to state that the sanctions have failed to change the course or nature of the Cuban government, but the failure argument is peculiarly offered in a form of isolated reverse logic.  It is also necessary to point out that the alternative policy, pursed by the international community, of engaging with the Cuban government has also failed to change the nature of that regime.
Currently over 190 nations engage economically and politically with Cuba while the United States remains alone in enforcing  its economic sanctions policy. If U.S. policy is deemed as one case of failure to change the nature of the Cuban government, there are 190 cases of failure on the same grounds. By a preponderance of evidence (190 to 1) the case can be made that engagement with that regime has been a dismal failure.
 
Fifty six years ago President John F. Kennedy sent a reasonable message to the international community that governments that choose to expropriate the properties of U. S. citizens need to compensate them. Governments that choose to simply steal the properties of U. S. citizens should expect some form of retaliation from the U.S. government.  That message remains valid today as an expression of a government’s duty to protect the property rights of its citizenry in foreign milieus where the rule of law does not prevail.
 
It is one thing to argue, as those of us that value personal freedoms do, that investors should be free to invest and accept all the risks of their decisions when the rules of the game are known in advance and where the rule of law prevails. It is a different situation when the rules are changed after the fact, as the Cuban government did, and where no legal recourse is available.
 
Investors in communist regimes cannot expect their government’s protection; they know in advance what they are getting into, investors beware. After all, Karl Marx makes it clear in chapter two of The Communist Manifesto that “...the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.”
 
Independently of their usefulness, the use of economic sanctions as a foreign policy tool is neither new nor particularly American. Pericles’ decree banning the Megarians from the Athenian market and ports helped incite the Peloponnesian War in 431 B. C.
 
Unintended and undesirable consequences are inherent in the use of economic sanctions. Arguably they should not be used to compel a democratic transformation or even to advance human rights or other laudable goals. They seem, however, an appropriate, measured, and in-kind response to the economic aggression of another country such as expropriations without compensation. What are the policy alternatives to protect the property rights of a citizenry?    

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Abrazos,
 

Lily & José 
(click on the name to email Lily or Jose)
This article was originally published in English in the Miami Herald and in Spanish in El Nuevo Herald.
 
José Azel, Ph.D.
José Azel left Cuba in 1961 as a 13 year-old political exile in what has been dubbed Operation Pedro Pan - the largest unaccompanied child refugee movement in the history of the Western Hemisphere.  

He is currently dedicated to the in-depth analyses of Cuba's economic, social and political state, with a keen interest in post-Castro-Cuba strategies as a Senior Scholar at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS) at the University of Miami and has published extensively on Cuba related topics.

In 2012 and 2015, Dr. Azel testified in the U.S. Congress on U.S.-Cuba Policy, and U.S. National Security.  He is a frequent speaker and commentator on these and related topics on local, national and international media.  He holds undergraduate and masters degrees in business administration and a Ph.D. in International Affairs from the University of Miami.

José along with his wife Lily are avid skiers and adventure travelers.  In recent years they have climbed Grand Teton in Wyoming, trekked Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Machu Pichu in Peru.  They have also hiked in Tibet and in the Himalayas to Mt. Everest Base Camp.

They cycled St. James Way (
El Camino de Santiago de Compostela) and cycled alongside the Danube from Germany to Hungary. They have scuba dived in the Bay Islands off the Honduran coast. 

Their adventurers are normally dedicated to raise funds for causes that are dear to them. 
Watch Joe & Lily summit Kilimanjaro.

Books by Dr. José Azel
In Reflections on FreedomJosé Azel brings together a collection of his columns published in prestigious newspapers.  Each article reveals his heartfelt and personal awareness of the importance of freedom in our lives.  They are his reflections after nearly sixty years of living and learning as a Cuban outside Cuba. In what has become his stylistic trademark, Professor Azel brilliantly introduces complex topics in brief journalistic articles.
Buy Now
En Reflexiones sobre la libertad José Azel reúne una colección de sus columnas publicadas en prestigiosos periódicos. Cada artículo revela su percepción sincera y personal de la importancia de la libertad en nuestras vidas. Son sus reflexiones después de casi sesenta años viviendo y aprendiendo como cubano fuera de Cuba.  En lo que ha resultado ser característica distintiva de sus artículos, el Profesor Azel introduce con brillantez complejos temas en  breves artículos de carácter periodístico.
Compre Aqui
Mañana in Cuba is a comprehensive analysis of contemporary Cuba with an incisive perspective of the Cuban frame of mind and its relevancy for Cuba's future.
Buy now

 
Pedazos y Vacíos is a collection of poems written in by Dr. Azel in his youth. Poems are in Spanish.
Buy now
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