Plattist Envy: Why Does the United States Maintain an Economic Choke Hold on Cuba?

A reader of my last post on the implementation and upkeep of the U.S. embargo against Cuba questioned why. Why, after all these years and despite overwhelming evidence that the choke hold has not produced the desired regime change but continues to have a devastating impact on the Cuban people, why has the United States persisted in isolating and punishing Cuba? The answer to this question is complex, with numerous explanations appearing in the literature and outside of every Cuban coffee ventanita on Calle Ocho in Miami. Yet today, the day after the 122nd anniversary of the Platt Amendment’s adoption by the U.S. Congress, I’d like to provide a straightforward, neo-freudian explanation for this country’s ongoing, toxic infatuation with Cuba: Plattist Envy.

The United States dreams of having the control over Cuba that was afforded by the Platt Amendment, the U.S. drafted insertion to the Cuban Constitution which programmed the end of U.S. occupation at the expense of Cuban sovereignty.

What is the Platt Amendment?

The Platt Amendment consists of a series of stipulations that the U.S. imposed on Cuba as a condition for its “independence” from United States occupation. The U.S. Congress approved it on March 2, 1901, and inserted into the Cuban Constitution which went into effect on May 20 of that year. This is how the story unfolded.