On this day in 1961, the United States ended diplomatic and consular relations with the Castro dictatorship. (Here is what they left out of the narrative.)

“On this day in 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower announced the United States was formally terminating diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba.” - The Boston Globe

Batista in the 1950s was not a U.S. backed dictator, but was pressured out by Washington in favor of what they believed would be a return to democracy

In a previous CubaBrief, we looked at the negative reaction of the Truman Administration to Fulgencio Batista's March 10, 1952 coup against the democratically elected government of Carlos Prio. In another, the Eisenhower Administration's engagement with Havana during the Batista regime, from January 20, 1953 through December 31, 1958. President Dwight Eisenhower had short, informal talks with Fulgencio Batista on July 23, 1956 at the US Embassy in Panama, but the images are reminiscent of President Obama meeting with Raul Castro during the Summit of the Americas in April 2015. 

Eisenhower was not "supporting" the dictatorship, but decreasingly tolerating it, with an arms embargo placed on the Batista government by the Eisenhower Administration in March 1958, and the US Ambassador pressuring the Cuban strongman to step down in December 1958.

Richard Nixon met Fidel Castro in April 1959 and sought a detente with Havana in 1974

Fidel Castro visited the United States for eleven days in April 1959, culminating in a three-hour meeting with Vice President Richard Nixon on April 19, 1959.

Within three months of the United States' recognition of Cuba's revolutionary government, the new regime began targeting American interests on the island, allying with the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, and plotting the overthrow of several Latin American governments.  
Fidel Castro visits Caracas on January 23, 1959 and meets with Venezuelan President Romulo Betancourt, a social democrat, "to enlist cooperation and financial backing for 'the master plan against the gringos.'"

On March 3, 1959 the Castro regime expropriates properties belonging to the International Telephone and Telegraph Company, and took over its affiliate, the Cuban Telephone Company.

On May 17, 1959 the government expropriated farm lands over 1,000 acres and banned land ownership by foreigners.

Havana beginning in 1959 sent armed expeditions to Panama, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic to overthrow their governments.

On February 6, 1960 talks began publicly between the U.S.S.R and Fidel Castro. The Soviet Union agreed to buy five million tons of sugar over five years. They also agreed to support Cuba with oil, grain, and credit.

On July 6, 1960 the Castro regime passed a nationalization law authorizing nationalization of U.S.- owned property through expropriation. Texaco, Esso, and Shell oil refineries were taken.

In September 1960 the Cuban government diplomatically recognized the People's Republic of China.

On November 19, 1960 Ernesto "Che" Guevara heading a Cuban delegation in Beijing met with Mao Zedong between 4:20pm and 6:30pm and discussed revolutionary objectives in Latin America.

 

It was Fidel Castro's demand that the US embassy be left with a skeleton crew in the midst of a migration crisis that led to the severing of diplomatic relations.

Tens of thousands of Cubans were lined up outside of the U.S. embassy in Havana seeking visas to flee the communist dictatorship, and this became a source of embarrassment for the regime. Fidel Castro communicated with the Eisenhower Administration on January 3, 1961 and demanded the expulsion of 67 U.S. diplomats, within 48 hours, reducing their number to 11, the same number at the Cuban embassy in Washington DC. When the ultimatum was issued, the Americans had over 50,000 visa applications to process.

President Eisenhower issued a statement on January 3, 1961, at 8:30 p.m. EST, stating: "There is a limit to what the United States in self respect can endure. That limit has now been reached," and broke diplomatic ties with Cuba.

Taken from the Center for a Free Cuba, and adapted.

Questions for the US embassy in Havana, Cuba on U.S. Citizens Services section addressing Cuban Americans

 Some questions about the US embassy in Havana and its warnings to Cuban Americans

Cuba is a lawless autocracy with exhibit A being its response to the Varela Project, a citizen initiative that should be legal within existing Cuban law, but instead led to a massive crackdown and long prison sentences in 2003. This is further concrete proof that the regime in Cuba is a tyranny.

Within this context the statement from the United States embassy in Havana regarding the rights of Cuban-Americans and natural born Americans of Cuban descent is of great concern. The Obama administration has engaged in a policy of unilateral concessions in an effort to normalize relations with the Castro dictatorship. This has emboldened the regime in Cuba. Repression and violence are spiking in numbers not seen in decades.

The US embassy issued some serious warnings to Cuban borns and their children last year and after bad press over the past week quickly changed the language. Initially it gave a number of ominous warnings:

Dual Nationality
The Government of Cuba does not recognize the U.S. nationality of U.S. citizens who are Cuban-born or are the children of Cuban parents.  These individuals will be treated solely as Cuban citizens and may be subject to a range of restrictions and obligations, including military service.  The Cuban government may require U.S. citizens, whom the Government of Cuba considers to be Cuban, to enter and depart Cuba using a Cuban passport.  Using a Cuban passport for this purpose does not jeopardize one's U.S. citizenship; however, such persons must use their U.S. passports to enter and depart the United States.  There have been cases of Cuban-American dual nationals being forced by the Cuban government to surrender their U.S. passports.  Despite these restrictions, Cuban-American dual nationals who fall ill may only be treated at hospitals for foreigners (except in emergencies).  See the paragraph below on Consular Access for information on Cuba's denial of consular services to dual American-Cuban nationals who have been arrested, as well as the paragraph below on Children's Issues for information on how dual-nationality may affect welfare inquiries and custody disputes.

Cuban-American dual nationals should be especially wary of any attempt by Cuban authorities to compel them to sign "repatriation" documents.  The Government of Cuba views a declaration of repatriation as a legal statement on the part of the dual national that she/he intends to resettle permanently in Cuba.  In several instances, the Government of Cuba has seized the U.S. passport of dual nationals signing declarations of repatriation and has denied these individuals permission to return to the United States.

The crowd that is backing engagement and has the ear of the White House came out to discount the above statement as false.  Now the U.S. embassy page reads as follows:

Dual Nationality  
The Government of Cuba does not recognize the U.S. nationality of U.S. citizens who are Cuban-born.  These individuals will be treated solely as Cuban citizens and may be subject to a range of restrictions and obligations. The Cuban government may require these individuals to enter and depart Cuba using a Cuban passport.  Using a Cuban passport for this purpose does not jeopardize one's U.S. citizenship; however, such persons must use their U.S. passports to enter and depart the United States. 

Now there is an attempt to back track and say that the matter has been cleared up.  Pedro A. Freyre, the Chairman of International Practice at Akerman LLP, says in a CBS4 interview with Hank Tester that one can rest easy that what the U.S. embassy posted was false. He also tried to downplay it stating: “What I look at is what has been happening, what is happening on the ground. Never mind there is an obscure statement in a sub file of a U.S. Embassy in obscure location.”

Attorney Freyre should speak with whoever was informing him on the location of the statement on the U.S. embassy page because he misspoke. The statement was displayed on the main page of U.S. Citizens Services ( http://havana.usembassy.gov/service.html ). This was not an obscure and hidden statement as Mr. Freyre implies. Quite the opposite and for that reason this controversy raised alarm, is far from cleared up, and raises a number of important questions.

1. Was this a trial balloon to intimidate Cuban American travelers now that with the number of U.S. travelers increasing they are no longer needed? 

2. Who at the U.S. embassy in Havana placed the controversial text on the website in 2015? 

3. Did they receive instructions to do so from the State Department?

4. Is this unique to Cuba or does the State Department give erroneous information to prospective American travelers heading to other countries?

5. The Castro regime enforces its rules and regulations arbitrarily to suit the dictatorship's agenda. Is it now tightening up now on Cuban American travel because non-Cuban Americans are visiting the island in large numbers?

Things are getting worse on the human rights front for Cubans living in the island. Why wouldn't also worsen now for Cuban Americans visiting the island while American corporations are willing, with U.S. approval, to discriminate against them to appease the Castro regime?