Of course the trade embargo has harmed the Cuban economy and personally I think it should have been ended long ago. However a trade embargo is not sabotage and there were reasons why it was originally put in place (Cuban missile crisis, expropriation of US property). As usual the US political leadership has failed to recognize the failure of its policies and make any changes[1]. Actual sabotage against Cuba probably ended in the 1960s and may have continued somewhat longer but certainly ended decades ago[2].

However it is important to understand that most of the harm to the Cuban economy was done by its own government. Why? Because these policies have keep them in power for over 50 years. The Castro regime itself (not the Cuban people or economy) actually benefits from the embargo by being able to blame the US for everything wrong with their economy. In fact most of these problems are actually due to communist policies known long ago not to work and adopted purely on ideology[3].

[1] http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/time-end- cuba-embargo

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Project

[3] http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2010/10/how-much-does-the-mark...

These are just a sample of the many resources available online. I encourage anyone interested to do your own research and be sure to examine sources with multiple points of view (Cato is libertarian (some would say right) while De Long is generally considered progressive or left). As great as HN is it is often contains incorrect information on basic facts and interpretation of events.