The United States has punished Cuba and its population with an economic blockade since 1958.

Omissions

• The 1958 US measure was an arms embargo against the Batista government (arms shipments suspended in mid-March 1958), not an economic blockade against Cuba's island and population.
• The economic/trade blockade began in 1960: Eisenhower imposed the first economic sanctions against Cuba's revolutionary government in 1960, and the State Department's trade embargo was imposed on 19 October 1960.
• The blockade was formalised and extended by Proclamation 3447 on 7 February 1962, which prohibited all trade with Cuba.
• The claim's framing conflates an early arms embargo (1958) with the later comprehensive economic blockade, artificially lengthening the timeline by about two years.

Sources

• PrimaryOffice of the Historian (U.S. Department of State) — Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Cuba, Volume VI, Document 48Reference to the 'suspension of arms sales to the Batista regime' in 1958.
• SecondaryFlorida International University — Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, Chronology of U.S.-Cuba Relations1958: 'In the same month, the United States imposes an arms embargo against the Batista government.'
• SecondaryNational Security Archive — 'Cuba Embargoed: U.S. Trade Sanctions Turn Sixty'1960. President Dwight D. Eisenhower imposed the first economic sanctions against Cuba's revolutionary government, though they fell short of a full embargo.
• SecondaryTIME — 'US Trade Embargo on Cuba Just Hit 55 Years'Eisenhower's State Department imposed the first trade embargo on Cuba on Oct. 19, 1960. The original embargo covered all U.S. exports to Cuba.
• SecondaryThe New York Times — 'U. S. EMBARGO SET ON ARMS TO CUBA; SHIPMENT HALTED'It suspended a shipment of 1,950 Garand rifles bought by the Cuban Government of President Fulgencio Batista. (Arms embargo imposed in 1958.)