The history

It authorizes the president to impose the total embargo and bans all US aid to Cuba.

The island loses access to the American market: no Cuban goods may enter the US again.

The regulation that has run the blockade for sixty years: every president tightens or loosens from here.

The label triggers automatic bans on aid, exports and finance.

After five years, travel is banned again: only authorized categories remain.

An American company cannot sell to Cuba even through its subsidiaries in Europe or elsewhere.

The embargo stops being a presidential choice: lifting it takes an act of Congress.

On paper it opens food and medicine; in practice it demands payment before the ship sails.

Bush tightens family ties: one visit every three years, $300 in remittances per quarter, $50 a day.

It hits the army-run conglomerate that controls over 40 percent of Cuba's economy: hotels, ports, remittances.

No ship is stopped at sea: shipowners give up on their own, for fear of sanctions.

It covers properties nationalized in 1959-60: whoever uses them, even a European hotel, can be sued in the US.

It cuts the money emigrants send their families and shuts down dollar banking transit.

The rule that stops the pacemakers: it covers goods made anywhere, if US technology is inside.

The main remittance channel collapses: all 407 Western Union offices on the island close.

The label returns: foreign banks and investors pull out beyond what the law requires.

Six days earlier Cuba had come off the terrorism list. On day one of the term it goes back on, and the automatic bans on aid, exports and finance return.

Denies US visas to officials of countries that hire Cuban doctors. It squeezes the island's largest export, professional services.

Transactions barred with the entity that handles remittances. Western Union again suspends transfers from the United States to the island.

The restricted entity list is back, along with the ban on transactions with the army conglomerate: hotels, ports, remittances.

It threatens tariffs on anyone selling oil to Cuba. None will ever apply: the announcement alone shifts supply.

The mechanism falls after three weeks, with no duty ever applied: the Supreme Court held that the statute gave the president no power to impose tariffs. The national emergency stands.

Assets frozen in the US, sanctions on foreign banks too. The big shipping lines pull out.

After the order come the names: in May the army conglomerate, on 11 June the state oil company. Anyone dealing with them risks sanctions.

The operator of Cuba's main port terminal is sanctioned. Calling at Mariel means dealing with an entity under US sanctions.