A little national politics intrudes in this little blog. A chance of pace. This is an issue that I have thought a lot about for many years.
Today the Tribune has an editorial titled "U.S. Must Engage Cuba Today To Foil Tomorrow's Dictator"
"The long, tight embargo of Cuba makes less and less sense with each step Fidel Castro takes toward his grave.
The time has come to relax the trade restrictions, allow freer travel and permit relatives here to support family members in Cuba. If a half century of U.S. hostility were going to change Cuba, it would have done so by now."
Finally, so sense on this issue. I have felt for a long time that our embargo of Cuba was dumb. Dumb only because it was not working. If you kept spraying a roach with an insecticide and the roach did not die, you would find something else to kill it. For more than 40 years, we had this embargo in place to try to get rid of Castro. And it did not work. He is still there. Only a natural death is going to cause him to leave. This embargo was kept by spite, not for any real reasons.
Who has been hurt by this embargo? Not Castro. Instead it was the Cuban people.
I believe in the power of the US dollar as a subversive tool. I think that is one of the many factors as to why the Soviet Union fell. Money and corruption changes politics. If the embargo were lifted and Americans went to Cuba, I think the current communist government would fall much quicker. I think that had we lifted the embargo 10 to 15 years ago, we would have seen a different Cuba today. Once people have money, expectations change. Change is demanded. I think the dollar in Cuba would have created something Castro would not have been able to control.
We in Tampa would majorly benefit. Before Castro, for a long time, Tampa was a major trading point with Cuba. If we lifted the embargo, we would be both a major air and sea transit point to Cuba, generating much jobs and dollars for our City. Also hundred's of 1950's antique cars would show up on our roadways, as collectors bought them from Cubans. Who knows, maybe even our Tampa cigar businesses might get a shot in the arm.
For this reason, I was always surprised the pro-business Republicans kept supporting the embargo. Cuba represents a new close market for US products. More resources for us to take.
This was the one thing I agreed with Dick Greco about. We need to send trade groups to Cuba and seize the opening spot when the market opens up. Mayor Iorio and City Council needs to lead this effort. This issues needs to be asked of the candidates.
What would this mean to Seminole Heights? Trickle down. With more jobs and money for Tampa some of it has to get to us. More money to be spent on our infrastructure.
The Embargo did not cause Cuba’s misery despite Fidel Castro’s attempts to blame the U.S. trade embargo for the collapse of the Cuban economy. The truth, however, is that Cuba's economic destruction was caused by the regime's ruinous economic policies. Specifically, Castro's command economy, based on a 1976 constitution and laws which prohibit private enterprise and ownership of property, completely destroyed the free market in Cuba, hindering economic growth and prosperity.
ReplyDeleteThe United States first imposed a trade embargo on Cuba on February 3, 1962, in response to Castro's confiscation of privately owned properties and other productive assets, as well as his aggressive support for violent communist revolution throughout the Western Hemisphere. The original goals of the embargo were to compel Castro to open Cuba's economy and establish democracy, to weaken Cuba's communist regime, and to force Castro to relinquish power. From the beginning, however, many industrialized countries have refused to cooperate with U.S. policy towards communist Cuba and have continued to maintain diplomatic and trade relations with the dictatorship. This includes such important U.S. partners as Canada and Mexico.
Soviet patronage and subsidies in excess of $4.5 billion a year enabled Castro to resist the U.S. trade embargo until 1989, all the while claiming a fictitious "success" for his Marxist revolution and building one of the most repressive and murderous regimes in the annals of communist totalitarianism. At least 14,000 Cuban citizens have been executed since 1959, and over 100,000 have been jailed for opposing the Castro regime, including at least 28,000 still in prison today.
Those who favor lifting the embargo often point to the claim that eliminating the embargo will encourage the growth of a free-market economy which will undermine the communist regime. Such comparisons are not valid. There are many steps Castro could take to improve economic and political conditions within his country, but he refuses to do so. These include:
Adopting free-market policies that include a reform of Cuba's constitution and passage of laws to abolish all legal prohibition of private enterprise and property ownership.
Holding democratic elections in the context of a politically pluralist society in which the Communist Party is compelled to compete with democratic organizations and political parties.
Freeing all political prisoners currently in Cuban jails.
Disbanding the Interior Ministry's security police and the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, which function as thought-control police and as spies in every neighborhood in Cuba.
Eliminating the Marxist political indoctrination, which is a central feature of Cuba's education system.
Restoring all confiscated assets and properties to their rightful owners, or agreeing to pay appropriate compensation for what the regime has stolen from them.
Without these steps, lifting the embargo would only assure Castro's continuing repression of the Cuban people. Those who advocate doing so are violating their own professed commitment to hemispheric democracy and the individual's right to self-determination. Castro is a ruthless, charismatic dictator and is a potential danger to all democratic, freedom-loving nations. He is an anachronism, but a dangerous one. The embargo, however, is not an anachronism; it is a legitimate instrument for achieving the goal of a free and democratic Cuba.
The United States must not abandon the Cuban people by relaxing or lifting the trade embargo against the communist regime. Instead, the U.S. government must reject all pressures to ease the embargo until all of the objectives for which it was imposed are achieved. Anything less would constitute an unacceptable breach of faith with the Cuban people, who today are among the very few people left in the world who still suffer the brutality of a communist dictatorship.
I think the popular notion that lifting the embargo would help free the Cuban people from communism is misguided. The embargo has kept Cuba as a nuisance and not a threat.
ReplyDeleteCommunist China has used it's money to build an military force that will soon rival ours in effectiveness. A financially strong Cuba would pour all of it's money into military activities therby strengthing, not weakening, the regime.
Ratsass...man where have you been?
ReplyDeleteHaven't seen you on here in a while. You certainly seem to be very informed on the Cuba subject.
Do you have any personal connection to the Cuban people? Just curious. You make a lot of sense in what you are saying.
The US in aiding Cuba's independence from Spain inserted into the "free" Cuba's constitution the clause that gave the US control over Cuba's foreign policy. It remained in Cuba's constitution until 1936. The US supported one corrupt leader after another. The supposedly "free" pre-Castro Cuba was run by a US puppet. Was a great playground for wealthy Americans and US businesses to exploit.
ReplyDeleteCastro initially had US support until he made it clear he would not be a US puppet.
He didn't start out communist but we sure as hell drove him into the arms of the old USSR. He ain't stupid, faced with a bully 90 miles away, he went and made friends strong enough to protect him from the bully.
So has Cuba ever really been free? Not since the first Spanish colonial government.
The Cuban government will survive the death of Castro. It may reform. But it will never change as long as it has a fear of her northern neighbor.
The idea of the US embargo against Cuba has been been a miserable failure from the beginning. It has accomplished the exact opposite of it's intended purpose: It has painted Castro and his regime as courageous resisters rather than force them out of power. Meaanwhile, it has strengthened his control while punishing the Cuban people. The embargo *IS* an anarchronism. It didnt work during the Cold War and it's not working now. Banning food and medicine to a neighboring country's population is a cruel and totally stupid policy. As was Operation Mongoose and the continuing covert terror war against Cuba, whatever they're calling ti now. TC, there is no security pretext to the embargo anymore. The Soviet Union collapsed 15 years ago. Cuba's not China.
ReplyDeleteNothing will change Cuba faster than a flood of US dollars in the pockets of US tourists.
ReplyDeleteIf you have any doubt of this, take a look at island life pre and post regular cruise ship stops. (And if you don't like the post, get to Dominica SOON because it's in the early stages of the change.)
Communism isn't terribly kind to wealthy merchants.