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Embargo? What Embargo?

According to Cuba Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez about 296,000 Cubans living abroad came back in 2009. Since 70% of the Cubans living abroad live in US, the number of Cuba Americans visiting the island amount to 210,000. The figures of the Oficina Nacional de Estadísticas (ONE), reported that 52,455 US citizens legally visited the island. If we add the 25,800 US citizens that illegally traveled to Cuba in violation of US law, the total number of US tourist visiting Cuba in 2009 amount to 288,200. This makes the US the second largest supplier of visitors to Cuba.

During the last 10 years 20.6 millions of tourist from around the world visited Cuba. Around 9.5% of those visitors were from the US, close to 2 million tourists. All those millions of tourist visiting Cuba didn’t have a visible impact on the system; they haven’t been able to influence a political and economic opening of the Castro brothers regime. So much for the argument of the US tourist power to bring about change.
 
The regime confronts a cash crunch to by foodstuffs from the US. Due to the world wide economic downturn the agricultural imports from the US have been reduced. Lifting the ban on travel restriction to Cuba by American citizens, would have the effect of increasing the demand of foodstuffs from the US due to tourist consumption. Cash revenue from tourism will allow the regime to by agricultural products from the US.

The motivation behind this attempt to remove the travel restrictions to Cuba, is not about democracy, is not about the Cuban people, is not even about the rights of Americans to travel; it is about cash. Nothing more, nothing else, just cash.
 
Persons of Cuban origin who are nationals of other countries need a Cuban passport to travel to the island. The regimen does not recognize dual citizenship. They have to solicit, through a non refundable pre-pay petition, permission to return to the country of their birth. The permission stamp in the passport is valid for 21 days only. The Cuban passport need be renewed every two years at a cost of $100 dollars. This has a double purpose, to generate revenue and screen who are not allow to enter the country.
 
US citizens who are exempt from the travel ban:

Officials from the government, journalists, academics, members of international organizations, professionals attending professional meetings or doing research, athletes on team competitions and religious groups are exempt from the US travel ban on Cuba.
 
"Mules" stretch limits of U.S. trade embargo on CubaMules stretch limits of U.S. trade embargo on Cuba | Reuters

By Esteban Israel
HAVANA |

Reuters) - It all starts with a description given over a mobile phone: "Look for a woman with long blonde hair, blue jeans, silver heels and a black T-shirt arriving on the next flight from Miami."

When the woman emerges from Havana's international airport pushing a cart loaded with bulky black duffel bags, she is greeted effusively by a man she has never seen before.

"They hug as if they had known each other all their lives. Once in the parking lot, the woman hands over the bags and says goodbye," says Yanet, a Miami resident.
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This type of things are very common, and the regime count on them to get more money. There isn’t too much difference between the traveling “mules” and the countless unnecessary trips to the island, millions of trivial long-distance phone calls, frequent remittances of money and merchandise for non-essential purposes. All of this benefit the regime and help keep it in place.
 
Many people knows this, it is not a secret. Most attempts to curbing it have minimal effect. The bottom line is that if Cubans living abroad keep using the mules and don’t help to control it, why the US government should bother to do it for them?
 
Implications of Ending the Cuba Travel BanWelcome to the Cuba Transition Project at the University of Miami

Jaime Suchlicki*

The recent release of political prisoners in Cuba is an obvious maneuver by the Castro regime to influence the U.S. Congress into easing the embargo and ending the travel ban. “Give little and get a lot” has been the policy of the Castro brothers for the past half a century. By releasing a small fraction of Cuba’s political prisoners, they are also hoping to weaken the Europeans’ common position toward Cuba and reward Spain’s fruitless four year effort to influence the Cuban government.
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Excellent article by Jaime Suchlicki, where he analyze the incorrect arguments of ending the travel band, answering very convincingly each one of the specific considerations of those that support the end of the travel band.
 
Welcome to the Cuba Transition Project at the University of Miami

nice info.

also...

Ha_ha_truth.jpg


I hope these aren't professors that wrote this. They may have to attend some of my classes.
 
The Cuban Embargo Myth
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-cuban-embargo-myth/

The U.S. ranks right between Red China and Hugo’s Venezuela as a Castro business partner.

August 24, 2010 - by Humberto Fontova

Currently the U.S. “blockades” or “embargoes” Cuba, right? Of course. We read and hear about this embargo in every MSM mention of Cuba, most recently from an Obama spokesperson as interpreted by the New York Times:

The Obama administration is planning to expand opportunities for Americans to travel to Cuba, the latest step aimed at encouraging more contact between people in both countries … while leaving intact the decades-old embargo against the island’s Communist government.

Congressional Black Caucus member and frequent Cuba visitor Barbara Lee also chimed in recently: “[W]e can move forward with lifting the travel ban and ending the embargo with Cuba.”

Webster’s defines “embargo” as “a government order imposing a trade barrier.” As a verb it’s defined as “to prevent commerce.”
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The Cuba food import agency Alimport, affirmed that since operations began in December 2001 to date, the island has transacted more than $4.4 billion worth of business with the US. Cuba's National Statistics Office placed the United States as Cuba’s fifth business partner at $801 million in 2008. Currently the US is Cuba’s first food supplier and the most generous donor of humanitarian aid for decades.
Latin American Herald Tribune - Cuba Imported $4.4 Billion in Food from U.S. Since 2001
National Statistics Office (ONE)
(Anuario Estadístico de Cuba - 2008)
 
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Lift embargo on Cuba? Not so fast
Lift embargo on Cuba? Not so fast - The Boston Globe

By Jeff Jacoby
Globe Columnist

IS IT time to unplug the American embargo against Cuba? The prospect seems to tempt more people than ever. It ought to be resisted.

The New York Times reported last week that the Obama administration intends to expand opportunities for Americans to visit Cuba, loosening the rules under which academic, religious, and cultural groups can travel there. The new regulations are seen as a signal of presidential support for legislation sponsored by US Representative Collin Peterson that would repeal the travel limitations altogether.
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Even after we lift what if left from the embargo, the regime will be repressive. And their left-leaning allies will still blame the US for the failures of Castroism. They will keep calling the dissidents agents of the CIA, and will defend the regime until its demise.
 
It doesn’t matter how badly or for how long the Castros regime fails, there always be some progressives dreaming about a worker's utopia. But an objective view of the last 100 years will show that nothing raises more people out of poverty than a capitalism system. So far nobody has been able to improve upon a free and open market.
 
U.S. tourist dollars would only tighten Cuba's grip on power
U.S. tourist dollars would only tighten Cuba's grip on power - Sun Sentinel

By George LeMieux

The recent Sun Sentinel editorial, "Lifting ban on travel to Cuba best way to push democratic ideals," fails to consider the most important facts regarding U.S. Cuba policy.

First, tourism travel to Cuba represents the Castro regime's foremost source of income — akin to the energy industry being Iran's foremost source of income and thus the main target of sanctions. Few would disagree that Canadian and European tourists have financed the existence of the Castro regime, and therefore their repression of the Cuban people. For the United States to create a tourism bonanza for the regime at this time would provide the dictatorship an economic lifeline.

Second, to argue that U.S. tourists are going to stir the winds of political and economic change by spreading democratic ideals is unrealistic and insensitive. What could tourists do to surpass the efforts of Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, Guido Sigler Amaya and other courageous Cubans currently spending decades in prison for advocating democratic ideals?
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George LeMieux U.S. senator from Florida provides Sun Sentinel readers with a dose of reality with regards to lifting the travel band to Cuba.
 
ricksfolly said:
Naturally we all hope Cuba can be Americanized, but at what cost?
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May God protect them from such a fate, even if they don't believe in him. Americanisation is working so well for Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, not to mention Mexico.
 
Cuba Visitors Wear Horse BlindersCuba Visitors Wear Horse Blinders by Miguel Perez on Creators.com - A Syndicate Of Talent

Whenever fellow Americans tell me, "I just came back from Cuba" or "I'm planning a vacation in Cuba soon," they obviously think they are paying me some kind of compliment. Because I was born on that precious Caribbean island, they think such statements would lead to some sort of bonding. They don't know it makes me lose respect for them.

"Oh, really?" I usually reply, straining to be polite.

As they proceed to tell me about all the places they visited and the people they met, I usually am thinking about all the places they weren't allowed to see and all the people they were not allowed to meet.

Cuba's dungeons for political prisoners and chats with constantly harassed Cuban dissidents surely were not on their tourist itineraries.
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The article reflects how some Cuban Americans feel about travelling to Cuba. If you had to leave because you refused to be a number, how can you go back? You even have to ask for permission to go back to your own country? With regard to foreigners, they look at Cuba as a third world country that does not aspire to live in freedom because they don't know any better. I don't see that the Canadian or European tourism having done anything to inspire any changes.
 
I have arrived to the conclusion that when Progressives speak of civil rights, they really mean socialist rights. When the civil rights come into conflict with Socialist regimes, their support for civil rights violations by those regimes disappears. Most the time they keep silence about those violations, and sometimes they mention that it is “for the greater good.” What that means is that if you are not a socialist, something awful and sometimes deadly will happen to you in the name of “the greater good of the people.”
 
Despite embargo, Cuba a haven for pirated U.S. goodsDespite embargo, Cuba a haven for pirated U.S. goods | Reuters

September 2, 2010

* Pirated U.S. TV shows, movies, software abound in Cuba
* U.S.-Cuba embargo blocks legal access to most U.S. goods
* Lack of formal U.S.-Cuba relations hurts enforcement

By Esteban Israel

HAVANA, Sept 2 (Reuters) - A few weeks after Ashton Kutcher's latest comedy "Killers" premiered in the United States, the movie was already entertaining the masses in communist Cuba.

For two pesos, the equivalent of nine U.S. cents, the state-owned Yara movie theater in the heart of Havana offered Cubans a washed out and pixilated copy of Kutcher's adventures as a CIA assassin who is himself targeted for a hit.
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Reuters interpretation of the criminal and illegal act of pirating movies and software is that it is a missed business opportunity. Maybe Reuters think the US, by trying to catch and imprison organized crime syndicates, is missing out on other business opportunities instead of negotiating business deals with them.
 
Even in this article about pirating goods, Reuters manage to take a shot against the embargo. What makes Reuters thing that free commerce with the Castros’ regime is going to control pirating? Well, logic is not the point, the point is to attack the embargo
 
Cuba: No lifeline to a dying regimeCuba: No lifeline to a dying regime | Shadow Government

By Stephen Johnson

When in a bind, Cuba's Castro brothers sometimes ease their repressive grip on the island's population. Case in point: during the current economic crunch, President Raúl Castro has released some two dozen political prisoners, revived a lapsed self-employment experiment, and allowed foreigners to lease land for 99 years. Impressive, except we've seen this movie before.

And to remove any doubt about its meaning, President Raúl Castro reportedly told his National Assembly that it does not signal a change in the 50-year-old anti-American police state. Which is why the United States should not significantly alter its equally long-lived trade embargo. The tougher it gets for the regime, the more likely that a few small freedoms will last longer -- hopefully until the two brothers go to the great commune in the sky.
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Excellent article by Stephen Johnson about the attempts by the Castro regime to clean up its image and secure its complete control on power. The regimen has used this tactic on many occasions. The mainstream media should have recognized this latest tactic as the same one used before, if it were not so ignorant of Cuban history.
 
Look that it is a lose-lose proposition for the regime. If it allows tens of thousands escape from the island and look for refuge in the US, it will create a diplomatic confrontation and show the world the extreme discontent of the Cuban people with the regime. If the Castros’ regime, on the other hand, crack down on the dissatisfied Cuban citizens, their resistance will built up to a breaking point were rage overtake them and take matters on their own hands. I believe the end of the regime is closer that we think.
 
Sandokan said:
Look that it is a lose-lose proposition for the regime. If it allows tens of thousands escape from the island and look for refuge in the US, it will create a diplomatic confrontation and show the world the extreme discontent of the Cuban people with the regime. If the Castros’ regime, on the other hand, crack down on the dissatisfied Cuban citizens, their resistance will built up to a breaking point were rage overtake them and take matters on their own hands. I believe the end of the regime is closer that we think.
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You're theorizing revolution. Under several assumptions.
 
Cuba move is a victory for U.S. policyCuba move is a victory for U.S. policy | Shadow Government

By José R. Cárdenas
September 22, 2010

The Castro regime's stunning announcement that it is planning to lay off more than 500,000 state workers in the next six months, dropping fully one-tenth of the country's labor force into a barely existent "private sector" has sparked a flurry of commentary on just what the move portends for the captive island's future.

Does it mean Cuba going capitalist? Are they importing the China model? Who's really in charge, Fidel or brother Raul? And, of course, that hardy perennial, whatever the announcement means, the U.S. should immediately lift the embargo and restore full diplomatic relations with the Castro regime (see here, here, and here).
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Cuban experts say “sanctions aren't working,” so they shall be lifted. The same experts say “sanctions are working,” so they shall be lifted. Which is which? They used to be sure, but now they changed their mind. So much for the “experts”.
 
Very soon fear mongering news articles about the social impact of the embargo will appear, arguing that it is the primary cause of the regime instability that will be facing a human security crisis, leading to another Mariel boat lift.
 
Sandokan said:
Correct answer. If travel restrictions are lifted, we can expect the communist regime in Cuba to do all it can to encourage immoral behavior. Spring breakers will be lured by the promise of unrestricted alcohol and drug sale to minors the sex trade already a staple of tourism to Cuba will also increase
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and this is an argument *not* to lift those restrictions?

confused, I am
 
According to the National Statistics Office (ONE), the U.S. agricultural sales to Cuba were $ 675 million in 2009, making the U.S. the fifth commercial partner of the island, after Venezuela, China, Spain and Canada in that order.

The most recent report from the Center for North American Studies at the Texas University A&M concluded that U.S. exports to Cuba in 2009 involved a commercial activity of $600 million. The difference of the data with the ONE is due to insurance and freight costs.

After reaching a peak of $ 711 million in 2008, the Cuban purchases to the U.S. in 2009 fell by 26 percent, according to the report of the ONE.
 
Castro’s Gift
Castro’s Gift - October 4, 2010 - The New York Sun

Cubans Fleeing To America Threaten Him Not Us
Editorial of The New York Sun | October 4, 2010

“If U.S. leaders were to pause and reflect as Fidel Castro has, they, too, would recognize that times have changed. Cuba is no longer the security threat that it was during the Cold War; it’s just another failed communist state. The biggest threat now is the potential for waves of economically desperate refugees.”

The quote above is from an editorial in the September 27 number of USA Today calling for an end to the embargo of Cuba. We first read it in a blog of the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg. USA Today’s editorial catches our attention because we’ve rarely seen a quote that so succinctly illuminates one of the important underlying differences of opinion on this issue. One side — let’s call it the USA Today view — sees the “biggest threat” we’re now facing from Cuba as the “potential for waves of economically desperate refugees.” The other side — let’s call it the New York Sun view — sees the “potential for waves of economically desperate refugees” as no threat whatsoever to America. The refugees’ departure is a threat only to Cuba. By our lights, the exodus of Cubans to America has been a great boon to our country. An ironist could call it “Castro’s Gift.”
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Some newspapers, like The New York Sun, get it right. The Sun is one of the few bright spot in a landscape dominated by the liberal media darkness.
 
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