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Embargo? What Embargo?

Measured by those parameters, U.S. sanctions have been successful in Cuba, and should be maintained. U.S. policy shouldn’t be used to bail out a failed dictatorship and help it survive.

Cuba will still be a failed economy without the embargo. However, there is no reason for the US to keep up an embargo that only hurts the Cuban people. Nothing has been accomplished for half a century. Time to give it up.
 
This is one of the few times that I agree with Castro. In this case a 100%. Keep the embargo until he cry uncle.

He has shown for years that he will not cry uncle. Why do we continue this unwinnable fight? I don't know what the solution is for Cuba to rid itself of this cancer that is Communism, but I do know that the embargo has not been, is not, and will not be the answer.
 
He has shown for years that he will not cry uncle. Why do we continue this unwinnable fight? I don't know what the solution is for Cuba to rid itself of this cancer that is Communism, but I do know that the embargo has not been, is not, and will not be the answer.
The approval of credits to the Castro brothers’ regime by the United States would only replace the Soviet subsidy that they no longer receives, and will delay the transition of the Cuban people towards democracy guaranteeing additional decades of oppression and misery. Castro brothers’ tyranny looks forward to the day when the military apparatus and the massive repressive security service will be maintained at the expense of the United States government.
 
The approval of credits to the Castro brothers’ regime by the United States would only replace the Soviet subsidy that they no longer receives, and will delay the transition of the Cuban people towards democracy guaranteeing additional decades of oppression and misery. Castro brothers’ tyranny looks forward to the day when the military apparatus and the massive repressive security service will be maintained at the expense of the United States government.

It's not happening like that. The Soviet subsidy has been gone for 20 years plus the embargo and still not even an inkling of change. Quit the embargo already, it's obviously not hurting the regime, but it definitely is hurting the people. I have relatives there, so it's very personal to me that the people there have the best opportunity possible. I don't know what to do to get them a better government, but I do know that the embargo only hurts them.
 
Truth about the travel ban
Truth about the travel ban - Other Views - MiamiHerald.com

By Mauricio Claver-Carone
US-Cuba Democracy Pac

Every day there seems to be a new effort to lift U.S. sanctions toward Cuba, in particular the ``travel ban.'' The latest is a bill by House Agriculture Committee Chairman Colin Peterson, of Minnesota, and U.S. Rep. Jerry Moran, of Kansas, supposedly aimed at increasing agricultural sales to the Castro regime. But its most dramatic provision would end the ``travel ban.''

Tragically, the Peterson-Moran bill was introduced on the same day that 42-year-old Cuban pro-democracy leader and Amnesty International ``prisoner of conscience'' Orlando Zapata Tamayo died after an almost three-months'-long hunger strike protesting the brutal beatings, abuses and prison conditions he endured.

While supporters of loosening the travel ban make bold predictions and philosophical arguments, few stick to the facts. Consider:

• There is no ban on travel to Cuba -- only a ban on taking an exotic vacation there. The Department of Treasury's responsibility, under the trading With the Enemy Act (TWEA), is to prohibit or regulate commercial ``transactions'' related to travel, not travel per se.

Travel to Cuba is authorized for a variety of reasons, ranging from academic, religious and family visits to visits in support of civil society. Tens of thousands of Americans legally travel to Cuba for these purposes every year.

• Tourism is the main source of income for the Castro regime. Cuba's tourism industry is operated and owned by the Cuban military, the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (MINFAR).
If the Castro brothers’ regime really wanted US tourists to roam the streets of Havana, they wouldn't have beat up Yoani, arrested and continued to detain the US contractor, allowed Zapata Tamayo to die, nor badmouth Obama at every step of the way since the announcement of last November's House hearings. As Sec. Clinton said, ``There's proof that each time we try to promote an increased free flow of people and information, the Castro regime digs in.''
 
If the Castro brothers’ regime really wanted US tourists to roam the streets of Havana, they wouldn't have beat up Yoani, arrested and continued to detain the US contractor, allowed Zapata Tamayo to die, nor badmouth Obama at every step of the way since the announcement of last November's House hearings. As Sec. Clinton said, ``There's proof that each time we try to promote an increased free flow of people and information, the Castro regime digs in.''

Yes, yes. That makes perfect sense. A country who's entire industry for the last 20 years has been overly reliant on tourism is beating up people just so tourists of a certain kind won't go over. You sound like a Miami transplant. Tell us, how do they manage to beat up people and keep Americans away but not the thousands of Canadians, Italians, Spaniards, Czechs and British who travel to the country each week? Oh those Cubans! They must have some secret weapon designed to keep us Americans away. Or you could be simply talking about something you obviously have no clue about. American tourists travel to Syria, Nigeria and China every year. Those countries commit far more human rights abuses than Cuba and yet somehow Cuba seems to be the only one keeping Americans away. Your logic is obviously flawed.
 
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Castros regime currently trades with practically every other capitalist country in the world. Nevertheless, it has never ceased blaming them, as it does with the US, for all their ineptness and troubles while collecting billions of dollars in revenue from them.

There is a complete lack of evidence that trade and the interaction with the millions of tourists from democratic societies has had any effect whatsoever in bringing about positive changes in Cuba.
 
There is a complete lack of evidence that trade and the interaction with the millions of tourists from democratic societies has had any effect whatsoever in bringing about positive changes in Cuba.

There is a compelte lack of evidence that the trade embargo and the holding back of tourists from America has had any effect whatsoever in brining about positive changes in Cuba.
 
It's not happening like that. The Soviet subsidy has been gone for 20 years plus the embargo and still not even an inkling of change. Quit the embargo already, it's obviously not hurting the regime, but it definitely is hurting the people. I have relatives there, so it's very personal to me that the people there have the best opportunity possible. I don't know what to do to get them a better government, but I do know that the embargo only hurts them.

If one party lifts the embargo, the other party will call them weak appeasers. It's just more gotcha politics and how the voters react. Neither party cares a whit about the people, only what it takes to get reelected.

ricksfolly
 
The necessary steps required to be taken by the Cuban government to ease the ban on trade and travel between the two countries shall be:

Opposition parties should have the freedom to organize, assemble, and speak, with equal access to all airwaves. All political prisoners must be released and allowed to participate.

Human rights organizations should be free to visit Cuba to ensure that the conditions for free elections are being created.

Without major steps by Cuba to open up its political system and its economic system, trade with Cuba will not help the Cuban people.
 
Except for lower prices for goods.
 
Except for lower prices for goods.
What will bring "Change" to Cuba are free elections, the freeing of all political prisoners, and the implementation of a market economy. Everything else is “mental masturbation!”
 
What will bring "Change" to Cuba are free elections, the freeing of all political prisoners, and the implementation of a market economy. Everything else is “mental masturbation!”

That would be nice, but the embargo will not bring that about. All those years of trying and it just hasn't worked. A new approach is needed because the emargo only hurts the people of Cuba.
 
That would be nice, but the embargo will not bring that about. All those years of trying and it just hasn't worked. A new approach is needed because the emargo only hurts the people of Cuba.
You don’t need to look further; here you have the answer from the “horse” mouth:

“It is necessary to impose financial, economic and material restrictions to dictatorships, so that they will not take roots for long years….Diplomatic and morals measures do not work against dictatorships, because these make fun of the Governments and the population”. Excerpt from the book “Fidel Castro and Human Rights”, Editora Política, Havana, Cuba, 1988.
 
Yet the embargo has had no effect on him. Explain.
 
You don’t need to look further; here you have the answer from the “horse” mouth:

“It is necessary to impose financial, economic and material restrictions to dictatorships, so that they will not take roots for long years….Diplomatic and morals measures do not work against dictatorships, because these make fun of the Governments and the population”. Excerpt from the book “Fidel Castro and Human Rights”, Editora Política, Havana, Cuba, 1988.

Dictatorships still buy things from other countries, so it's not a good idea to do things that make them mad enough to take our name off their buy list. Counter productive, actually.

It's also rather dumb to think we can permanently force any country into our way of thinking and doing, especially countries 2000 years old.

ricksfolly
 
The true change will come the day that Cuba is truly a free democratic society. A society where it's citizens have a representative government, made up of multiple parties and are ruled by a constitution that follow the inalienable rights of all human beings. The ability for every Cuban citizen to be able to live free and seek their dreams with dignity and respect of themselves and feel accomplished in their lives. It is only then that there will be a change in Cuba, anything else is futile.
 
The true change will come the day that Cuba is truly a free democratic society. A society where it's citizens have a representative government, made up of multiple parties and are ruled by a constitution that follow the inalienable rights of all human beings. The ability for every Cuban citizen to be able to live free and seek their dreams with dignity and respect of themselves and feel accomplished in their lives. It is only then that there will be a change in Cuba, anything else is futile.

They will pretty much live in hell until then, but might as well cool the temperature a little by ending the embargo.
 
The true change will come the day that Cuba is truly a free democratic society. A society where it's citizens have a representative government, made up of multiple parties and are ruled by a constitution that follow the inalienable rights of all human beings. The ability for every Cuban citizen to be able to live free and seek their dreams with dignity and respect of themselves and feel accomplished in their lives. It is only then that there will be a change in Cuba, anything else is futile.

Naturally we all hope Cuba can be Americanized, but at what cost?

It would take an invasion to overthrow the oppressive government, and nation rebuilding is not a viable political ploy anymore.

ricksfolly
 
Cuban Communists and the California Farm Bureau

Statement by U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes of California on April 29, 2010, at Ways and Means' Trade Subcommittee hearing on U.S.-Cuba Policy:

Video link: YouTube - Cuban Communists and the California Farm Bureau

RepDevinNunes — April 29, 2010 — Our allies in Central and South America are under constant assault by hostile powers including Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. Without our support, we leave these friendly Democracies at the mercy of anti America sentiment and militant Marxist ideology.
Rep. Devin Nunes is very clear and forthright in his assessment of trade with the Cuban military regime. I wish him a long successful political career
 
Ok trade and tourism with a totalitarian socialist pro communist country doesnt make them more democratic? K- F***ing shut down Free Trade yesterday! We ainta gonna do nothin but enhance communist china as the greatest trojan horse the modern world has ever known.
 
One thing that the constitution expressly mentions about the power of the federal government, it's in the arena of regulating trade. The way the embargo has been structured, it's a trade policy; it is about spending dollars in a foreign country. There are many ways a US citizen can visit Cuba. What's restricted is spending money there as a tourist. There's a reason why people who travel to Cuba legally have to get a license from OFAC (the office of foreign asset control) which is part of the treasury department. The embargo exists because of the Castro brothers expropriation of American assets.
 
Why don't you comment about the article? Your question is irrelevant, nothing to do with the Thread.

Cuba imports ketchup, mostly from Spain (that is a long way to ship what are basically tomatoes with water and a little salt) and some from Mexico. Can’t these Socialist Genius figure out how to make ketchup? To me it sums it all up in a nutshell, and exposes the complete and utter failure of the Socialist system in even the most basic of industries, and their inability to feed their own population on a tropical island with more land mass than all other Caribbean islands combined.

Your country imports so much that it keeps the largest nation in the world, China, afloat. It seems a bit strange that you would then equate importing with socialism. Especially when China are the worlds leading exporters..
 
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Cuba must compensate US before embargo is lifted: lawmaker
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100429/pl_afp/uscubauspoliticsdiplomacyeconomy_20100429215436

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Cuba must pay the United States six billion dollars in compensation for expropriated businesses and property before Washington lifts a decades-old trade embargo, a US lawmaker said Thursday.

"We must resolve the over six billion dollars in expropriation claims... before developing a more robust economic relationship with a post-Castro democratic government in Cuba," said Kevin Brady, a Republican US representative from the state of Texas, speaking at a congressional hearing on US trade with Cuba.

Brady's remarks come after a top Cuban official last week challenged the United States to lift its punishing economic embargo against Havana.

Cuba's National Assembly president Ricardo Alarcon pressed Washington to "lift it, even for a year, to see whether it is in our interest or theirs."

After coming to power in 1959, Cuban leader Fidel Castro nationalized numerous US enterprises in the name of the communist revolution.

In 1972, the value of Cuba's expropriated US property was estimated to be worth about 1.8 billion dollars, according to a US government panel that examined the issue.

That sum has grown more than three-fold over the years because of compounding interest, set at an annual rate of six percent.
The United States embargo was enacted in response to the illegal expropriation of properties belonging to t US citizens by the Castro brothers’ military tyranny, with a value of over $1 billion at the time of the expropriation. Taking into consideration that 50 years has passed since those claims were made; the actual value of the claims including inflation and interest is close to $ 6 billion.
 
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