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Embargo? What Embargo?

Hawaiian Shirts and Mojitos Will Not Free Cuba
Hawaiian Shirts and Mojitos Will Not Free Cuba

US Tourism Only Lines Castro's Pockets, Says Exiled Journalist Ninoska Pérez

Vanessa Arita October 23, 2015

ft-cuba-ninoska-perez.png

Despite the ongoing repression of citizens on the island, Cuba is set to become a new tourist destination for US residents. (Travel Blog)

Following renewed diplomatic relations with the United States this summer, we have seen Cuba reappear in news headlines across the globe. This was especially true after Pope Francis visited the island in September.

Cuban journalist Ninoska Pérez, however, believes these recent developments should not transform our image of Cuba. The island has been ruled by a dictatorship for 56 years, and that certainly hasn’t changed, she says.

Is Cuba freer today than before President Barack Obama changed US policies toward Cuba?

Absolutely not. Figures show a rise in the number of arrests, and government officials repress the Ladies in White and other activists every Sunday.
Click link above for full article.
The Obama administration removed the travel restriction imposed by the first Bush administration on Cuban Americans traveling to Cuba, and authorized licenses for travel to more than 250 Cuba travel agents and allowed more airports to provide charter service between the two countries.

The Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces through the tourist company Gaviota hold by the conglomerate Grupo GAESA, led by Raul Castro son in law, runs the Cuba’s tourist industry. Revenues from tourist industry benefit the Castroit regime, not the Cuban people.

Lifting the travel ban now will amount to giving away future leverage for nothing in return. An end to the travel ban should be used as leverage in support of a future transitional regime.
 
The Obama administration removed the travel restriction imposed by the first Bush administration on Cuban Americans traveling to Cuba, and authorized licenses for travel to more than 250 Cuba travel agents and allowed more airports to provide charter service between the two countries.

The Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces through the tourist company Gaviota hold by the conglomerate Grupo GAESA, led by Raul Castro son in law, runs the Cuba’s tourist industry. Revenues from tourist industry benefit the Castroit regime, not the Cuban people.

Lifting the travel ban now will amount to giving away future leverage for nothing in return. An end to the travel ban should be used as leverage in support of a future transitional regime.

How long do you think it will be until tourists start getting arrested? I was in Santa Clara on US Inauguration day. I wanted to honor President Trump perhaps with some signs at Parque Vidal. People talked me out of it saying that it would be a sure fire way to get arrested. Rednecks and Communism don't mix.
 
How long do you think it will be until tourists start getting arrested? I was in Santa Clara on US Inauguration day. I wanted to honor President Trump perhaps with some signs at Parque Vidal. People talked me out of it saying that it would be a sure fire way to get arrested. Rednecks and Communism don't mix.
Tourists will not be arrested unless they commit a punishable crime. But if they meet with the dissidents and criticize in public the regime for the repression of the Cuban people and lack of human rights, they will find out that their belongings in their hotel room have been ransacked, or their rented car has been vandalized or they have an “accident”, and will have to stay in the island until they pay for all the cost of repair and hospitalization. All of these have already happened before.
 
Can Cuba Afford to Pay?
Can Cuba Afford to Pay? | International Claims - PobleteTamargo LLP

By Mauricio Tamargo
Tuesday, 27 October 2015

There are Certain Cuba policy advocates and lobbyists in Washington, DC that are in a hurry to normalize trade relations with Cuba. One of the things that we keep hearing repeatedly from these people is that American certified claimants need to settle for pennies on the dollar because Cuba does not have the money to pay.

Well, that is just not true and those who keep repeating that misinformation are undercutting our State Department’s negotiating team who are trying to get the best deal they can for the American claimants. Here are a few facts which give us a good indication of Cuba’s ability to pay the $8 billion debt represented by the 5,913 certified claims.

Forbes Magazine used to list both Castro brothers on its list of the top 100 richest people in the world. Forbes later removed the Castro brothers from the “Top 100” after the Cuban government objected, indicating those Swiss bank accounts in both Fidel and Raul’s names are held by the Castro brothers on “behalf of the Cuban people.”

The Paris Club recently announced that they are entering into negotiations with the Cuban government to restructure the $15 billion debt arising for a 1986 default by Cuba. Financial experts have opined that the Paris Club creditors believe Cuba and the US may normalize trade relations and would give Cuba more revenue to start paying the Paris Club.
Click link above for full article.
Castroism has been disastrous to standard of living of the Cuban people, as it has been to Russia, China and other communist regimes. The regime 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 taxpayers.
 
Castroism has been disastrous to standard of living of the Cuban people, as it has been to Russia, China and other communist regimes. The regime 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 taxpayers.

That sounds like quite a conspiracy theory, unless you count welfare benefits paid to Cubans in Miami being sent back to the island. However, Cuba might be a useful place for tourists to see Communism face-to-face. A few conversations with bicytaxistas, random people on the street or waiting in lines tells a pretty good story. When multiple people beg and ask "puedes me regalar un jabon?", you know that they are not doing well.
 
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.

Tightening sanctions is beyond stupid by the US.
Yet Cubans have excellent health care. How is the US doing in comparison?
 
Tightening sanctions is beyond stupid by the US.
Yet Cubans have excellent health care. How is the US doing in comparison?

Now that's a copy-and-paste opinion if there ever was one. Healthcare in Cuba is barely passable. I know; I looked. If you're willing to get skilled at blowing off hospital bills, health care in the USA is the best there is. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is your friend.
 
Now that's a copy-and-paste opinion if there ever was one. Healthcare in Cuba is barely passable. I know; I looked. If you're willing to get skilled at blowing off hospital bills, health care in the USA is the best there is. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is your friend.

For those that can afford it after and if the Trump house bill is approved
 
For those that can afford it after and if the Trump house bill is approved

There's nothing indicating making changes to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Getting a bill is one thing; paying it is another.
 
That sounds like quite a conspiracy theory, unless you count welfare benefits paid to Cubans in Miami being sent back to the island. However, Cuba might be a useful place for tourists to see Communism face-to-face. A few conversations with bicytaxistas, random people on the street or waiting in lines tells a pretty good story. When multiple people beg and ask "puedes me regalar un jabon?", you know that they are not doing well.
Agribusinesses have no problem in selling on credit, since the U.S. Treasury Department guarantee their repayment to them in the event of a default. These credits will not be paid and the American taxpayers will be the losers, the ones to pick up the debt, as it happens at the present time with the taxpayers of many countries.

By 2014 the Castroit regime’s foreign debt amounted to $35 billion with The Paris Club, $35 billion to Russia, 10 billion to China, 25 billion to Venezuela, 3.5 billion to Japan and another 8.5 billion with other countries, for a total staggering debt of $117 billion.

Subcommittee Hearing: Agricultural Trade with Cuba
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hauSv0f9FFI&app=desktop
 
Gulliver Against Twelve Thousand Dwarves
Gulliver Against Twelve Thousand Dwarves / 14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner – Translating Cuba

Carlos Alberto Montaner
October 31, 2015

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Miami, 31 October 2015 – Cuba 191, United States 2. This is called a diplomatic beating. One-hundred-ninety-one countries at the United Nations voted in favor of a resolution presented by Cuba against the commercial and financial restrictions imposed by the United States on the Castros’ government in 1961. Only two nations opposed it: The United States and Israel.

It has been happening for a long time. The novelty is that this year Obama’s government secretly celebrated it, although the law and common sense oblige American diplomacy to reject the resolution. The president himself has urged Congress to repeal the measure.

In any case, the United States, truly, was not defended. At the end of the day, these UN resolutions are not binding. It is pure propaganda within an organization so discredited that it chose Venezuela and Ecuador to belong to a committee that monitors the observance of Human Rights, which is like putting the fox to guard the henhouse.
Click link above for full article.
The Castroit regime never has care about the Cuban people, it only care about keeping power and its survival. The motives of the dwarves go from quick profits without regard for morality up to envy and hate of the U.S. by many countries. Nothing has changed in the last 59 years since the communist Castroit regime took control of the island. The dwarves have not succeeded due to the fact that the UN resolution is not bidding.
 
If the Castro regime were a right wing dictatorship instead of a Stalinist one, the EU and Latin American nations would have cooperated to isolate it and force changes, like was done to the South African apartheid regime.

The two dinosaurs are old, Fidel, senile (they lie about his mental condition), passed away, Raul is very old and lacks energy, and the second Castro generation lacks intelligent crafty males.

So, at a time when the Castros' hold in Venezuela's riches is tenuous, when Venezuela falls apart because Chávez and Maduro are like littles Fidel, the regime lacks the funds to survive. Obama and his advisors ridded to the rescue at a point in time when the regime is drowning.
 
Nowadays Raúl is moving towards Chinese style ruthless capitalism, with a neofascist political control machine.

The Cuban regime controls the majority of Cubans, but there are over one million they don't control. And they happen to be smarter and harder working. They have spent half a century being insulted, denigrated, trashed, abused, discriminated against by the regime and the international left because they didn't bow down and submit to slavery in a Stalinist dictatorship. The right wing and the racists despise them. And this makes them tougher, and provides the motivation to continue pressing on until that regime is gone.
 
Why the Embargo on Cuba and the Cuban Adjustment Act are still needed
Notes from the Cuban Exile Quarter: Why the Embargo on Cuba and the Cuban Adjustment Act are still needed

"La 'crisis' no es en Costa Rica, alli son 4000 que ya escaparon de la tirania. La 'crisis' es en Cuba, donde son millones queriendo escapar del comunismo." Tony Diaz Sanchez, November 27, 2015

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Cubans at the Ecuadorian embassy in Havana, Cuba (Photo: 14yMedio)

International news today is reporting on the manufactured Cuban migrant crisis in Central America while ignoring the underlying crisis in Cuba. Unfortunately, this is not the first time that this has happened and those familiar with the situation in Cuba understand the real crisis. Exiled Cuban opposition leader Tony Diaz Sanchez, of the Christian Liberation movement and a former prisoner of conscience explained it well above in Spanish: "The 'crisis is not in Costa Rica, there are 4,000 who have already escaped the tyranny. The 'crisis' is in Cuba where there are millions wanting to escape communism."

It seems that many in the media are confusing the effects with the underlying cause and it is not only with the question of Cuban migration, but also with the sanctions placed on the Cuban dictatorship by the United States. The reason for the poor relations between the Castro regime and the United States is not because of the embargo but just the opposite. The reason for the embargo on the Castro regime is to safeguard U.S. taxpayers and not have them subsidize a dictatorship hostile to U.S. interests.
Click link above for full article.
Many of the Cubans that have arrived to the U.S., are economic migrants, not political refugees. The Cuban Adjustment Act does not need to be totally eliminated. It needs to be updated, requiring that only those that are political refugees will benefit from it.
 
They say Cubans now typically arrive in the U.S., wait the one year necessary to establish their legal permanent residency under the act, and then start traveling back to Cuba on a regular basis to visit family or engage in business.
 
Don't expect the Cuban government to be grateful when the embargo lifts
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...rnment-to-be-grateful-when-the-embargo-lifts/

By John M. Carey April 6 at 2:00 PM

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In Havana, an antique American car rides past a billboard saying “Long Live a free Cuba” on March 20. (Noah Friedman-Rudovsky for The Washington Post)

Don’t expect quid pro quo from Cuba.

The Castro regime has been decrying the U.S. trade and travel embargo for decades. Now that diplomatic relations have been restored, is the Cuban government looking to fast-track normal trade relations with the United States?

No. Since February 1962, the U.S. embargo has been a political asset for Cuba, and the Castro regime is loathe to see it disappear.

The Castro government has conceded little in exchange for the many U.S. overtures toward normalization in the past year. Political prisoners remain in Cuban jails. The Internet remains expensive, slow and hard to access. And as reported here in the Monkey Cage, there’s a “second embargo” — the wall created by Cuba’s own taxes and regulations, which deter potential foreign investors as well as Cuba’s private sector.
Click link above for full article.
The following excellent article makes solid points against lifting the embargo without meaningful changes in Cuba. The author lays out good reasons why lifting the embargo will benefit the Cuban dictatorship, no the Cuban people.

Lift the Cuba Embargo?
By Humberto (Bert) Corzo*
Cuba: Lift the Cuba Embargo?

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”. Fidel Castro*

*Excerpt from the book “Fidel Castro and Human Rights”,
Editora Política, Havana, Cuba, 1988.
 
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!”
 
Cuban food output stagnates, may decline in 2017

"AVANA (Reuters) - Cuban food output stagnated during the first half of 2017, the government reported this week, and may decline this year because of damage from Hurricane Irma.
The non-sugar agricultural sector, which has stagnated for a decade, further suffered through June from a severe drought and less input from the financially strapped state.

Root and vegetable production was down 1.1 percent through June, the most productive part of the year, according to this week’s report, issued by the National Statistics Office (here).
The report said grains also declined with the exception of rice, fruit production improved with the exception of citrus, livestock was mixed and both milk and egg production fell. "


I wonder if they have McDonalds franchises........


You Won’t Believe Where the Only McDonald’s in Cuba Is

"Guantanamo Bay. The naval base, which is located on 45 square miles of land in southeast Cuba, has been leased by the United States since 1903, and is perhaps best known for its military prison, which has been in operation since 2002. In 1986, a McDonald’s opened on the base, and it’s the only one in Cuba.
And by the way, McDonald’s isn’t the only American chain on the base. Baskin-Robbins was the first franchise to open there, in the early 1980s, and others include Subway, Pizza Hut, KFC, A&W, and a Taco Bell. These franchises are all owned and operated by the Department of the Navy, and Cubans aren’t allowed access to them. "

That's just sad...Dang communists.
 
Cuban food output stagnates, may decline in 2017

"AVANA (Reuters) - Cuban food output stagnated during the first half of 2017, the government reported this week, and may decline this year because of damage from Hurricane Irma.
The non-sugar agricultural sector, which has stagnated for a decade, further suffered through June from a severe drought and less input from the financially strapped state.

Root and vegetable production was down 1.1 percent through June, the most productive part of the year, according to this week’s report, issued by the National Statistics Office (here).
The report said grains also declined with the exception of rice, fruit production improved with the exception of citrus, livestock was mixed and both milk and egg production fell. "


I wonder if they have McDonalds franchises........


You Won’t Believe Where the Only McDonald’s in Cuba Is

"Guantanamo Bay. The naval base, which is located on 45 square miles of land in southeast Cuba, has been leased by the United States since 1903, and is perhaps best known for its military prison, which has been in operation since 2002. In 1986, a McDonald’s opened on the base, and it’s the only one in Cuba.
And by the way, McDonald’s isn’t the only American chain on the base. Baskin-Robbins was the first franchise to open there, in the early 1980s, and others include Subway, Pizza Hut, KFC, A&W, and a Taco Bell. These franchises are all owned and operated by the Department of the Navy, and Cubans aren’t allowed access to them. "

That's just sad...Dang communists.
One thing we learn about Cuban society with these changes is how restricted it is. It also shows what a control freak the Castroit regime is. How is it any better to have things withheld from you by the government than to not have they simply because you cannot afford them?
 
The Castroit regime is trying to do anything it can to maintain power. They know that the Cuban people are fed up with their rhetoric of "all for the revolution". The rhetoric doesn't satisfy the thinking minds of the ordinary Cuban people anymore.
 
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.
 
What If the Cuban Embargo and Travel Ban are Ended
http://ctp.iccas.miami.edu/FOCUS_Web/Issue289.htm

Jaime Suchlicki*
Focus on Cuba, Issue 289
May 10, 2016

If the U.S. were to end the embargo and lift the travel ban without major reforms in Cuba, there would be significant implications:

• Money from American tourists would flow into businesses owned by the Castro government thus strengthening state enterprises. The tourist industry is controlled by the military and General Raul Castro.

• Tourist dollars would be spent on products, i.e., rum, tobacco, etc., produced by state enterprises, and tourists would stay in hotels owned partially or wholly by the Cuban government. The principal airline shuffling tourists around the island, Gaviota, is owned and operated by the Cuban military.
Click link above for full article.
The Castroit regime spend a high percentage of its budget on state security controls. Ending the embargo will provide more money to the Castroit regime allowing it to revitalize the state security system and enhance the ability to limit dissent.
 
The Castroit regimen economy is in dire financial straits. The regime is in need of money, money that is no longer available from the traditional sources like Russia and Venezuela. Because of this the regime has been making some changes, making less restrict for Cubans to travel abroad and allowing some types of small private business to open doors.

Without the embargo, these small changes could not have been possible. The lifting of the embargo would allow the Castroit regime access to money provided by the International Development Bank (IMF) and private institutions, which will make possible for the regimen to remain in power for many years.
 
The Obama administration removed the travel restriction imposed by the first Bush administration on Cuban Americans traveling to Cuba, and authorized licenses for travel to more than 250 Cuba travel agents and allowed more airports to provide charter service between the two countries.

The Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces through the tourist company Gaviota hold by the conglomerate Grupo GAESA, led by Raul Castro son in law, runs the Cuba’s tourist industry. Revenues from tourist industry benefit the Castroit regime, not the Cuban people.

Lifting the travel ban now will amount to giving away future leverage for nothing in return. An end to the travel ban should be used as leverage in support of a future transitional regime.

Mass tourism not mass immigration!
 
Mass tourism not mass immigration!
During the last 10 years 20.6 millions of tourist from around the world visited Cuba. Around 10% of those visitors were from the US, over 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 Castroit tyrannical regime. So much for the argument of the US tourist power to bring about change.
 
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