Embargo? What Embargo?

[Sandokan]

How it is possible that the fifth import business partner and biggest food supplier can keeps a “blockade”, as the Castroit regime has always call it, on Cuba? The lies of the Castroit regime agents mimic Joseph Goebbels propaganda technique, “A lie told a thousand times becomes the truth”, or this other one “The bigger the lie, the more it will be believe.”

According to the dictionary these are the definitions of:

Blockade: the isolation by a warring nation of an enemy area (as a harbor) by troops or warships to prevent passage of persons or supplies.

A blockade normally take place at sea, with the blockading power seeking to cut off all maritime transport from and to the blockaded country, it is an act of war.

Embargo: A legal prohibition by a government on certain or all trade with a foreign nation (trade embargo).

An embargo is a legal barrier of trade, which is a common diplomatic action. The U.S. has actually 5 countries under trade embargo including Cuba.

In 1985 the European Union applied an economic embargo against South Africa to pressure the government to get rid of apartheid, and in 1986 the U.S. joint the embargo. In 1987 the UN approved a voluntary oil embargo against South Africa. In 1990 the S.A. government began negotiations culminating in 1993 with the end of the apartheid system. If the international community had applied effective diplomatic and trade sanctions, like in the South Africa case, against the Castroit tyrannical regime, it would not has taken roots for so many years.

The embargo only affects the American companies and their subsidiaries. Of the rest of the countries, currently 190 are conducting trade with Cuba, as confirmed by imports of $10.27 billion during 2016. The United States government’s embargo has had little effect on the Cuban economy, since it only represents less than 3 % of Cuba’s commerce with the rest of the world.

For the past six decades, the Castroist regime has said it opposes the embargo and wants it removed. But having the United States as an enemy has long been one of the regime’ main assets. It need the U.S. as an enemy. The regime does not look forward to losing its great adversary, he Goliath to its David, and the greatest excuse for its economic failures.

 

[Sandokan]

In the 1950s Cuba supplied close to 35% of the sugar cane to the world marker, the largest exporter in the world. Only 56 of 156 sugar mills in existence in 1959 remain in operation today. In 2018 the island sugar production was estimated at 1.1 million MT with a population of 11.2 million. In 1894, one year before the War of Independence, the island produced 1.07 million MT with a population of only 1.7 million. Cuba simply has stopped being a sugar-producing country. The regime achieved the inconceivable, make reality the phrase “without sugar there is no country.”


Delicias sugar mill, March 1913, Oriente Province. In 1952 established a world record with a sugar production of 204,079 MT. IN 2018 sugar production only reach 100,000 MT.

Cuba reserve about 650,000 MT for domestic consumption, export 400,000 MT to China and the rest is sold in the world market to other countries. The island would has to draw on its reserves to avoid importing sugar. In 2016 sugar production was 1.6 MT and exports amounted to 1.041 million MT with a value of $347 million.

In the years 1952-58 just preceding the 1959 Revolution, Cuba has been the larger exporter of sugar cane in the world, exporting 5.0 million tons a year. Who would have imagined some years later that the world's largest exporter of sugar would have to resort to external supplies to meet its needs?

How the regime can explain the reasons why they have to recur to the United States, a sugar importing country, to procure a product that the island always exported. Who would have imagined that Cuba would become an importer of food, even importing refine sugar, from the United States, of all places? The management of change in the sugar industry by the Castroist regime has been disastrous.

 

[Sandokan]

On September 15, 1960 the Castro regime seize 16 cigar factories, 14 cigarette plants and 20 tobacco warehouses without compensation, bringing to an end 300 years of tobacco development that made Cuban cigars the best in the world. The nationalization of the tobacco industry had a negative impact in the future development of the industry.

In 1958 the tobacco industry produced 335 million cigars of which 79 million premium cigars were exported, and 624 million packs of cigarettes. The tobacco industry accounted for 10% of the island exports. In 2016 cigar production reached 426.3 million of which 91.4 million premium cigars were exported, and 787 million packs of cigarettes (a pack contain 20 cigarettes).76

In 1994 the regime entered in 50/50 joint venture with Imperial Tobacco Group PLC to market and sale Cuba tobacco products throughout the world. The tobacco products export sales generated $229.7 million in 2016 of which $219.1 million were generated by the sales of premium cigars.77 Total value of tobacco products exported accounted for 9.9% of the island exports.

The Dominican Republic has become the largest cigar producer worldwide. In 2013 cigar production surpassed 1.7 billion of which 133.6 million premium cigars were exported to the United States and 116.4 million were exported to the rest of the world. According to Cigar Aficionado of the top 25 premium cigars of 2017, 6 were made in the Dominican Republic, 11 in Nicaragua, 3 in Honduras and only 3 in Cuba.78

By 1958 the tobacco industry accounted for 10% of the island exports. In only 14% of all Cuban farms was tobacco the primary source of income, which occupied only about 3% of all cultivated area and employed 35,000 people.

 

[Sandokan]

The cigar manufacturers and tobacco plantation owners had no choice but to leave the island with next to nothing, after their properties were seized and bank accounts frozen by the regime. They started anew and due to their efforts, the tobacco plantation and non-Cuban cigar industry was born. Most of the premium tobacco grows in Dominican, Honduran and Nicaragua have their origin in the tobacco seeds smuggled out of Cuba by these men. Dominican Republic has become the world's largest producer of premium cigars, surpassing by far Cuba´s production under the Castroist regime.

 

[Sandokan]

Before the Castro regime took over the industry, the world-renowned cigar brands were Romeo y Julieta, Partagás, Montecristo, Gener, Hoyo de Monterrey and José L. Piedra. In 1845 Jaime Partagás founded the cigar brand that bears his name. Years later Ramón Cifuentes made Partagás the leader Cuban cigar company. In 1961 Cifuentes left Cuba and in 1978 begun producing Partagás cigars in the Dominican Republic.

 

[Sandokan]

In 1958 tobacco leaf production reached 37,245 MT, cigars reached 335 million units of which 79 were exported, and 787 million packs of cigarettes, greatest ever. In 2010 tobacco leaf production reached 20,500 MT, cigars reached 375.6 million units of which 81.5 were exported, and 13.1 million packs of cigarettes (ONE 2010). Tobacco leaf production fell 45% compared to 1958.

 

[Sandokan]

In 1993 the regime entered in 50/50 joint venture with the French liquor distributor, Pernod Ricard, S.A., and granted it exclusive license to sell Havana Club Rum and to use the Havana Club trademark, illegally confiscated in 1960 without compensation to the legitimated original owner José Arechabala S.A. Cuba sales of hard liquor in 2016 amounted to $110.2 million of which $85 million was in sales of the Havana Club rum.

What an irony that after 33 years the Castroist regime opened up the island to foreign investors, like the giant capitalist liquor company Pernod-Ricard to produce and distribute the Havana Club Rum trademark stolen from the Cuban owners

 

[Sandokan]

In 1935 Jose Arechabala, S.A. was issued U.S. trademark registrations for the Havana Club
Mark. The Arechabala family entered into an agreement with Bacardi Limited in 1994,
transferring the original formula and trademark of Havana Club Rum to it, which began
distilling Havana Club rum using the original recipe and distributing it in the United States in
1995.

 

[Sandokan]

In October of 1960 the Castro regime expropriated without compensation Bacardi’s assets in Cuba, valued at $76 million. Today, Bacardi Limited is the third-largest major international spirit's company. It operates in 160 countries and has 30 production facilities. In 2016 Bacardi Limited sales of hard liquor were estimate around 5.0 billion, over two times the amount of Cuba exports, and had over 6,000 employees.80 Bacardi has been transformed from a national Cuban business into the world’s top family-owned spirit's company. The Castroit regime killed the goose that laid the golden eggs.

Bacardi was founded in 1852 in Santiago de Cuba. Bacardi rum plant employed about 2,000 people in 1958. Bacardi is representative of Cuban patriotism, civic values and a model corporate employer. The company build plants in Mexico in 1931 and in Puerto Rico in 1936 distillery was built. The company opposed the Batista government and supported Fidel Castro, given tens of thousands of dollars to buy weapons for the rebels. Bosch, the company’s chief executive, accompanied Castro on his first trip to the United States. In October of 1960 Castro's totalitarian regime expropriated the company assets in Cuba, valued at $76 million and 90% of the company volume.

 

[Sandokan]

Bacardi, who has moved the ownership of the Company's trademarks, assets and proprietary formulas out of the country prior to the revolution, helped the company to continue production with the established factories in Mexico and Puerto Rico and a new one which opened in 1961 in Brazil. The company kept growing and by 1992 the five separated Bacardi rum companies were consolidated into Bacardi Limited, which acquired the Martini & Rossi, transforming the rum company into a spirit's company. Bacardi Limited, the fourth largest spirits company in the world, is the world’s top-selling rum with annual sales of 20 million cases of 9 liters (180 million liters) in 150 countries. As the article says, “The Castroit regime killed the goose that laid the golden eggs.”

 

[Sandokan]

On January 11, 2016, the Obama administration unilaterally granted the Havana Club trademark license to Cubaexport, an entity control by the Castroit regime. In February 17, Bacardi detail the reasons why it has requested the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control to reverse its decision to grant the Cuba government a license to renew and maintain the Havana Club trademark registration in the United States. Bacardi contends this decision was done in violation of the language and spirit of U.S. law, since Congress has prohibited U.S. courts from recognizing rights and trade names in conjunction with confiscated business.

The Arechabala family entered into an agreement with Bacardi Limited in 1994, transferring the original formula and trademark of Havana Club Rum to it, which began distilling Havana Club rum using the original recipe and distributing it in the United States in 1995. In March 2011, The U.S. Court of Appeals upheld Bacardi rights to use the Havana Club trademark in the sale of the rum in the U.S., and in May 2012 the Supreme Court refuse to review that decision. In order to sell rum distilled in Cuba in the U.S. market, Pernod Ricard would have to sell it under a new brand name than Havana Club Rum since Bacardi has the trademark rights

 

[Sandokan]

In 1960, the Castro regime expropriated without compensation the assets of the Moa Mining Company and Nicaro Nickel Company with an estimate value of $88.3 million and $33.0 million respectively. In December 1994 Canada’s Sherritt Inc. formed the Moa 50/50 Joint Venture with the Castro regime. The mixed sulfides are shipped and refine in Canada into nickel and cobalt. According to Sherritt International Co. 2016 annual report, the Moa joint venture produce 36,624 tonnes of metals in 2016. In 2016, Cuba 50% export revenue from the Moa joint venture had an estimate value of $339 million.81

The Helms-Burton Act title III aims to compensate U.S. citizens whose properties were confiscated by the Castroist regime. There is a lawsuit against Canada’s Sherritt Inc. for the extraction of minerals that have “yielded hundreds of millions of dollars” . This case is ongoing.

 

[Sandokan]

Cuba agricultural sector is in disarray. The primary issue has been the inability of the Soviet styled centrally planned economy to ramp up food production. It's a five decade issue and the regime has no excuse, not with one of the highest ratios of arable and fertile land in the world. In 2016 Cuba imported roughly 80% of its food consumption, spending $1,778 millions of which $262 million were imported from the U.S.82

After the so call “agricultural reform” in 2010 by the Castroist regime, the island agriculture depends very heavily on imports. The island imports up to 80 percent of the food it consumes, at a cost close to $2 billion per year.

According to Mundubat (Cuba loses 57 percent of the food it produces | OnCubaNews English), fifty-seven percent of the food produced under the Castroist regime is lost before it reaches consumers. Domestic production “only covers 20% of the population’s needs.

 

[Sandokan]

Cuba coffee harvest in 1956 reached 60,000 MT and was capable of exporting 20,000 MT valued at $20 million. In 2010 coffee production was 6,900 MT and the regime spent $50 million importing 19,000 MT of coffee for domestic consumption. On December 12, 2013, the regime-run weekly Trabajadores reported that “coffee production has fallen by 90 percent in recent years.” From 2013 to 2017, coffee production reached only 6,000 MT per year. Cuba has been converted from an exporting country to an importer of coffee.

Before 1959 Cuba used to produce some of the finest Arabic Coffee in the world. Nowadays Cubans are allocated through the ration book only 4 ounces of coffee a month per person, and the coffee is mixed with peas to increase the yield.

Coffee production per capita in 1956 with a population of 6.3 million was 21 pounds, and in 2012 with a population of 11.2 million, only 0.79 lbs. Another of the great catastrophes of the Castroist communist regime. The coffee sold in the ration stores for decades is a mix 50/50 with peas. The International Coffee Organization says that any product with more than 5% other mixed-in matter cannot be classified as coffee.

 

[Hamish Howl]

So this thread is basically you just talking to yourself?

 

[Sandokan]

Cuba is an excellent example of how a very successful nation in the western hemisphere was destroyed by Castroism in the 20th century. There are so few positive things to say about communist dictatorships like Cuba, that leftists everywhere have no choice but to point out flaws in other countries to keep some of their self-respect.

 

[Tigerace117]

Cuba is an excellent example of how a very successful nation in the western hemisphere was destroyed by Castroism in the 20th century. There are so few positive things to say about communist dictatorships like Cuba, that leftists everywhere have no choice but to point out flaws in other countries to keep some of their self-respect.

The Batista regime was anything but “successful”.

 

[Sandokan]

Cuba’s National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), in the report title “Agricultural Sector, Selected Indicators,” include information from January to December of 2013. According to the report food production was 67,200 tons less than in 2012. The results look very discouraging for the economic model adopted by the Castroist regime. Below is a comparison between 2013 and 2012:

• Potato production dropped 4 %, and production of other tuber crops decreased by 37 %.
• Banana production dropped 25.6 %, and citric fruits dropped 18.8 %.
• Cow milk production was 12.7 million liters less, milk delivered to the population was 17 million liters less and milk delivered to the industry was 7.8 million liters less.

Based on ONEI statistics in tons:

Item	2009	2014
Potato	278,600	53,308
Banana	670,400	836,193
Citric	418,00	96,810
Milk	600,33	588,100

The incapability of the Castroist communist regime of guaranteeing the production and distribution of food sufficient for all, is demonstrated. A fundamentally agricultural country has turned into importer. The lean ration that shape diet of the population is, to a great degree, imported from other countries.

 

[Sandokan]

Since 2009 exports of citrus, tobacco and sugar have declined. The implementation of the economic reforms have not improved the agricultural sector production, due mainly to the regime impose restrictions. The agricultural reform, where the land is granted in usufruct up to 10 years but the regime retain control of it, is not working. The small private farmers are saddle with high taxes, practically no state financing and force to sell a large part of their crops at low cost to the regime enterprises, which have negatively affected the growth of agriculture making the island even more dependent on imported food. The Cuban economy has been stagnated for a long time.

In 2022, Cuba sugar production was only 482,000 MT with a population of 11.3. million, not even enough to satisfy the internal demand of at least 600,000 MT. In 1894, one year before the War of Independence, the island produced 1.05 million MT with a population of 1.7 million. In 1958 Cuba produced 5.86 MT with a population of 6.6 million. And 128 years later produced only 46% of the 1894 amount. The Castroist communist regime achieved the inconceivable, make a reality the phrase “without sugar there is no country.”

 

[Sandokan]

Reasons to keep the embargo on Cuba’s Castro dictatorship: Part IV of IV – Babalú Blog (babalublog.com)

November 21, 2018 by Honored Guest

The fourth and final installment in a four-part series written by Cuban American engineer Humberto (Bert) Corzo (see Part 1, Part 2, Part 3):

Reasons to keep the embargo on Cuba’s Castro dictatorship: Part IV of IV

Remittances

About two thirds of Cuban households receive remittances from abroad. The remittances of the Cuban exile community in 2016 has been estimated in $3.44 billion in cash and $3.0 billion in-kind according to The Havana Consulting Group and the U.S. Department of State.83 Total remittances are estimated at $6.44 billion, 2.78 times larger than the $2.32 billion generate by the export of goods.



Cuban-Americans at Miami International Airport traveling to Cuba loaded with goods for their relatives

Cash remittances have steadily increased from $1.0 billion in 2001 to $2.77 billion in 2013, a 277% increased. In 2016, the cost of cash remittances to Cuba was estimated at 11%, but the average for the rest of Latin America countries was only 6.5%, which provide the regime with an extra cash revenue. This high rate place Cuba among the most expensive “remittances markets” in the world.

The reason that Cuban exiles are one of the mayor contributors to the Castroit regime income, which has help to keep it in power, is the money send to support their families in Cuba, mainly due to their vulnerability to the suffering of their relatives, weakness that is actively exploited by the regime.

 

[Sandokan]

The remittance business in Cuba is control by the Castroist regime military. The Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (MINFAR), through the “Grupo de Administración Empresarial SA” (GAESA), headed by Raul Castro's son in law, an army general, operates state-owned companies and hold the tourist company Gaviota in charge of the tourist industry, which account for most of the business revenues in the island. This Castro family mafia firms owns the whole country.

 

[Sandokan]

Tourism

“From 2000 to 2016, a total of 42 million of tourist from around the world visited Cuba and spent tens of billions of dollars there, but most of the benefits went mostly to the regime enterprises. From those 42 million tourist, 5.6 million, about 13% of the total, were from the U.S., 4.2 million Cuban Americans and 1.4 million other U.S. citizens.84 It is estimate that another 0.28 million, about 20% of the 1.4 million American legal visitors, visited the island illegally going through third countries without their passport been stamped by the regime authorities, bringing the total to 5.88 million. This figure makes Americans the second larger source of tourist, after Canadians, to visit the island. Those tourist haven’t been able to influence a political and economic opening of the Castro regime, making invalid the argument of the influence of the U.S. tourists to generate changes in Cuba.

Tourist travel to Cuba by U.S. citizens without government permission is prohibited by law. In theory it is still technically illegal for U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba. But since the travel restrictions to Cuba have been relax by the Obama administration, a large number from the U.S. are traveling to the island, making the U.S. the second larger source of tourism and tourist dollars to the regime after Canada.”

Over 5.6 million of those visitors were from the US. 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.

 

[Tigerace117]

Over 5.6 million of those visitors were from the US. 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.

In reality, it’s the embargo and sponsorship of terrorist movements which failed to bring about change.

 

[Juks]

It seems that you like garbage, since you keep coming back like the bee to the honey.

In Cuba people earn about $18 dollars a month. They get a miserable government rations that lasts them about ten days. You can certainly buy food in communist Cuba, but you pay just about the same amount of money that a free person would pay in the USA. A hamburger in Cuba cost $3. How can a person making $18 a month at a government job afford a hamburger?

To be fair (and I am not pro-Cuban, but right should be right) before Fidel Castro and the revolution, 95 % of the people where starving big time. They had no access to electricity. Corruption was double the one in Russia of today. Unemployeement enourmous, those who had jobs had to except levels for wages equal to those in 1910. Demonstrating students and workers where systematically killed. Trade union premises were occupied. Opposition( mostly communists) and union leaders where systematically murdered. The rest (5%) living in luxury though... The corruption was enormous much worse than the one in Russia of today. Infront of the 1952 elections, the Orthodox Party (in which Fidel Castro was a member) was on its way to a certain victory. But the election never took place. With US support, Batista staged a military coup in March 1952.

And yes, the US has since the occupation (1902) very much been the reason for Cubas demise and developement. US companies looted Cuba, within the economic agreements concluded between the United States and its puppet regimes on Cuba (the 5% that had good living standards, or in more modern terms, the Cuban oligarchs...)). In the 1920s, the United States controlled almost the entire Cuban economy. Companies such as United Fruit heavily exploited the island for export crops, sugar, tobacco and bananas. The distortion of the country's economy was driven to such an extent that, despite agriculture being the main industry, large quantities of food had to be imported. USA monopolies not only owned sugar mills, oil refineries, banks, small industries, telephone and electric grids, but the US embassy was also the one that effectively controlled the court, government and president. This neo-colonialism differs from the old colonialism mainly in that the exploited country, Cuba, itself was forced to bear the costs of the oppressive apparatus and staff it. For Cuba, this meant that the countryside was underdeveloped, and that prostitution and gambling flourished in Havana and elsewhere where crime, mafia rule and racial discrimination thrived.

So to all the 5% relatives, who now live in the US where they fled during the revolution, and who still justify the impoverishment, exploitation and theft from the Cuban people and think they should be entitled to the loot they didn't manage to take with them on the run to USA, I say Fxxx you…claiming the loots of murderers and bandits

 

[Sandokan]

Remove of Travel Restrictions

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 administration allowed Cuban Americans to send goods and remittances to Cuba without restrictions and any U.S. person to send remittances to individuals in the island.

In 2016, according to ONEI, 427,747 Cubans living abroad and 284,552 U.S. citizens travelled to the island. In 2016, Cuba international tourist gross revenue reached $3.07 billion. Cornel Manuel Marrero is the Tourist Minister. The Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (MINFAR), through the tourist company Gaviota hold by the conglomerate Grupo GAESA, led by Raul Castro son in law, brigadier general Lopez-Callejas, runs the Cuba’s tourist industry. The military has total control of the tourist industry, a main source of income.”

The Castroist communist 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. The effect of the removal of travel restrictions was an increases in tourism and remittances. The tourist company Gaviota in charge of the tourist industry, which is control by the military, experienced an increase in revenues, providing the regime with much needed dollars, delaying the transition of the Cuban people towards democracy