You said: >it is pretty obvious that the US allowing Cuba to trade with the rest of the world would more or less 'solve' those problems. As you pointed out th

You said: >it is pretty obvious that the US allowing Cuba to trade with the rest of the world would more or less 'solve' those problems. As you pointed out the US embargo prevents Americans from trading with Cuba. It affects no one else. Virtually the entire world apart from the US is against the embargo. They are all free to trade with Cuba. At the margins, the US embargo hurts Cubans, but the bulk of their economic woes are self inflicted.