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«The United States embargo against Cuba prevents American businesses, and businesses with commercial activities in the United States, from conducting trade with

«The United States embargo against Cuba prevents American businesses, and businesses with commercial activities in the United States, from conducting trade with Cuban interests. It is the most enduring trade embargo in modern history.” Wikipedia

mc32 5y ago
Is your position that sanctions/embargoes should not be used? Or just not used against Cuba? Was it not okay to embargo other countries whom we had disagreements with or were those okay to embargo, like (imperial) Japan, (apartheid) South Africa, (ayatollah) Iran?
- random314 5y ago
  This line of questioning can be continued indefinitely. Did Cuba bomb US territories(Japan), practice Apartheid (South Africa) or nationalize their oil (Iran).
  - mc32 5y ago
    Well, they did agitate all over Africa and LatAM in conjunction with KGB operatives and provided thousands of troops to overthrow governments and did plot to kill dissidents on US soil... But I guess the answer is yes, embargoes make sense when we disagree vehemently with another country and its policies. But I know what people are saying: "I want you to embargo countries I don't like, and I want you to not embargo countries I like." and everyone will have a different set of countries.
    - quijoteuniv 5y ago
      With these line of thought I guess the whole world should embargo the US. :)
      - mc32 5y ago
        That's their prerogative, isn't it?
        threatofrain 5y ago
        Ought and prerogative are different things.
      - NoOneNew 5y ago
        The rest of the world is also welcome to pay the $10+ billion in humanitarian aid the US pays for. Along with the $2 billion portion of the UN budget. Along with the $3 billion to NATO. When 5k US troops were being pulled from Germany, that news wasn't greeted with applause, but with Merkel shitting herself. Yea, the US isnt perfect. Spending $15b on the world that just loves to take a shit on us... fine by me. I for one dont disagree with isolationist policies too much. This country is made up of folks that left other countries for a reason. Why interfere with the world stage? It's not like there are any other super powers that'll exploit that power vacuum. The US is the only super power with big bad, evil intentions in the world.
        long_time_gone 5y ago
        ==When 5k US troops were being pulled from Germany, that news wasn't greeted with applause, but with Merkel shitting herself.== ==Spending $15b on the world that just loves to take a shit on us== Which is it, do they love to take a shit on us or do they welcome our help and shit themselves when we leave? Maybe things are just as complex from Germany's perspective as they are from the US perspective. Per capita humanitarian aid by country (US is 17th) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_development_aid_country_donors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_development_aid_countr...
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
    - random314 5y ago
      > Well, they did agitate all over Africa and LatAM in conjunction with KGB operatives This implies implicit US dominion over Africa and latam. KGB was supported by the Soviets, which did not face the same level of embargoes as Cuba did.
      - mc32 5y ago
        Maybe but Khrushchev wasn’t the one begging to press the button to send the nukes over to the US. Cuba made the decision to launch and it was only Khrushchev who was able to overrule those bloodthirsty Castroists.
        random314 5y ago
        Argument switches in every reply don't make for a good debate. Like I said this can continue indefinitely. Cuba has never been a nuclear power. Maybe check this https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis
        mc32 5y ago
        They had the USSR's nukes on the island. They were ready to fire (unbeknownst to Kennedy). Cuba had them, and the crisis had escalated so much Cuba wanted to launch. Castro demanded they be allowed to launch[1]. But Khrushchev declined. They wanted to bomb us (and unleash Armageddon) because they felt aggrieved. Khrushchev was so taken aback by their cavalier attitude towards nukes that he took them back. So yes, for a few months they were a nuclear power. This is confirmed by the USSR archives of that time plus interviews with Cuban officials back in the 90s where they conceded they wanted to bomb us and only Khrushchev kept it from happening. [1]https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/jfk-defendcuba/ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/jfk-def... Excerpt of above link (Khrushchev's response to Castro): "In your cable of October 27 you proposed that we be the first to carry out a nuclear strike against the enemy's territory. Naturally you understand where that would lead us. It would not be a simple strike, but the start of a thermonuclear world war."
- ModernMech 5y ago
  The embargo was put in place 60 years ago for a specific reason. I think it’s reasonable to reassess why it’s still there and what good it’s doing after the rest of the world has lifted their embargoes.
  - yardie 5y ago
    The embargo is in place as a political football. It costs very little political capital to keep it in place. The Cuban embargo is how local politics can manifest at an international level. There is a vocal Cuban American voting bloc that want it kept in place. Losing this bloc can have big repercussions in the nations 3rd largest state. Neither Democrats nor Republicans want to piss off this voting bloc so for the sake of keeping the party in power the embargo stays. Now Obama did try to roll back parts of the embargo in 2016. And Trump added additional constraints. in the 2020 elections just enough Cuban Americans voted for Trump over Biden to lose the FL electoral vote. While most of America agrees the embargo should end this is the reason why politicians don’t want to touch it. It’s political kryptonite.
- amanaplanacanal 5y ago
  They shouldn’t be used period. They typically harm the peons much more than the people in power. Sometimes you hear the argument that will cause the peons to rise up and throw off their leaders, but if it hasn’t happened in 60 years, I’m guessing it never will.
  - 8ytecoder 5y ago
    Not to give too much credit - but, as a fact, the US has been getting better at targeted sanctions. It's the preferred model these days - from Russia to Iran to Honk Kong - specific officials are embargoed and their assets blocked or seized.
  - mc32 5y ago
    I think that is worthy of discussion and perhaps you are right; however, in the end, peons are usually interchangeable for "soldiers" in some of these kinds of places, and, yes, they may be conscripted, but that's the case for the worst offenders (like Japan and Germany during WWII)
  - mcguire 5y ago
    This is a consequence of the Enlightenment idea that a government gets its authority from the consent of the governed.
  - 908B64B197 5y ago
    Then how comes there's constant rioting in Cuba right now? So much that the regime is desperately trying to shut down the country's internet and radio frequencies? Seems the sanctions are working right now.
blastonico 5y ago
Is it a problem? Considering that free market is not tolerated by communism...
- jcoq 5y ago
  Yes, let's place trade restrictions on our citizens in the name of economic freedom.
  - google234123 5y ago
    It's not done in the name of economic freedom. A better analogy would be how we place drug trade restrictions on our citizens.
EarthIsHome 5y ago
If communism and socialism is so bad, why is there even a need for an embargo? Surely these socialist countries will collapse under their own poor economic policies and not need a 60-year embargo to help tip the scales, which prevents them with interfacing with the rest of the world at the same level as other countries. This embargo that actively stifles their economy and is punitive to the people there is making things worse. If we wanted better for the Cuban people, the US would lift the embargo. After all, every year, the UN votes almost unanimously to lift the embargo (with the US only voting against). This is somewhat related, but for those here who are interested in how local elections work in Cuba (they have 90+% participation!!!!), this is an excellent video on Cuban elections: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aMsi-A56ds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aMsi-A56ds
- artificial 5y ago
  Cuba's main trading partners include Venezuela, China, Spain, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and the Netherlands.
- google234123 5y ago
  I think most think communism is so bad that it's worth accelerating its collapse. As for the video, I don't want to hear about elections from a Marxist.
- deleted 5y ago
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- deleted 5y ago
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- rualca 5y ago
  > If communism and socialism is so bad, why is there even a need for an embargo? Given that Cuba's regime was responsible for putting nuclear weapons next to the border and pointing straight to the US, and given the fact that a sizeable portion of the population of a swing state lived Cuba's oppression in the first person, only the most nieve can believe this has anything to do with ideology.
ch4s3 5y ago
While I think the embargo is stupid, it should be noted that it does not cover agricultural products or medical supplies. Both of those categories of goods are in VERY short supply in Cuba which imports more than 70% of their food and that number has been increasing over the last decade. They have the least productive agricultural sector in all of Latin America or the Caribbean. Cuban agriculture is choked by bureaucratic inefficiency, fuel shortages, disincentives for farmers and so on. The Cuban government is so bad at collecting the portion of crops they demand from farmers that the majority of some farms outputs rot and are never collected. The embargo has nothing to do with that. On the healthcare front, the Cuban government's only real export is doctors which they churn out at a dizzying rate and send abroad to generate state revenue. They could spend some of that revenue importing or manufacturing medication and medical supplies, but they do not. You can not find aspirin or antibiotics outside of clinics for foreign medical tourists in Cuba. These are the stated complaints of the protestors. Again, the embargo is bad policy and makes peoples' lives worse. Moreover, the embargo give a convenient excuse to the Cuban government for its malfeasance, but it isn't the reason things are so shitty. Their government just doesn't deliver basic goods and services.
- ModernMech 5y ago
  > is choked by bureaucratic inefficiency, fuel shortages, disincentives for farmers and so on...The embargo has nothing to do with that. Bureaucratic inefficiency and disincentives for farmers aside, the fuel shortage seems directly tied to the embargo: HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba must implement emergency measures to stave off an acute fuel shortage in September caused by the Trump administration’s efforts to block oil shipments to the country, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on Wednesday. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-economy-idUSKCN1VX01S https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-economy-idUSKCN1VX01...
  - ch4s3 5y ago
    They've been having fuel shortages since the collapse of the USSR, which were temporarily alleviated at the height of Venezuelan production int he early 2000s. As Venezuelan production slid (due to the ham handed firing of striking workers by Chavez) relations started to thaw with the US in 2015-2016. At that time there was more wiggle room for trade. In 2017 that move was unilaterally reversed by the US, which I agree was bad policy. However Cuba has offshore oil which they've failed to develop, either with the help of Venezuela pre 2015 or with Pemex, Russian, or Chinese investment. The problem is that even when Cuba was trading with the USSR, Venezuela, Bolivia, China, etc. they never managed to build any local industry, and as such have nothing to trade for oil. None of these trade partnerships were effected by the embargo. If Cuba had any foreign reserves or anything at all to trade they could buy gas from any number of places that are opposed to uS interests. I agree the embargo sucks, but Cuba was letting crops rot in the field when they had oil. The government just sucks. They could have tried to regularize relations like Vietnam did in 1995 and implement pragmatic reforms, but they have continued to stay the course with ruinous policies in the name of political purity.
juancampa 5y ago
Sure, but more importantly this: «Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008." Wikipedia That's 49 years, the current "president" is just a continuation of the same dictatorial murderous regime. As a Venezuelan with a Cuban parent, it pains me to see people blaming the US for the misery in these countries because, these goverments love to blame it on the US, that's a key part of their playbook.
- publicola1990 5y ago
  Do you think US sanctions in any way makes the populace of this countries have a good opinion of the US. Is Haiti or Dominica any better off than Cuba?
  - juancampa 5y ago
    My point is that embargoes are not the reason for the misery in these countries. I can only speak for Venezuela so let me put it in perspective: The US placed the embargo in 2019[0], that's many many years after inflation and corruption had made the poor poorer, drained all the brains out and stole productive companies from their owners (aka "nationalized")[1]. To somewhat answer your question: the dictators actually appreciate the embargoes, because it keeps them in power by providing the perfect scapegoat for the complete chaos. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_sanctions_during_the_Venezuelan_crisis#Embargo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_sanctions_during... 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbN3-uWnTqY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbN3-uWnTqY (the word he keeps repeating means "expropriate", he's talking about all sorts of different companies or even random buildings in the street)
    - publicola1990 5y ago
      What I was trying to say is that embargoes are only adding to the troubles of the people, and further strengthening anti-US sentiment.
      - 5y ago
raverbashing 5y ago
A very weak excuse. Yes, prevented from trading with the US. Not with every other country in the world It's still a bankrupt island that prevents any citizen from leaving. It's probably better than NK, I'll give you that. But that's a very low barrier. Now, the embargo is a very good excuse for their failures. Excuse, not reason.
- bufferout 5y ago
  Ships docking at Cuban ports are not allowed to dock at U.S. ports for six months.
iagovar 5y ago
Yes but let's not forget that Cuba still has the ability to trade. There is even some trade with the US, but IDK the circunstances (It's in their statistics office annual report). I mean, the (economic) problem Cuba has is internal, not external. There isn't much that Cuba has to offer as value, except their geographical position and maybe some cheap labor medics. They've got virtually free resources from Venezuela (not viable any longer) and other "allies". But even there it isn't like they trade a lot with China or Russia, to mention two examples. They get plenty of dollars and euros through tourism (with EU companies that gladly help) yet they don't really invest it or do much productive with it. If Cuba really tried to be self-sustainable as they claim, why they don't buy some machinery to improve their productivity, they have plenty of supliers outside US-EU. And by the way, if you want to jump over the US embargo is not that difficult to open another company or just sell through a 3rd party and make information opaque, which is already being done right now by the way. Cuba is just a "chapuza" as we say in spanish. A mess, with a caste of people who barely manages to justify their existance, and keep control over the population so revolts don't happen. It's just that this time they can't really have much control of the situation. You can access onei.gob.cu to check all that. It's a bit tricky to get access from outside Cuba. I can access with my home connection but not with mobile one.

mc32 5y ago

Is your position that sanctions/embargoes should not be used? Or just not used against Cuba? Was it not okay to embargo other countries whom we had disagreements with or were those okay to embargo, like (imperial) Japan, (apartheid) South Africa, (ayatollah) Iran?

random314 5y ago
This line of questioning can be continued indefinitely. Did Cuba bomb US territories(Japan), practice Apartheid (South Africa) or nationalize their oil (Iran).
- mc32 5y ago
  Well, they did agitate all over Africa and LatAM in conjunction with KGB operatives and provided thousands of troops to overthrow governments and did plot to kill dissidents on US soil... But I guess the answer is yes, embargoes make sense when we disagree vehemently with another country and its policies. But I know what people are saying: "I want you to embargo countries I don't like, and I want you to not embargo countries I like." and everyone will have a different set of countries.
  - quijoteuniv 5y ago
    With these line of thought I guess the whole world should embargo the US. :)
    - mc32 5y ago
      That's their prerogative, isn't it?
      - threatofrain 5y ago
        Ought and prerogative are different things.
    - NoOneNew 5y ago
      The rest of the world is also welcome to pay the $10+ billion in humanitarian aid the US pays for. Along with the $2 billion portion of the UN budget. Along with the $3 billion to NATO. When 5k US troops were being pulled from Germany, that news wasn't greeted with applause, but with Merkel shitting herself. Yea, the US isnt perfect. Spending $15b on the world that just loves to take a shit on us... fine by me. I for one dont disagree with isolationist policies too much. This country is made up of folks that left other countries for a reason. Why interfere with the world stage? It's not like there are any other super powers that'll exploit that power vacuum. The US is the only super power with big bad, evil intentions in the world.
      - long_time_gone 5y ago
        ==When 5k US troops were being pulled from Germany, that news wasn't greeted with applause, but with Merkel shitting herself.== ==Spending $15b on the world that just loves to take a shit on us== Which is it, do they love to take a shit on us or do they welcome our help and shit themselves when we leave? Maybe things are just as complex from Germany's perspective as they are from the US perspective. Per capita humanitarian aid by country (US is 17th) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_development_aid_country_donors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_development_aid_countr...
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
  - random314 5y ago
    > Well, they did agitate all over Africa and LatAM in conjunction with KGB operatives This implies implicit US dominion over Africa and latam. KGB was supported by the Soviets, which did not face the same level of embargoes as Cuba did.
    - mc32 5y ago
      Maybe but Khrushchev wasn’t the one begging to press the button to send the nukes over to the US. Cuba made the decision to launch and it was only Khrushchev who was able to overrule those bloodthirsty Castroists.
      - random314 5y ago
        Argument switches in every reply don't make for a good debate. Like I said this can continue indefinitely. Cuba has never been a nuclear power. Maybe check this https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis
        mc32 5y ago
        They had the USSR's nukes on the island. They were ready to fire (unbeknownst to Kennedy). Cuba had them, and the crisis had escalated so much Cuba wanted to launch. Castro demanded they be allowed to launch[1]. But Khrushchev declined. They wanted to bomb us (and unleash Armageddon) because they felt aggrieved. Khrushchev was so taken aback by their cavalier attitude towards nukes that he took them back. So yes, for a few months they were a nuclear power. This is confirmed by the USSR archives of that time plus interviews with Cuban officials back in the 90s where they conceded they wanted to bomb us and only Khrushchev kept it from happening. [1]https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/jfk-defendcuba/ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/jfk-def... Excerpt of above link (Khrushchev's response to Castro): "In your cable of October 27 you proposed that we be the first to carry out a nuclear strike against the enemy's territory. Naturally you understand where that would lead us. It would not be a simple strike, but the start of a thermonuclear world war."
ModernMech 5y ago
The embargo was put in place 60 years ago for a specific reason. I think it’s reasonable to reassess why it’s still there and what good it’s doing after the rest of the world has lifted their embargoes.
- yardie 5y ago
  The embargo is in place as a political football. It costs very little political capital to keep it in place. The Cuban embargo is how local politics can manifest at an international level. There is a vocal Cuban American voting bloc that want it kept in place. Losing this bloc can have big repercussions in the nations 3rd largest state. Neither Democrats nor Republicans want to piss off this voting bloc so for the sake of keeping the party in power the embargo stays. Now Obama did try to roll back parts of the embargo in 2016. And Trump added additional constraints. in the 2020 elections just enough Cuban Americans voted for Trump over Biden to lose the FL electoral vote. While most of America agrees the embargo should end this is the reason why politicians don’t want to touch it. It’s political kryptonite.
amanaplanacanal 5y ago
They shouldn’t be used period. They typically harm the peons much more than the people in power. Sometimes you hear the argument that will cause the peons to rise up and throw off their leaders, but if it hasn’t happened in 60 years, I’m guessing it never will.
- 8ytecoder 5y ago
  Not to give too much credit - but, as a fact, the US has been getting better at targeted sanctions. It's the preferred model these days - from Russia to Iran to Honk Kong - specific officials are embargoed and their assets blocked or seized.
- mc32 5y ago
  I think that is worthy of discussion and perhaps you are right; however, in the end, peons are usually interchangeable for "soldiers" in some of these kinds of places, and, yes, they may be conscripted, but that's the case for the worst offenders (like Japan and Germany during WWII)
- mcguire 5y ago
  This is a consequence of the Enlightenment idea that a government gets its authority from the consent of the governed.
- 908B64B197 5y ago
  Then how comes there's constant rioting in Cuba right now? So much that the regime is desperately trying to shut down the country's internet and radio frequencies? Seems the sanctions are working right now.

blastonico 5y ago

Is it a problem? Considering that free market is not tolerated by communism...

jcoq 5y ago
Yes, let's place trade restrictions on our citizens in the name of economic freedom.
- google234123 5y ago
  It's not done in the name of economic freedom. A better analogy would be how we place drug trade restrictions on our citizens.

EarthIsHome 5y ago

If communism and socialism is so bad, why is there even a need for an embargo? Surely these socialist countries will collapse under their own poor economic policies and not need a 60-year embargo to help tip the scales, which prevents them with interfacing with the rest of the world at the same level as other countries. This embargo that actively stifles their economy and is punitive to the people there is making things worse. If we wanted better for the Cuban people, the US would lift the embargo. After all, every year, the UN votes almost unanimously to lift the embargo (with the US only voting against). This is somewhat related, but for those here who are interested in how local elections work in Cuba (they have 90+% participation!!!!), this is an excellent video on Cuban elections: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aMsi-A56ds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aMsi-A56ds

artificial 5y ago
Cuba's main trading partners include Venezuela, China, Spain, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and the Netherlands.
google234123 5y ago
I think most think communism is so bad that it's worth accelerating its collapse. As for the video, I don't want to hear about elections from a Marxist.
deleted 5y ago
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deleted 5y ago
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rualca 5y ago
> If communism and socialism is so bad, why is there even a need for an embargo? Given that Cuba's regime was responsible for putting nuclear weapons next to the border and pointing straight to the US, and given the fact that a sizeable portion of the population of a swing state lived Cuba's oppression in the first person, only the most nieve can believe this has anything to do with ideology.

ch4s3 5y ago

While I think the embargo is stupid, it should be noted that it does not cover agricultural products or medical supplies. Both of those categories of goods are in VERY short supply in Cuba which imports more than 70% of their food and that number has been increasing over the last decade. They have the least productive agricultural sector in all of Latin America or the Caribbean. Cuban agriculture is choked by bureaucratic inefficiency, fuel shortages, disincentives for farmers and so on. The Cuban government is so bad at collecting the portion of crops they demand from farmers that the majority of some farms outputs rot and are never collected. The embargo has nothing to do with that. On the healthcare front, the Cuban government's only real export is doctors which they churn out at a dizzying rate and send abroad to generate state revenue. They could spend some of that revenue importing or manufacturing medication and medical supplies, but they do not. You can not find aspirin or antibiotics outside of clinics for foreign medical tourists in Cuba. These are the stated complaints of the protestors. Again, the embargo is bad policy and makes peoples' lives worse. Moreover, the embargo give a convenient excuse to the Cuban government for its malfeasance, but it isn't the reason things are so shitty. Their government just doesn't deliver basic goods and services.

ModernMech 5y ago
> is choked by bureaucratic inefficiency, fuel shortages, disincentives for farmers and so on...The embargo has nothing to do with that. Bureaucratic inefficiency and disincentives for farmers aside, the fuel shortage seems directly tied to the embargo: HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba must implement emergency measures to stave off an acute fuel shortage in September caused by the Trump administration’s efforts to block oil shipments to the country, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on Wednesday. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-economy-idUSKCN1VX01S https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-economy-idUSKCN1VX01...
- ch4s3 5y ago
  They've been having fuel shortages since the collapse of the USSR, which were temporarily alleviated at the height of Venezuelan production int he early 2000s. As Venezuelan production slid (due to the ham handed firing of striking workers by Chavez) relations started to thaw with the US in 2015-2016. At that time there was more wiggle room for trade. In 2017 that move was unilaterally reversed by the US, which I agree was bad policy. However Cuba has offshore oil which they've failed to develop, either with the help of Venezuela pre 2015 or with Pemex, Russian, or Chinese investment. The problem is that even when Cuba was trading with the USSR, Venezuela, Bolivia, China, etc. they never managed to build any local industry, and as such have nothing to trade for oil. None of these trade partnerships were effected by the embargo. If Cuba had any foreign reserves or anything at all to trade they could buy gas from any number of places that are opposed to uS interests. I agree the embargo sucks, but Cuba was letting crops rot in the field when they had oil. The government just sucks. They could have tried to regularize relations like Vietnam did in 1995 and implement pragmatic reforms, but they have continued to stay the course with ruinous policies in the name of political purity.

juancampa 5y ago

Sure, but more importantly this: «Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008." Wikipedia That's 49 years, the current "president" is just a continuation of the same dictatorial murderous regime. As a Venezuelan with a Cuban parent, it pains me to see people blaming the US for the misery in these countries because, these goverments love to blame it on the US, that's a key part of their playbook.

publicola1990 5y ago
Do you think US sanctions in any way makes the populace of this countries have a good opinion of the US. Is Haiti or Dominica any better off than Cuba?
- juancampa 5y ago
  My point is that embargoes are not the reason for the misery in these countries. I can only speak for Venezuela so let me put it in perspective: The US placed the embargo in 2019[0], that's many many years after inflation and corruption had made the poor poorer, drained all the brains out and stole productive companies from their owners (aka "nationalized")[1]. To somewhat answer your question: the dictators actually appreciate the embargoes, because it keeps them in power by providing the perfect scapegoat for the complete chaos. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_sanctions_during_the_Venezuelan_crisis#Embargo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_sanctions_during... 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbN3-uWnTqY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbN3-uWnTqY (the word he keeps repeating means "expropriate", he's talking about all sorts of different companies or even random buildings in the street)
  - publicola1990 5y ago
    What I was trying to say is that embargoes are only adding to the troubles of the people, and further strengthening anti-US sentiment.
    - 5y ago

raverbashing 5y ago

A very weak excuse. Yes, prevented from trading with the US. Not with every other country in the world It's still a bankrupt island that prevents any citizen from leaving. It's probably better than NK, I'll give you that. But that's a very low barrier. Now, the embargo is a very good excuse for their failures. Excuse, not reason.

bufferout 5y ago
Ships docking at Cuban ports are not allowed to dock at U.S. ports for six months.

iagovar 5y ago

Yes but let's not forget that Cuba still has the ability to trade. There is even some trade with the US, but IDK the circunstances (It's in their statistics office annual report). I mean, the (economic) problem Cuba has is internal, not external. There isn't much that Cuba has to offer as value, except their geographical position and maybe some cheap labor medics. They've got virtually free resources from Venezuela (not viable any longer) and other "allies". But even there it isn't like they trade a lot with China or Russia, to mention two examples. They get plenty of dollars and euros through tourism (with EU companies that gladly help) yet they don't really invest it or do much productive with it. If Cuba really tried to be self-sustainable as they claim, why they don't buy some machinery to improve their productivity, they have plenty of supliers outside US-EU. And by the way, if you want to jump over the US embargo is not that difficult to open another company or just sell through a 3rd party and make information opaque, which is already being done right now by the way. Cuba is just a "chapuza" as we say in spanish. A mess, with a caste of people who barely manages to justify their existance, and keep control over the population so revolts don't happen. It's just that this time they can't really have much control of the situation. You can access onei.gob.cu to check all that. It's a bit tricky to get access from outside Cuba. I can access with my home connection but not with mobile one.