The Cuban Embargo
The embargo was initiated by John F. Kennedy in 1961 because he understood the tyranny of communism. Among other reasons, it was mainly instituted to control the expansion of communism in our hemisphere, and it has worked. This embargo only means that no one in USA can trade with Castro. (NOTE: there has been non-stop considerable illegal trading with Cuba by greedy US corporations and tourists via third party countries, has this helped the Cuban people?) USA has not created an embargo covering the world, it can't. There is no battleship circumnavigating the island either. Cuba's regimen has been free to trade, negotiate and visit any country in the world. And they have. So then why are they still in such an appalling state after 55 years? The embargo is not what has damaged Cuba, Communism has.
The tendency by well-meaning, but uninformed, folks to favor this decision by Obama is completely understood and, actually, worth of praise. However, this is how those in power try to persuade and influence us, by falsely appealing to our compassion, with ulterior motives, toward our fellow man. Goebbels coined the phrase that if you repeat a lie often enough, in due time it will be believed to be the truth. Both parties are guilty of this.
You don't support a regime such as Castro's with our tax dollars to continue to facilitate the oppression of his people with a brutal force such as this. Torture, mass killings, false imprisonment of dissenters, giving sanctuary to criminals of the USA, negation of basic civil and human rights, obfuscation of the truth, application of implicit terror to those that oppose the communist party, lack of freedom of speech and religion, specific false imprisonment and execution of homosexuals are just a few of the violations enforced by this regime.
In the past, Fidel Castro (not sure what Raul's policy would be on this now) has torpedoed efforts to renew negotiations with the USA. He was given such opportunities in the past, but Fidel did not bite. They need a bad guy, an excuse, to be blamed for their horribly failed policies that keep the Cuban people subjugated.
When you try to negotiate in Cuba, you have to go through the government. Castro keeps the dollars and in turn Castro gives these people in Cuba Cuban pesos, which is worth less than Monopoly money. In Cuba it is illegal to posses dollars. In China, the government takes a big bite of the profits and dictate the process, but you can deal pretty much with the entrepreneurs there. Read about the huge Alibaba company there and Jack Ma, a 50 year old multibillionaire, and many other entrepreneurs. Though still a very oppressive country, China understands the power of capitalism. Other than members in the Communist party, have you heard of a recent wealthy person living in Cuba? Athletes and the like all want to defect to the USA, and many have.
In essence, Obama will be supporting Cuba pretty much the same way as the Soviet Union did until the advent of Perestroika, which happened because of the influences of Gorbachev and Reagan. The ending of this embargo will be the hidden conduit for cash infusion to Cuba. With the new influx of our tax dollars coming into the island, the regime will be emboldened to expand and oppress its people even further. And if Soviet prime ministers from Khrushchev to Gorbachev, and all those in between were propping up Cuba with many billions of dollars and still the people there live in squalor, where did all the money go? How come people are still poor and getting worse? The only time Castro's expansionism threats were exported to other countries was when the USSR was funding communism in Cuba.
Money has not gone into improving medical conditions either. Many claim that the medical field in Cuba is tops in the world. There are slaughter houses in our country that are more technically advanced and cleaner than hospitals are in Cuba. A doctor in Cuba makes the equivalent of $67 per month. And why did Castro himself have to bring a doctor from Spain to save himself from certain death if the hospitals there are so great? Why did Hugo Chavez died in Cuba while being repeatedly treated for cancer if the hospitals are so modern there? Another big lie by Michael Moore and the Hollywood elite.
No, the people in Cuba will not benefit from the removal of the embargo, but they will benefit from the removal of communism. They will not be free to trade without the constant consent and oppression of the Castro brothers. The embargo must stay in place as it will limit the capabilities of the regime to spread their cancerous oppression in our hemisphere.
Beyond all this, Obama, with this illegal ruling, bypassed the Congress and obliterated the Constitution. We don't need another Mariel of 1980 when President Carter opened the gates (of Hell) and let Castro empty his prisons and mental institutions and shipped debris of humanity to our shores.
The tendency by well-meaning, but uninformed, folks to favor this decision by Obama is completely understood and, actually, worth of praise. However, this is how those in power try to persuade and influence us, by falsely appealing to our compassion, with ulterior motives, toward our fellow man. Goebbels coined the phrase that if you repeat a lie often enough, in due time it will be believed to be the truth. Both parties are guilty of this.
You don't support a regime such as Castro's with our tax dollars to continue to facilitate the oppression of his people with a brutal force such as this. Torture, mass killings, false imprisonment of dissenters, giving sanctuary to criminals of the USA, negation of basic civil and human rights, obfuscation of the truth, application of implicit terror to those that oppose the communist party, lack of freedom of speech and religion, specific false imprisonment and execution of homosexuals are just a few of the violations enforced by this regime.
In the past, Fidel Castro (not sure what Raul's policy would be on this now) has torpedoed efforts to renew negotiations with the USA. He was given such opportunities in the past, but Fidel did not bite. They need a bad guy, an excuse, to be blamed for their horribly failed policies that keep the Cuban people subjugated.
When you try to negotiate in Cuba, you have to go through the government. Castro keeps the dollars and in turn Castro gives these people in Cuba Cuban pesos, which is worth less than Monopoly money. In Cuba it is illegal to posses dollars. In China, the government takes a big bite of the profits and dictate the process, but you can deal pretty much with the entrepreneurs there. Read about the huge Alibaba company there and Jack Ma, a 50 year old multibillionaire, and many other entrepreneurs. Though still a very oppressive country, China understands the power of capitalism. Other than members in the Communist party, have you heard of a recent wealthy person living in Cuba? Athletes and the like all want to defect to the USA, and many have.
In essence, Obama will be supporting Cuba pretty much the same way as the Soviet Union did until the advent of Perestroika, which happened because of the influences of Gorbachev and Reagan. The ending of this embargo will be the hidden conduit for cash infusion to Cuba. With the new influx of our tax dollars coming into the island, the regime will be emboldened to expand and oppress its people even further. And if Soviet prime ministers from Khrushchev to Gorbachev, and all those in between were propping up Cuba with many billions of dollars and still the people there live in squalor, where did all the money go? How come people are still poor and getting worse? The only time Castro's expansionism threats were exported to other countries was when the USSR was funding communism in Cuba.
Money has not gone into improving medical conditions either. Many claim that the medical field in Cuba is tops in the world. There are slaughter houses in our country that are more technically advanced and cleaner than hospitals are in Cuba. A doctor in Cuba makes the equivalent of $67 per month. And why did Castro himself have to bring a doctor from Spain to save himself from certain death if the hospitals there are so great? Why did Hugo Chavez died in Cuba while being repeatedly treated for cancer if the hospitals are so modern there? Another big lie by Michael Moore and the Hollywood elite.
No, the people in Cuba will not benefit from the removal of the embargo, but they will benefit from the removal of communism. They will not be free to trade without the constant consent and oppression of the Castro brothers. The embargo must stay in place as it will limit the capabilities of the regime to spread their cancerous oppression in our hemisphere.
Beyond all this, Obama, with this illegal ruling, bypassed the Congress and obliterated the Constitution. We don't need another Mariel of 1980 when President Carter opened the gates (of Hell) and let Castro empty his prisons and mental institutions and shipped debris of humanity to our shores.
As a Cuban exile, I feel betrayed by President Obama
by Carlos Eire NPR's MORNING EDITION SATURDAY - December 20th
I am furious, in pain, and deeply offended by those who laud this betrayal of the Cuban people as a great moment in history.
My family and native land were destroyed by the brutal Castro regime. In 1959, as an 8-year-old, I listened to mobs shout “paredon!” (to the firing squad!). I watched televised executions, and was terrified by the incessant pressure to agree with a bearded dictator’s ideals.
As the months passed, relatives, friends, and neighbors began to disappear. Some of them emerged from prison with detailed accounts of the tortures they endured, but many never reappeared, their lives cut short by firing squads.
I also witnessed the government’s seizure of all private property – down to the ring on one’s finger – and the collapse of my country’s economy. I began to feel as if some monstrous force was trying to steal my mind and soul through incessant indoctrination.
By the age of 10, I was desperate to leave.
The next year, my parents sent me to the United States. I am one of the lucky 14,000 unaccompanied children rescued by Operation Pedro Pan. Our plan to reunite within a few months was derailed by the policies of the Castro regime, which intentionally prevented people like my parents from leaving Cuba. Although my mother did manage to escape three years later, my father remained stuck for the rest of his life. When he died, 14 years after my departure, the Castro regime prevented me from attending his funeral.
* * *
I am now a professor of history and religion at Yale University.
And I long for justice. Instead of seeing Raúl Castro shaking President Obama’s hand, I would like to see him, his brother, and all their henchmen in a court room, being tried for crimes against humanity. I also long for genuine freedom in Cuba. Instead of seeing his corrupt and abusive regime rewarded with favors from the United States, I long for the day when that regime is replaced by a genuine democracy with a free market economy.
The fact that I am a historian makes me see things differently, too. I earn my living by analyzing texts and documents, sifting evidence, and separating facts from lies and myths. I have been trained to read between the lines, and to discern the hidden meaning in all rhetoric.
While much attention has been paid to President Obama’s Cuba policy speech, hardly any has been paid to dictator Raúl Castro’s shorter speech, broadcast in Cuba at exactly the same time.
In his spiteful address, the unelected ruler of Cuba said that he would accept President Obama’s gesture of good will “without renouncing a single one of our principles.”
What, exactly, are those principles?
Like his brother Fidel, whose name he invoked, and like King Louis XIV of France, whose name he dared not mention, Raúl speaks of himself as the embodiment of the state he rules, as evidenced by his mention of “our principles,” which assumes that all Cubans share his mindset. Raúl claims that he is defending his nation’s “self-determination,” “sovereignty,” and “independence,” and also dares to boast that his total control of the Cuban economy should be admired as “social justice.”
In reality, what he is defending is his role as absolute monarch.
Cubans have no freedom of speech or assembly. The press is tightly controlled, and there is no freedom to establish political parties or labor unions. Travel is strictly controlled, as is access to the Internet. There is no economic freedom and no elections. According to the Associated Press, at least 8,410 dissidents were detained in 2014.
These are the principles that Raúl Castro is unwilling to renounce, which have driven nearly 20 percent of Cuba’s population into exile.
Unfortunately, these are also the very principles that President Obama ratified as acceptable, which will govern Cuba for years to come.
Although President Obama did acknowledge the lack of “freedom and openness” in Cuba, and also hinted that Raúl Castro should loosen his grip on the Cuban people, his rhetoric was as hollow as Raúl’s. He didn't make any demands for immediate, genuine reforms in Cuba. Equally hollow was his reference to Cuba’s “civil society.” He made no mention of the constant abuse heaped on Cuba’s non-violent dissidents, or of the fact that the vast majority of them have pleaded with him to tighten rather than ease existing sanctions on the Castro regime.
But it was not just what was left unsaid that made his rhetoric hollow. Some of the “facts” cited in support of his policy changes were deliberate distortions of history that lay most of the blame for Cuba’s problems on the United States.
Among the most glaring of these falsehoods was the claim that “our sanctions on Cuba have denied Cubans access to technology that has empowered individuals around the globe.” The real culprit is not the embargo, but the Castro regime itself, which actively prevents Cubans from accessing the Internet. Cuba has been purchasing all sorts of cutting-edge technology from other countries for use by its government, its military, its spies, and its tourist industry.
If studied carefully, what President Obama’s artful speech reveals is a fixation on the failures of American foreign policy, and on his role as a righteous reformer. Moreover, the speech is riddled with false assumptions and wishful thinking.
Does President Obama really believe that somehow, magically, an influx of American diplomats, tourists, and dollars is going to force Raúl Castro and his military junta to give up their beloved repressive “principles”?
Dream on. President Obama knows all too well that the Castro regime has had diplomatic and economic relations with the rest of the world and hosted millions of tourists from democratic nations for many years. Such engagement has brought no freedom or prosperity to the Cuban people. He also knows that tourism has only served to create an apartheid state in which foreigners enjoy privileges that are denied to the natives.
President Obama’s disingenuous formulation of a new Cuba policy has been praised by many around the world, but will be challenged by the legislative branch of the government of these United States.
Thank God and the Constitution for that.
The American people and the Cuban people deserve a much better future and a much better interpretation of history than those offered to them in President Obama’s shameful speech.
SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON POST
U.S. gives up last of its leverageReviving ties with Cuba means we’re supporting a cruel regimePresident Obama is basking in global adulation for his decision to normalize relations with Cuba. But there is one group that is not impressed with Obama’s rapprochement with the totalitarian regime in Havana — the dissidents on the island who are risking their lives for democracy and human rights.
Yoani Sánchez, Cuba’s most influential dissident blogger, declared that with Obama’s move “Castroism has won.”
Guillermo Farinas, a dissident journalist and winner of the European Union’s 2010 Sakharov prize for human rights, told the Guardian newspaper that Obama’s move is “a disaster.” Farinas, who has conducted 23 hunger strikes to protest Cuban repression, added, “We live in daily fear that we will be killed by the fascist government. And now, the U.S. — our ally — turns its back on us and prefers to sit with our killers.”
Angel Moya, who was recently released from an eight-year prison sentence, told The New York Times that Obama “betrayed those of us who are struggling against the Cuban government. There will be more repression, only this time with the blessing of the United States.” Moya further declared that dissidents “are totally against the easing of the embargo” because “the government will have more access to technology and money that can be used against us.”
Moya is right. U.S. tourism and investment in Cuba won’t help ordinary Cubans at all; it will help the regime repress them. Here is why: The Castro brothers are the nation’s sole employer. Virtually everyone in Cuba works for the state. The regime’s monopoly on employment is a source of political control. Cubans are dependent on the Castros for everything — work, housing, education, food — and can see those things taken away for the slightest expression of counterrevolutionary sentiment.
This means that if U.S. businesses invest in Cuba, they would have to partner with the Castro brothers. They would not be allowed to hire Cuban workers directly or pay them in U.S. dollars. They would have to pay the Castro regime as much as $10,000 per worker. The regime then would give the worker a few hundred worthless Cuban pesos and pocket the rest.
So rather than helping ordinary Cubans become independent of the state, U.S. businesses will be directly subsidizing the Castro police state, while using what effectively amounts to Cuban slave labor.
That is reason enough to bar U.S. investment in Cuba. But the other reason Cuban dissidents oppose Obama’s move is that he has given up U.S. leverage to influence a post-Castro democratic transition.
As Rebecca Roja, a dissident who said the secret police knocked out two of her teeth during beatings, told the Guardian: “The Castros got what they wanted from the U.S. Now they have no incentive to change.”
After five decades, it is clear the Castros were never going to follow in the footsteps of the regime in Burma (also known as Myanmar), which negotiated a loosening of repression in exchange for a lifting of sanctions and normalization of relations. But those who succeed the Castros were likely to do so once the brothers were gone. Virtually everyone on the island — both inside and outside the regime — was waiting for the Castros to finally die so that the process of normalizing economic and political ties could finally begin.
Now the regime doesn't have to wait or give anything in return — because Obama has unilaterally given the Cuban regime the political recognition it was desperately seeking.
Obama has given the Castros legitimacy and hopes to soon unleash a flood of tourists and business investment that will only help the regime maintain its totalitarian system. The president apparently did not even seek any liberalization from Havana in exchange — no agreement to allow a free press, independent political parties, free market reforms or free elections, much less to end repression against dissent.
Fortunately, Obama was constrained from lifting the embargo entirely because Congress codified it in 1996 as part of the Helms-Burton Act. The complete lifting of economic sanctions on the Castros is conditioned by law on a post-Castro regime taking meaningful steps to dismantle the police state and move toward democracy and a free market economy.
The remaining legal restrictions on trade with Cuba are the last piece of leverage the United States has to press for democratic change on the island when the Castros are gone. Congress should listen to the dissidents on the island and refuse to go along with any further loosening of economic sanctions unless real democratic change occurs in Cuba.
The United States should not give away its last bit of leverage just as time prepares to do what the embargo could not — bring about the end of the Castro regime.
