Tema: Lift the Cuba Embargo?

The necessary steps required to be taken by the Castros’ regime to ease the ban on trade and travel between the two countries shall be:

Opposition parties should have the freedom to organize, assemble, and speak, with equal access to all airwaves. All political prisoners must be released and allowed to participate.

Human rights organizations should be free to visit Cuba to ensure that the conditions for free elections are being created.

Without major steps by the regime to open up its political system and its economic system, trade with the regime will not help the Cuban people.

Since the last count in 2007 180 countries conduct business with Cuba as confirmed by imports surpassing $13.78 billion during 2007 (http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20080814-1131-cuba-usa-trade.html)

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”. Excerpt from the book "Fidel Castro and Human Rights", Editora Política, Havana, Cuba, 1988.

General Motors has no plans at the moment to start exporting cars to Cuba, though many of the pre-embargo cars on the roads in Cuba were made by General Motors and most of them during the Eisenhower administration. There have been occasional imports, as Russia was selling Lada cars to Cuba during the 1970s. There are already a small number of new cars in Cuba. A new market for exports is always welcome among automobile makers, and a brand new place to ship automobiles may be opening up after years without access. Economic reforms have led to the resumption of new vehicle sales - in Cuba. The outrageous changes got to New cars to be sold in Cuba in 2012. Though Cuba will start importing new cars, the embargo of Cuba is still in effect, and the Big Three of Detroit are not likely to push for a permit to start exporting any cars there. Also, there are few people who will be able to buy a new car.

The development and changes in Cuba is remarkable as they came to be productive.

A few people will be able to buy a new car in Cuba? Yes, a few people in the government. Most Cubans will still have their old jalopy or their bycicle. "Development and changes in Cuba"... Yes, as in the classical joke: En Cuba han pasado del comunismo al consumismo: Todos con su mismo apartamento que se cae de viejo, con su mismo automóvil de hace cuarenta años, con su mismo sueldo de m...

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!”

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, anything else is futile.

Secretary of State on Cuba
http://www.penultimosdias.com/2010/04/1 ... e-on-cuba/

Por Jaime Suchlicki* (ICCAS)
Penultimos Dias

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently stated that the Castro brothers are against normalizing relations with the U.S. because the U.S. embargo serves as an excuse for the failures of the Cuban government.

So far so good. Yet the question that follows this statement is how many Cubans really believe that the shortages of bananas, potatoes and beans in Cuba are the result of U.S. policy? Very few. The Cubans understand well that the reason for economic distress in the island is the same as in Eastern Europe during the Communist era: a failed centrally planned economic system that doesn’t produce and stifles individual initiative.

Furthermore, food is not part of the U.S. embargo. For the past several years Cuba has been purchasing food and agricultural products from the U.S. The U.S. has become the largest exporter of food and agricultural products to Cuba .

Yet, there are other reasons why General Raul Castro doesn’t want to normalize relations with the U.S. It would mean a rejection of one of Fidel Castro’s main legacies: anti-Americanism. For the past half century, opposition to the U.S. and support of anti-American revolutionary and terrorist groups has been the main foreign policy cornerstone of the Cuban revolution. Moving toward the United States would require the weakening of Cuba ’s anti-American alliance with radical regimes and groups in Latin America, as well as Iran and Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East .

From the Castro brothers’ point of view, the U.S. has little to offer: American tourists which Raul doesn’t need (2 million tourists visit Cuba yearly); American investments which he fears may subvert his highly centralized and controlled economy; and products such as medicines and heavy equipment that he can buy cheaper from other countries. The U.S. does not have, furthermore, the ability to provide Cuba with the petroleum Venezuela is sending with little or no payment.

Emboldened by Venezuela’s continuous largesse and recent large credits from China, Iran, Russia and Brazil, General Castro feels confident that Cubans can be pacified with growing imports of foods and consumer goods, more economic concessions and continuous control and repression.

Foreign aid from these countries, furthermore, comes without conditions. None of these countries are concerned with Cuba ’s political system, human rights or a return to democracy.

Why would Raul Castro offer concessions to the U.S. while he enjoys the fruits of a close relationship with the above countries? Even at the height of uncertainty, following the collapse of Communism, the Castro brothers insisted they would offer no concessions or change Cuba ’s system. Raul repeated this recently. They prefer to sacrifice the economic well-being of the Cubans rather than cave in to demands for a free Cuba politically and economically. Neither economic incentives nor punishment have worked with the Castros in the past. They are not likely to work in the future.

Which brings us to the obvious conclusion that not all differences and problems in international affairs can be solved through negotiations, or can be solved at all. This reality vitiates an assumption that has permeated American foreign policy for decades. There are international disputes that are not negotiable and can be resolved only through the use of force or through prolonged patience until the leadership disappears or situations change. While some differences naturally can be solved through negotiations, others are irreconcilable. Cuba seems to fall in this last category.

* Jaime Suchlicki is Emilio Bacardi Moreau Distinguished Professor and Director, Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, University of Miami . He is the author of Cuba: From Columbus to Castro, now in its fifth edition; Mexico: From Montezuma to NAFTA, now in its second edition and the recently published Breve Historia de Cuba.

Excellent analysis by Jaime Suchlicki of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's recent comments on Cuba. His assessment boils down the Cuba situation to this indisputable reality: “There are international disputes that are not negotiable and can be resolved only through the use of force or through prolonged patience until the leadership disappears or situations change. While some differences naturally can be solved through negotiations, others are irreconcilable. Cuba seems to fall in this last category.”

To assume the USA can negotiate with the Castro brothers’ dictatorship, whose only concern is self-preservation, and somehow convince them that committing political suicide is their best option, is to ignore the reality of the past half-century.

The Castro brothers do not want an end to the embargo, regardless of what their admirers or propaganda apparatus say. What they want is for the US to find a way to bail them out, extend them loans and lines of credit, which they will not be pay backas it happens at the present time with other countries ( the regime staggering debt is way over $60 billions). These loans will replace the financial assistance that the Soviet Union was given to the regime. This certainlywill help the regime to keep the Cuban people oppress for a longer time.

The standard of living and social development of the Cuban people are tightly attached to the economy. The improvement of those under the existing regime economical disaster is nil. The embargo isn’t the cause of the problems, they are the product of the ineffectiveness and corruption of the Castro brothers dictatorship, they are the real reason.

The abuses perpetrated against the Ladies in White and the death of Zapata Tamayo have exposed once again the brutal and cruel nature of the Castro brothers’ regime, and taken credibility away from all those who want to unconditionally normalize relations with them, making this possibility very difficult to accomplish.

Lifting today’s nominal embargo is a good idea that almost all Cuban agree with, any way the embargo doesn’t exist, it’s proven enough, but some people and the dictatorship continues to talk about the embargo to create the impression in the public opinion that it exist. It is the old tactic used by Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi regime minister of propaganda whose very famous quote says, “If you tell a lie long enough, it becomes the truth...”The only effective embargo that to this day affects the Cuban people is the internal embargo that the dictatorship maintains on the Cubans.

The United States government’s embargo has had little effect on the Cuban economy, since it only represents 6% of Cuba’s commerce with the rest of the world. The embargo only affects the American companies and their subsidiaries. The rest of the countries, a 180 since the last count in 2007, and companies are free to conduct business with Cuba and are doing so, as confirmed by imports surpassing $10.00 billions during 2007. In reality there is not such embargo since in the year 2000 the United States Congress lifted the prohibition of the sale of agricultural products and medicines to Cuba, thereby allowing Castro’s regime to buy everything it needs.

From December 2001 up to December 2007, the Castro’s regime had signed contracts for more than $2.00 billions with American companies for the purchases of their products. The U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, based on analysis of official figures of the Castro’s regime, has estimated the import of U.S. agricultural products in $437 millions during 2007. Cuba's National Statistics Office (www.one.cu) placed the United States as Cuba’s fifth business partner at $582 million in 2007. In 2008 The U.S. sold $718 million in goods to Cubaaccording to the Census Bureau.

What the Cuban people experience is rationing, shortages, long lines and bureaucratic indifference, that's the real embargo of Castro brothers’ regime.

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, not the Cuban people:

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

Cuba can't postpone cultural transformation
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/23/1642452/cuba-cant-postpone-cultural-transformation.html

BY OSCAR ESPINOSA CHEPE
leivachepe@gmail.com
Posted on Sunday, 05.23.10

HAVANA -- In the context of the Obama administration's opening to the appearance of Cuban artists in the United States no matter what their political positions, Silvio Rodríguez, his wife and daughter received visas to tour that country.

The highlight of the tour is a performance at Carnegie Hall in New York on June 4. In addition, the visit will include appearances in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Puerto Rico.

Although Silvio maintains his support for the regime, in recent times he has expressed criticism of controversial issues in the nation's reality, among them the restrictions on entering and leaving the country, as well as the Revolutionary Offensive of 1968 [when the government confiscated more than 55,000 small businesses and put them under state control] and its disastrous consequences.

Silvio's visit has been preceded by the visits of many other Cuban artists. The day before his appearance in Carnegie Hall, Alicia Alonso will be honored by the American Ballet Theatre in New York, where she began her career as a dancer in 1943. She is about to celebrate her 90th birthday.

Alonso is not limited by her political position of connivance with totalitarianism, including her support for the repression during the Black Spring of 2003, which put in prison 75 peaceful Cubans only because they tried to express their opinions, and for the cruel and excessive sentence of death by firing squad meted out to three young blacks who made the mistake of trying to take a ferryboat to the United States without shedding any blood.

Cubans applaud President Obama's gestures of true democracy and wonder when the Cuban government will allow artists who live abroad to bring their art to Cuba. People here want to enjoy the appreciated talent of Bebo Valdés, Gloria Estefan, Willy Chirino, Albita, Paquito D'Rivera and many others.

The repeated friendly gestures made by the American authorities should be reciprocated by the Cuban authorities. At a time when the economy sinks swiftly, we should take advantage of Washington's stance to begin to settle the differences that for so many years have separated our countries.

Ninety miles from our shores and possessing the world's most powerful and efficient economy, the United States would be an economic and commercial partner that, on a basis of mutual respect, could help lift our country from the terrible chaos in which it finds itself. That requires outsize investments that demand enormous resources and the best technology, factors available in the United States, home to 1.7 million Cuban Americans, who could form a magnificent bridge to achieve that objective.

It is impossible to reach that objective, however, if the Cuban government does not also take steps toward rationality and the gradual democratization of the island.

Such a strategy would be in line with the interests of Cuban society, which has been plunged into disaster precisely by the authorities, when they refuse to walk along the road of sanity, common sense and respect for different opinions.

Today, more than ever, it is in the interest of all Cubans, the government included, to put aside a bunker mentality cluttered with wrong positions and useless rhetoric.

It is indispensable to take concrete measures that would include: the immediate release of prisoners of conscience and peaceful politicians; turning over the land to the peasants so they can cultivate it freely and enjoy honorable lives with their efforts; allowing the creation of small and medium private enterprises; granting all the citizens the freedom to work in a legal framework for the establishment of a democratic society with respect for human rights; and creating a strong and independent civil society.

As Cardinal Jaime Ortega said recently, referring to the need to find solutions for today's economic and social difficulties the common denominator among the people consulted is that ``the necessary changes be made soon in Cuba . . . this opinion reaches a sort of national consensus, and its postponement produces impatience and malaise in the people.''

We are in a crucial moment for Cuba. The changes can no longer be delayed. The government must understand that the transformations cannot be postponed. Reconciliation is attained on the basis of honorable compromises among all Cubans.

Oscar Espinosa Chepe is an economist and independent journalist in Cuba.

The problem is that the changes have been delay, and they are a band aid, they don’t address the real problems.

Cuban Communists and the California Farm Bureau
Statement by U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes of Californiaon April 29, 2010, at Ways and Means' Trade Subcommittee hearing on U.S.-Cuba Policy:
Video link:
RepDevinNunes — April 29, 2010 — Our allies in Central and South America are under constant assault by hostile powers including Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. Without our support, we leave these friendly Democracies at the mercy of anti America sentiment and militant Marxist ideology.

Rep. Devin Nunes is very clear and forthright in his assessment of trade with the Cuban military regime. I wish him a long successful political career.

One thing that the constitution expressly mentions about the power of the federal government, it's in the arena of regulating trade. The way the embargo has been structured, it's a trade policy; it is about spending dollars in a foreign country. There are many ways a US citizen can visit Cuba. What's restricted is spending money there as a tourist. There's a reason why people who travel to Cuba legally have to get a license from OFAC (the office of foreign asset control) which is part of the treasury department. The embargo exists because of the Castro brothers expropriation of American assets.