Thread: Could uncertainty over Trump lead to a Mariel-like exodus from Cuba?

There is no rational reason for the trade embargo with Cuba. It's cruel and UnAmerican. The total population of Cuba is actually better off under Castro than they were under Batista. The reason this embargo is still on is because of Florida and the Cuban Immigrant Lobby in Florida. They want their family assets back they left behind when they fled to the United States or reparations. That's the "human rights" they're talking about. A Cuban-American immigrant member of the US House of Representatives let that slip in an interview she had recently. I've always thought it but she confirmed it.

Originally Posted by MW

You're right, we do treat Cuba and China differently. From what I attempted to imply above, I personally think it's all about greed. Is it fair, no it's not. Personally, I don't think we should do business with China or Cuba, but that's a position most folks probably wouldn't agree with.

Yes, greed. Cuba has nothing to offer and I also think it is revenge - Cuba sent the mob running with their tail between their legs. The mob owned politicians for many years, now they have become legitimate - they have become politicians, business owners, etc., but I think that resentment remained.

Yes, I think the wealthy Cubans who had their own little fiefdoms and treated their people like serfs are still miffed about that. They would continue to do all they could to keep Cuba from surviving.

I once saw a documentary about a old lady who returned to Cuba to visit. She was a young woman when her family had to leave. They were wealthy plantation owners. She had nothing good to say and was thoroughly horrified because there was no Coca Cola.

They interviewed an old man who had known this woman and had been a worker at the exclusive club, country club type, when they both were young. He a worker and she a member.

He said he wasn't wealthy, but he and his friends could now go to the club as it was open to the public. He said he now owned an apartment something he could would never have been able to do when the wealthy controlled the country.

I know people make fun of the Cubans owning all those 1950's automobiles - but they are still running and worth more than most of our cars today - certainly they will be worth more tomorrow than ours are. Also, they probably don't have to make payments.

As for the human rights, we have so many people in prison in this country, so many dying from violence, drugs-illegal and prescription,
medical mistakes, bad food, air and water.

Human rights abuses take many forms ---


So, if the US is making money off some country, human rights don't matter - that's really the long and short of it.

Our country, and that is all of us to a point, are willing to accept a lot of things. Sometimes it's money, cheap goods, or just not wanting to have to fight or stand up for something.

We purchase, use and wear products made by children in factories. These are sometimes made in sweatshops by young people, females who are almost prisoners.

These are things we decided long ago was not the right thing to do, yet put it on the other side of the world and give us our 'Friday night binge at Wal Mart', and we forget our principles.

Lining a Dictator's Pockets

No good would come of lifting the embargo on Cuba.

[COLOR=#999999 !important]By Jorge Benitez | Contributor Feb. 27, 2014, at 5:00 p.m.


Based on a new poll it commissioned on U.S. relations with Cuba, the Atlantic Council issued a report recently calling for a “policy shift” that would end the U.S. embargo on the Castro regime. But when asked to respond to the statement that “after more than 50 years of no U.S. relations with Cuba the Castro regime remains in power,” 51 percent of those polled want to keep the current policy in place.

Nevertheless, the key issue is not whether the embargo is popular. Rather, the main question is, would dropping the embargo better serve the interests of the United States? The answer to this question remains a strong "no," because ending the embargo would be bad business, strengthen an oppressive government and abandon American values.

The U.S. should not normalize trade with the Castro regime for the plain and simple reasons that his ventures lose money and his government is an international “deadbeat.” Any economic partnerships with authoritarian regimes are morally suspect, but making deals with the Castro government is pouring billions of dollars down the drain. In 1986, Cuba defaulted on its multibillion dollar debt to the Paris Club of nations. That debt is now estimated to be around $37 billion and the Castro government refuses to pay it. A couple of months ago, Russia had to write off 90 percent of Cuba's $32 billion debt. That’s almost $29 billion dollars that Castro will never pay back to Moscow. In November, Mexico wrote off $340 million of Cuba’s debt to its development bank, Bancomext. It is no wonder that, according to Moody’s, Cuba’s credit rating is Caaa1, which means worse than highly speculative and a “substantial risk” to investors.

It makes no business sense to drop the embargo for the sake of trading with a government that reneged on so many loans its credit rating is now at the subprime or “junk bond” level. Yet, loans are what would be necessary to “normalize” relations with Cuba. The embargo allows for U.S. food and humanitarian supplies to be sold to Cuba. In fact, the U.S. is currently the fifth largest exporter to Cuba. The big difference is that, according to the embargo, the Castro government must pay for all U.S. imports with cash, no credit allowed.


This brings us to the most overlooked and dangerous factor in trading with Cuba. Most of the Cuban economy is owned by the Castro government and all foreign trade is channeled through agencies that support the regime. For example, all foreign companies must pay wages in hard currency (dollars or euros) to the Cuban government, and from those wages the state pays in local currency (Cuban pesos) a small percentage to the individual employees. As a report by the Brooking Foundation described it: “If the firm pays the employment agency $500 a month and the employment agency pays the workers 500 pesos, over 90 percent of the wage payment disappears in the currency conversion; the effective compensation is instantly deflated to $21 per month.” Brookings said this may be “the world’s heaviest labor tax.” Or as one Cuban worker disclosed: “In Cuba, it’s a great myth that we live off the state. In fact, it’s the state that lives off of us.”

This is why decades of trade between Cuba and market economies in Europe, Canada and Latin America have only lined the pockets of the Castro government and not produced any of the promised political or economic benefits for the people of Cuba. This is what “normalized” relations with Cuba looks like. If the U.S. dropped the embargo, our companies would join those from around the world that pay dearly to the Castro regime as it exploits the Cuban people. It is this corrupt system, not the embargo, which deprives the people of Cuba of the benefits of trade and the skill of their labor. As the U.S. argued in the United Nations, “the Cuban Government’s own policy was the largest obstacle to the country’s own development, concentrating political and economic decisions in the hands of the few and stifling economic growth.”


Ending the embargo on the Castro regime would be a blow not only to American wallets, but also to American values. The American people want “free trade with free people,” not manipulated trade that strengthens an authoritarian government’s oppression of its people. The Castro regime is on its last few breaths and the Cuban Spring will soon come to millions who will remember that for decades the U.S. chose solidarity with the Cuban people instead of business partnerships with the dictator in Havana.

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/...d-be-a-mistake

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I don't think most Americans want free trade with anyone. At least I sure hope not.