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#1 Oct-21-14 4:49PM

Ernie
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In case you ever wondered- Implications of Ending the Cuban Embargo

Implications of Ending the Cuban Embargo, By Dr. Jaime Suchlicki of The University of Miami

If the U.S. were to end the embargo and lift the travel ban without major reforms in Cuba, there would be significant implications:

- Money from American tourists would flow into businesses owned by the Castro government thus strengthening state enterprises. The tourist industry is controlled by the military and General Raul Castro.

- Tourist dollars would be spent on products, i.e., rum, tobacco, etc., produced by state enterprises, and tourists would stay in hotels owned partially or wholly by the Cuban government. The principal airline shuffling tourists around the island, Gaviota, is owned and operated by the Cuban military.

- American tourists will have limited contact with Cubans. Most Cuban resorts are built in isolated areas, are off limits to the average Cuban, and are controlled by Cuba’s efficient security apparatus. Most Americans don’t speak Spanish, have but limited contact with ordinary Cubans, and are not interested in visiting the island to subvert its regime. Law 88 enacted in 1999 prohibits Cubans from receiving publications from tourists. Penalties include jail terms.

- While providing the Castro government with much needed dollars, the economic impact of tourism on the Cuban population would be limited. Dollars will trickle down to the Cuban poor in only small quantities, while state and foreign enterprises will benefit most.

- The assumption that the Cuban leadership would allow U.S. tourists or businesses to subvert the revolution and influence internal developments is at best naïve. As we have seen in other circumstances, U.S. travelers to Cuba could be subject to harassment and imprisonment.

- Over the past decades hundred of thousands of Canadian, European and Latin American tourists have visited the island. Cuba is not more democratic today. If anything, Cuba is more totalitarian, with the state and its control apparatus having been strengthened as a result of the influx of tourist dollars.

- As occurred in the mid-1990s, an infusion of American tourist dollars will provide the regime with a further disincentive to adopt deeper economic reforms. Cuba’s limited economic reforms were enacted in the early 1990s, when the island’s economic contraction was at its worst. Once the economy began to stabilize by 1996 as a result of foreign tourism and investments, and exile remittances, the earlier reforms were halted or rescinded by Castro.

- Lifting the embargo and the travel ban without major concessions from Cuba would send the wrong message “to the enemies of the United States”: that a foreign leader can seize U.S. properties without compensation; allow the use of his territory for the introduction of nuclear missiles aimed at the United States; espouse terrorism and anti-U.S. causes throughout the world; and eventually the United States will “forget and forgive,” and reward him with tourism, investments and economic aid.

- Since the Ford/Carter era, U.S. policy toward Latin America has emphasized democracy, human rights and constitutional government. Under President Reagan the U.S. intervened in Grenada, under President Bush, Sr. the U.S. intervened in Panama and under President Clinton the U.S. landed marines in Haiti, all to restore democracy to those countries. The U.S. has prevented military coups in the region and supported the will of the people in free elections. U.S. policy has not been uniformly applied throughout the world, yet it is U.S. policy in the region. Cuba is part of Latin America. While no one is advocating military intervention, normalization of relations with a military dictatorship in Cuba will send the wrong message to the rest of the continent.

- Once American tourists begin to visit Cuba, Castro would probably restrict travel by Cuban-Americans. For the Castro regime, Cuban-Americans represent a far more subversive group because of their ability to speak to friends and relatives on the island, and to influence their views on the Castro regime and on the United States. Indeed, the return of Cuban exiles in 1979-80 precipitated the mass exodus of Cubans from Mariel in 1980.

- A large influx of American tourists into Cuba would have a dislocating effect on the economies of smaller Caribbean islands such as Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and even Florida, highly dependent on tourism for their well-being. Careful planning must take place, lest we create significant hardships and social problems in these countries.

If the embargo is lifted, limited trade with, and investments in Cuba would develop. Yet there are significant implications.

Trade

- All trade with Cuba is done with state owned businesses. Since Cuba has very little credit and is a major debtor nation, the U.S. and its businesses would have to provide credits to Cuban enterprises. There is a long history of Cuba defaulting on loans.

- Cuba is not likely to buy a substantial amount of products in the U.S. In the past few years, Cuba purchased several hundred million dollars of food in the U.S. That amount is now down to $170 million per year. Cuba can buy in any other country and it is not likely to abandon its relationship with China, Russia, Venezuela, and Iran to become a major trading partner of the U.S.

- Cuba has very little to sell in the U.S. Nickel, one of Cuba's major exports, is controlled by the Canadians and exported primarily to Canada. Cuba has decimated its sugar industry and there is no appetite in the U.S. for more sugar. Cigars and rum are important Cuban exports. Yet, cigar production is mostly committed to the European market. Cuban rum could become an important export, competing with Puerto Rican and other Caribbean rums.

Investments

- In Cuba, foreign investors cannot partner with private Cuban citizens. They can only invest in the island through minority joint ventures with the government and its state enterprises.

- The dominant enterprise in the Cuban economy is the Grupo GAESA, controlled by the Cuban military. Most investments are done through or with GAESA. Therefore, American companies willing to invest in Cuba will have to partner mostly with the Cuban military.

- Cuba ranks 176 out of 177 countries in the world in terms of economic freedom. Outshined only by North Korea. It ranks as one of the most unattractive investments next to Iran, Zimbabwe, Libya, Mali, etc.

- Foreign investors cannot hire, fire, or pay workers directly. They must go through the Cuban government employment agency which selects the workers. Investors pay the government in dollars or euros and the government pays the workers a meager 10% in Cuban pesos.

- Corruption is pervasive, undermining equity and respect for the rule of law.

- Cuba does not have an independent/transparent legal system. All judges are appointed by the State and all lawyers are licensed by the State. In the last few years, European investors have had over $1 billion arbitrarily frozen by the government and several investments have been confiscated. Cuba's Law 77 allows the State to expropriate foreign-invested assets for reason of "public utility" or "social interest." In the last year, the CEOs of three companies with extensive dealings with the Cuban government were arrested without charges.

Conclusions

- If the travel ban is lifted unilaterally now or the embargo is ended by the U.S., what will the U.S. government have to negotiate with a future regime in Cuba and to encourage changes in the island? These policies could be an important bargaining chip with a future regime willing to provide concessions in the area of political and economic freedoms.

- The travel ban and the embargo should be lifted as a result of negotiations between the U.S. and a Cuban government willing to provide meaningful and irreversible political and economic concessions or when there is a democratic government in place in the island.


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#2 Oct-22-14 11:44AM

Bryan
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From: Bealeton, VA
Registered: Mar-18-11
Posts: 1192

Re: In case you ever wondered- Implications of Ending the Cuban Embargo

Interesting stuff. Is there any hope for democracy in Cuba?


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#3 Oct-22-14 12:27PM

Ernie
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Re: In case you ever wondered- Implications of Ending the Cuban Embargo

Bryan- I have been wondering that for many years. The Cuban people have little freedom. Who knows what will happen when the Castro gods die.

I would like to go back one day and show my family where I grew up for the 1st 9 years of my life. but...I will not do that until the people are free.

The human rights issue is really bad down there.....


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#4 Oct-22-14 12:32PM

Bryan
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From: Bealeton, VA
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Posts: 1192

Re: In case you ever wondered- Implications of Ending the Cuban Embargo

Ernie wrote:

Bryan- I have been wondering that for many years. The Cuban people have little freedom. Who knows what will happen when the Castro gods die.

I would like to go back one day and show my family where I grew up for the 1st 9 years of my life. but...I will not do that until the people are free.

The human rights issue is really bad down there.....

When I heard that Fidel was in poor health and Raul was calling the shots I hoped that maybe he might spark change, but I really don't know anything about him. Is he any better than Fidel or are they basically the same thing?


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#5 Oct-22-14 12:34PM

Ernie
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Re: In case you ever wondered- Implications of Ending the Cuban Embargo

Raul has more blood on his hands than Fidel......


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#6 Dec-17-14 8:55AM

Bryan
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From: Bealeton, VA
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Re: In case you ever wondered- Implications of Ending the Cuban Embargo

Apparently the embargo is ending? The president is supposed to speak at noon.


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#7 Dec-17-14 10:43AM

Ernie
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Re: In case you ever wondered- Implications of Ending the Cuban Embargo

My email has been lit up all day.

A few sanctions are being lifted and apparently, we will establish embassies once again. We do have Interest Sections in both countries....kinda like an embassy.

One of the sanctions is how much an American can bring back with them. No word on the fact that most workers make no money and are heavily "taxed". Check this story out: http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=107948

For me....I am discouraged that nothing is said about the freedom of Cuban people nor about political prisoners. You see, in the US I can say "I don't like what Obama is doing" and I might get some arguments but I won't go to jail. In Cuba, if you protest against the government or the Castro boys, you go to jail.

It is obvious that I do not trust anything the Castro's do and I am afraid that they are just toying with our presidents.

I hope to be proved wrong one day but I don't think I will ever see a free Cuba in my lifetime.

But I am blessed to have come to the US and to be allowed to be come a Naturalized Citizen.


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#8 Dec-17-14 10:46AM

Ernie
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Re: In case you ever wondered- Implications of Ending the Cuban Embargo

Here is the announcement from the White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/foreign-policy/cuba

Later, I will post up some comments form folks who follow Cuban policy on a daily basis.


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#9 Dec-17-14 4:47PM

Ernie
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Re: In case you ever wondered- Implications of Ending the Cuban Embargo

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., "President Obama's actions have vindicated the brutal behavior of the Cuban government," he said in a statement. "Trading Mr. Gross for three convicted criminals sets an extremely dangerous precedent. It invites dictatorial and rogue regimes to use Americans serving overseas as bargaining chips."


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#10 Dec-18-14 5:53AM

jumping jasper
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Re: In case you ever wondered- Implications of Ending the Cuban Embargo

I think most everyone can agree that the past US policies did nothing to free Cuba. My hope is that opening up trade will eventually help. In part that is what help collapse the Soviet Union.


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#11 Dec-18-14 6:40AM

GregF
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Registered: Mar-21-11
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Re: In case you ever wondered- Implications of Ending the Cuban Embargo

I think that establishing an embassy will at least increase our influence and ability to gather information about Cuba.  That could be a good thing in the long run.  But I absolutely do not want to enable the Government to continue their oppression of the people, by increasing the flow of American dollars, tourism, and trade to support the Cuban Government.  I find it interesting that this is occurring just as Russia will supposedly be unable to provide the support they have in the past.  Just as the pressure is reaching a boiling point that might have really driven change, the US comes in to relieve that pressure and, in effect, enable the Cuban Government to remain in power.  I know that the Cuban people are getting hurt (and would hurt more if Russia reduces its support), but that may be the process they need to go through to break the control and make significant change.  I am no expert, just viewing this from an "amateur" perspective.  Lots of our Government's decisions confuse me!!!

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#12 Dec-18-14 8:02AM

Ernie
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Re: In case you ever wondered- Implications of Ending the Cuban Embargo

The issue with opening up trade is that the Cuban government gets most of the money.

http://www.capitolhillcubans.com/2014/1 … rkers.html

Trust me, we have tons of intel on what goes on in Cuba. The embassy thing is a good thing.

But I agree with Jeff and Greg, once the ball starts rolling, it will be hard to stop. But i am afraid there will be some blood shed before that happens.


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#13 Feb-11-15 8:26AM

Ernie
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Re: In case you ever wondered- Implications of Ending the Cuban Embargo

More on Cuba and this as it relates to cigars. Rafael Nadal basically sums up how I feel.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It seems like a very simple question. Do we as Americans want to be restricted by government policy to buy and “legally” enjoy a Cuban cigar? On its face, it has a simple answer. We Americans are tired of the government telling us where to smoke, what to smoke and when to smoke a cigar. However, as in many things in life, it is not as simple as the difference between black and white.

My father taught me that you don’t deal with thieves; you don’t do business with criminals; you don’t help bullies, and you certainly don’t help dictators stay in power to continue terrorizing their people. Those principles have guided my reasoning with regard to the U.S. Cuban Trade Embargo.

For those of you who may be too young to remember, the U.S. Embargo is part of a strategy by the U.S. Government to try to ignite changes in Cuba and force the communist regime towards a more democratic society. It was implemented during the height of the Cold War by President Kennedy and has been supported and upheld by every U.S. Administration ever since. During the years there have been some changes to the policy, some restrictions have been lifted, and some cultural, educational and religious exchanges have been permitted. But for the most part, the restrictions of freely doing business in Cuba by Americans have not changed.

For me, it is a deeply personal and emotional issue. Having been born in Cuba, I suffered the horrendous attempt of the communist dictatorial regime to control every aspect of the Cuban peoples’ lives. Control of what to say, what to think, what to wear, what to eat, what to believe in (or rather what not to believe in), what to study, what music to listen to, and what consequences will be paid for even the most minimal deviation from the government’s ideology.

The U.S. Cuban embargo, for me as well as for many Cuban Americans, became a tool of punishing the Cuban regime by restricting access to American consumers and the mighty American Dollar. Since all businesses in Cuba are owned or controlled by the government, buying a Cuban cigar or any other Cuban product was seen as a way of helping the regime.

The Embargo has also been a divided issue among the Cuban Americans living in exile. Those who emigrated to the U.S. during the first part of the Cuban Revolution have always strongly supported the Embargo. Compare them to the Cubans who have arrived more recently. They are more supportive of ending the embargo including a more relaxed travel and trade policy with Cuba.

For many (but not all) of my American cigar smoking friends, the issue of the Cuban cigar ban has been simple. They want the opportunity of legally smoking a Cuban cigar in their favorite cigar lounge or purchasing them from their favorite online cigar store. They are tired of having to smuggle Cuban cigars into the U.S. from abroad as if they were cocaine.

For me, it is obviously more than that. The end to the embargo will not only allow the free sale of Cuban cigars among local tobacconists, it will give the American market access to Cuban government-controlled companies as well as access to loans that will help the Cuban government perpetuate its control over its people.

However, as supporters of ending the embargo argue, it will also give access to American companies to the Cuban market; a market hungry for investment, while exposing the Cuban people to a world of new products and brands that they have not had access to for 50 years.

The most powerful argument against the embargo that I have heard was told to me by a person that I respect very much. As a journalist and editor of a cigar magazine, he has firsthand knowledge of the Cuban issue, and told me that “capitalism is America’s most powerful weapon” – a very strong statement, in my opinion.

As I travel around the world, it is hard to miss the takeover of international commerce by corporations like McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, Gap, Apple, HP, Starbucks, and thousands more American brands, not to mention the movie and music businesses.

The world is hungry for American culture, and I have no doubt that it is all the better for it. With every pair of jeans that are worn, with every Big Mac that is eaten, with every Hollywood movie that is watched, people around the world are exposed to our American values which include freedom, democracy and the entrepreneurial spirit.

There is also no denying that the U.S. Embargo has not helped bring down the Castro regime during the last 50 years. Instead, this has given the Cuban Government an excuse to justify their economic and political failures.

I used to think that everyone in favor of bringing down the Embargo was a Communist or a Socialist trying to help the Cuban dictatorship. Now I realize that there are some very well intentioned people with a different idea about dealing with the Cuban crisis.

So, should the U.S. remove the embargo against Cuba? Should the Cuban cigar embargo be lifted so that they may be sold legally in the U.S.? We should all answer these questions based on our own values and conclusions. That said, I cannot, in good conscience, favor removing the U.S. embargo until there is a free and open society in Cuba. I will continue to guide my views on the embargo from what my father taught me: “You don’t deal with thieves, you don’t do business with criminals, you don’t help bullies and you certainly don’t help dictators stay in power to continue terrorizing its people.”

In the meantime, let’s enjoy the amazing selection of premium cigars sold legally in the U.S. that are created in the free entrepreneurial spirit of people like myself who work hard to earn the support of American cigar smokers by making the best possible cigar at the best possible price.

In conclusion, there is one thing I do know: there is no country in the world that has so many great cigars as the United States, and one day when Americans finally get to smoke Cuban cigars legally, I hope they are made by free Cubans.


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#14 Feb-11-15 11:32AM

GregF
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Registered: Mar-21-11
Posts: 712

Re: In case you ever wondered- Implications of Ending the Cuban Embargo

The writer seems to do a good job of presenting both sides of the debate.  I actually thought his argument for American capitalist influence in Cuba by lifting the embargo made a lot of sense since the embargo hasn't gotten them to budge too much.  But it is also hard to argue with "You don't deal with thieves...."  It is a difficult situation.

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#15 Feb-11-15 11:56AM

Ernie
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From: Ashburn VA
Registered: Feb-03-06
Posts: 15544

Re: In case you ever wondered- Implications of Ending the Cuban Embargo

I don't believe that is actually what his father Sadi. It was worse than that. I know because I know what I heard from my parents. No way I can write that here.......


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#16 Nov-26-16 2:14PM

Curly
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Registered: Mar-15-10
Posts: 5412

Re: In case you ever wondered- Implications of Ending the Cuban Embargo

And now what will happen that Fidel is gone????


Hell or High Water...........I'm Fishin!!   big_smile

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#17 Nov-26-16 3:39PM

Ernie
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From: Ashburn VA
Registered: Feb-03-06
Posts: 15544

Re: In case you ever wondered- Implications of Ending the Cuban Embargo

Same old, same old. Unless Trump makes a bold move.

Our current president's move 2 years ago did nothing but help the Castro regime imprison record number of people who simply spoke out against the tyrannical government. Fidel Castro kills, imprisons & denies freedom to millions and our president says it's "up to history to judge him." Really?

More people are fleeing Cuba (by boat and raft) today than in the past.

It's a s*** hole run by ruthless bastards.

This is a good read: http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/i-nev … ed-8951691


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#18 Nov-27-16 2:08PM

Ernie
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From: Ashburn VA
Registered: Feb-03-06
Posts: 15544

Re: In case you ever wondered- Implications of Ending the Cuban Embargo

Here is some good reading, should you chose to do so.....

---President-Elect Donald J. Trump Statement on the Passing of Fidel Castro

Today, the world marks the passing of a brutal dictator who oppressed his own people for nearly six decades. Fidel Castro’s legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights.

While Cuba remains a totalitarian island, it is my hope that today marks a move away from the horrors endured for too long, and toward a future in which the wonderful Cuban people finally live in the freedom they so richly deserve.

Though the tragedies, deaths and pain caused by Fidel Castro cannot be erased, our administration will do all it can to ensure the Cuban people can finally begin their journey toward prosperity and liberty. I join the many Cuban Americans who supported me so greatly in the presidential campaign, including the Brigade 2506 Veterans Association that endorsed me, with the hope of one day soon seeing a free Cuba.

---WaPo: Farewell to Cuba’s Brutal Big Brother, by Yale Prof. Carlos Eire in The Washington Post:

Farewell to Cuba’s brutal Big Brother

One of the most brutal dictators in modern history has just died. Oddly enough, some will mourn his passing, and many an obituary will praise him. Millions of Cubans who have been waiting impatiently for this moment for more than half a century will simply ponder his crimes and recall the pain and suffering he caused.

Why this discrepancy? Because deceit was one of Fidel Castro’s greatest talents, and gullibility is one of the world’s greatest frailties. A genius at myth-making, Castro relied on the human thirst for myths and heroes. His lies were beautiful, and so appealing. According to Castro and to his propagandists, the so-called revolution was not about creating a repressive totalitarian state and securing his rule as an absolute monarch, but rather about eliminating illiteracy, poverty, racism, class differences and every other ill known to humankind. This bold lie became believable, thanks largely to Castro’s incessant boasting about free schools and medical care, which made his myth of the benevolent utopian revolution irresistible to many of the world’s poor.

Many intellectuals, journalists and educated people in the First World fell for this myth, too — though they would have been among the first to be jailed or killed by Castro in his own realm — and their assumptions acquired an intensity similar to that of religious convictions. Pointing out to such believers that Castro imprisoned, tortured and murdered thousands more of his own people than any other Latin American dictator was usually futile. His well-documented cruelty made little difference, even when acknowledged, for he was judged according to some aberrant ethical code that defied logic.

This Kafkaesque moral disequilibrium had a touch of magical realism, for sure, as outrageously implausible as anything that Castro’s close friend Gabriel García Márquez could dream up. For instance, in 1998, around the same time that Chile’s ruler Augusto Pinochet was arrested in London for his crimes against humanity, Cuba’s self-anointed “maximum leader” visited Spain with ample fanfare, unmolested, even though his human rights abuses dwarfed those of Pinochet.

Even worse, whenever Castro traveled abroad, many swooned in his presence. In 1995, when he came to New York to speak at the United Nations, many of the leading lights of that city jostled so intently for a chance to meet with him at media mogul Mort Zuckerman’s triplex penthouse on Fifth Avenue that Time magazine declared “Fidel Takes Manhattan!” Not to be outdone, Newsweek called Castro “The Hottest Ticket in Manhattan.” None of the American elites who hobnobbed with Castro that day seemed to care that he had put nuclear weapons to their heads in 1962.

If this were a just world, 13 facts would be etched on Castro’s tombstone and highlighted in every obituary, as bullet points — a fitting metaphor for someone who used firing squads to murder thousands of his own people.

●He turned Cuba into a colony of the Soviet Union and nearly caused a nuclear holocaust.

●He sponsored terrorism wherever he could and allied himself with many of the worst dictators on earth.

●He was responsible for so many thousands of executions and disappearances in Cuba that a precise number is hard to reckon.

●He brooked no dissent and built concentration camps and prisons at an unprecedented rate, filling them to capacity, incarcerating a higher percentage of his own people than most other modern dictators, including Stalin.

●He condoned and encouraged torture and extrajudicial killings.

●He forced nearly 20 percent of his people into exile, and prompted thousands to meet their deaths at sea, unseen and uncounted, while fleeing from him in crude vessels.

●He claimed all property for himself and his henchmen, strangled food production and impoverished the vast majority of his people.

●He outlawed private enterprise and labor unions, wiped out Cuba’s large middle class and turned Cubans into slaves of the state.

●He persecuted gay people and tried to eradicate religion.

●He censored all means of expression and communication.

●He established a fraudulent school system that provided indoctrination rather than education, and created a two-tier health-care system, with inferior medical care for the majority of Cubans and superior care for himself and his oligarchy, and then claimed that all his repressive measures were absolutely necessary to ensure the survival of these two ostensibly “free” social welfare projects.

●He turned Cuba into a labyrinth of ruins and established an apartheid society in which millions of foreign visitors enjoyed rights and privileges forbidden to his people.

●He never apologized for any of his crimes and never stood trial for them.

In sum, Fidel Castro was the spitting image of Big Brother in George Orwell’s novel “1984.” So, adiós, Big Brother, king of all Cuban nightmares. And may your successor, Little Brother, soon slide off the bloody throne bequeathed to him.

--N.Y. Post Editorial: Castro’s Rotting in Hell, But Cuba’s Not Free Yet

Castro’s rotting in hell, but Cuba’s not free yet

The dancing in the streets of Miami tells you all you need to know: The people who knew Fidel Castro best, and are free to express their opinion, are ecstatic that he’s burning in hell.

He led a revolution promising liberty in the island nation — then instead transformed it into an island prison. Along with the rest of his inner circle, he lived a life of luxury — 20 homes, including a private island, Cayo Piedra, that his former bodyguard called a “millionaire’s paradise.”

He jailed, tortured and “disappeared” countless thousands of his people, including many who’d helped lead the revolution. His utter denial of basic human rights — freedoms of speech and assembly, for starters — drove more than a fifth of Cuba’s population into exile.

Castro deceived from the start, and fools around the world chose to believe the lies long after the truth was obvious. He took power claiming to be a nationalist, then came out as a fervent Communist — with firing squads for any who complained.

Yes, he removed US influence over his country — and sold it to the Soviet Union. His bid to host a Soviet atomic arsenal on the island brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.

He outlawed not only private enterprise, but also labor unions, and put gays in concentration camps.

His policies impoverished what had once been the most prosperous nation in Latin America. The regime blamed the US embargo, without ever noting that the rest of the world hadn’t joined in: The problem was that Castro’s Cuba had next to nothing to export — beyond mercenaries, terrorism and secret police.

By the 1990s, he was even bragging about Cuba’s legions of prostitutes, who served the tourist trade he’d been forced to embrace to replace the subsidies he lost with the fall of the USSR.

In 2006, ill health forced him to hand power over to younger brother Raul, who continues the oppression.

So, while you cheer the death of one of history’s bloodiest tyrants, temper your joy: Cuba is not yet free.

--- WSJ Editorial: Fidel Castro's Communist Example

Fidel Castro’s Communist Example

He turned a developing Cuba into an impoverished prison.

Fidel Castro’s legacy of 57 years in power is best understood by the fates of two groups of his countrymen—those who remained in Cuba and suffered impoverishment and dictatorship, and those who were lucky or brave enough to flee to America to make their way in freedom. No progressive nostalgia after his death Friday at age 90 should disguise this murderous and tragic record.

Castro took power on New Year’s Day in 1959 serenaded by the Western media for toppling dictator Fulgencio Batista and promising democracy. He soon revealed that his goal was to impose Communist rule. He exiled clergy, took over Catholic schools and expropriated businesses. Firing squads and dungeons eliminated rivals and dissenters.

The terror produced a mass exodus. An April 1961 attempt by the CIA and a small force of expatriate Cubans to overthrow Castro was crushed at the Bay of Pigs in a fiasco for the Kennedy Administration. Castro aligned himself with the Soviet Union, and their 1962 attempt to establish a Soviet missile base on Cuba nearly led to nuclear war. The crisis was averted after Kennedy sent warships to intercept the missiles, but the Soviets extracted a U.S. promise not to invade Cuba again.

The Cuba that Castro inherited was developing but relatively prosperous. It ranked third in Latin America in per-capita daily calorie consumption, doctors and dentists. Its infant mortality rate was the lowest in the region and the 13th lowest in the world. Cubans were among the most literate Latins and had a vibrant civic life with private professional, commercial, religious and charitable organizations.

Castro destroyed all that. He ruined agriculture by imposing collective farms, making Cuba dependent first on the Soviets and later on oil from Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela. In the last half century Cuba’s export growth has been less than Haiti’s, and now even doctors are scarce because so many are sent abroad to earn foreign currency. Hospitals lack sheets and aspirin. The average monthly income is $20 and government food rations are inadequate.

All the while Fidel and his brother Raúl sought to spread their Communist revolution throughout the world, especially in Latin America. They backed the FARC in Colombia, the Shining Path in Peru and the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. Their propaganda about peasant egalitarian movements beguiled thousands of Westerners, from celebrities like Sean Penn and Danny Glover to Secretary of State John Kerry, who on a visit to Havana called the U.S. and Cuba “prisoners of history.” The prisoners are in Cuban jails.

On this score, President Obama’s morally antiseptic statement Saturday on Castro is an insult to his victims. “We know that this moment fills Cubans—in Cuba and in the United States—with powerful emotions, recalling the countless ways in which Fidel Castro altered the course of individual lives, families, and of the Cuban nation,” Mr. Obama said. “History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him.” Donald Trump, by contrast, called Castro a “dictator” and expressed hope for a “free Cuba.”

Mr. Obama’s 2014 decision to normalize U.S.-Cuba relations has provided new business opportunities for the regime but has yielded nothing in additional freedom. Americans can now travel and make limited investment in Cuba but hard currency wages for workers are confiscated by the government in return for nearly worthless pesos. In 2006 Forbes estimated Fidel’s net worth, based on his control of “a web of state-owned companies,” at $900 million.

The hope of millions of Cubans, exiled and still on the island, has been that Fidel’s death might finally lead to change, but unwinding nearly six decades of Castro rule will be difficult. The illusions of Communism have given way to a military state that still arrests and beats women on their way to church. China and Russia both allow more economic freedom. The regime fears that easing up on dissent, entrepreneurship or even access to the internet would lead to its inevitable demise.

Castro’s Cuba exists today as a reminder of the worst of the 20th-century when dictators invoked socialist ideals to hammer human beings into nails for the state. Too many Western fellow-travelers indulged its fantasies as long as they didn’t have to live there. Perhaps the influence of Cuba’s exiles will be able, over time, to reseed the message of liberty on the island. But freedom starts by seeing clearly the human suffering that Fidel Castro wrought.


Time to go fishin' again!

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#19 Nov-28-16 6:13AM

Bryan
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From: Bealeton, VA
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Posts: 1192

Re: In case you ever wondered- Implications of Ending the Cuban Embargo

Good riddance.


tight lines

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#20 Nov-28-16 8:26AM

Ernie
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From: Ashburn VA
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Posts: 15544

Re: In case you ever wondered- Implications of Ending the Cuban Embargo

Justice was severed yesterday when when Dolphins linebacker Kiko Alonso, a Cuban-American, stopped Colin Kaepernick at the goal line on the last play of the game. The 49res QB had come out in a Castro T-shirt earlier and praised Castro. He was booed all game by Dolphins fans. What a bonehead!


Time to go fishin' again!

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#21 Nov-28-16 4:38PM

Curly
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Registered: Mar-15-10
Posts: 5412

Re: In case you ever wondered- Implications of Ending the Cuban Embargo

Ernie wrote:

Justice was severed yesterday when when Dolphins linebacker Kiko Alonso, a Cuban-American, stopped Colin Kaepernick at the goal line on the last play of the game. The 49res QB had come out in a Castro T-shirt earlier and praised Castro. He was booed all game by Dolphins fans. What a bonehead!

I saw the end of the game and........yes.........Alonso was as happy and celebrated as if he had won the Super Bowl on that tackle.......

Oh yeah, I've been a Dolphins fan since before the 1972 Perfect Season Dolphins.......


Hell or High Water...........I'm Fishin!!   big_smile

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#22 Nov-28-16 5:50PM

Ernie
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From: Ashburn VA
Registered: Feb-03-06
Posts: 15544

Re: In case you ever wondered- Implications of Ending the Cuban Embargo

Curly wrote:

I saw the end of the game and........yes.........Alonso was as happy and celebrated as if he had won the Super Bowl on that tackle.......

I wish I had seen it! I hope there are no 49er fans here but they suck under Dum Dum's leadership! And I love Alonso's 1st name!

Curly wrote:

Oh yeah, I've been a Dolphins fan since before the 1972 Perfect Season Dolphins.......

No way.....very cool!


Time to go fishin' again!

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#23 Nov-29-16 3:38AM

Curly
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Registered: Mar-15-10
Posts: 5412

Re: In case you ever wondered- Implications of Ending the Cuban Embargo

Ernie wrote:

Curly wrote:

Oh yeah, I've been a Dolphins fan since before the 1972 Perfect Season Dolphins.......

No way.....very cool!

Over half the folks on this Forum were not born yet in 1972! tongue


Hell or High Water...........I'm Fishin!!   big_smile

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#24 Nov-29-16 5:17AM

Ernie
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From: Ashburn VA
Registered: Feb-03-06
Posts: 15544

Re: In case you ever wondered- Implications of Ending the Cuban Embargo

And who did they beat for win #17 in the Superbowl?

Has yet to be done again......


Time to go fishin' again!

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#25 Nov-29-16 6:23AM

firemunkee
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From: Ashburn, VA
Registered: May-23-13
Posts: 1766

Re: In case you ever wondered- Implications of Ending the Cuban Embargo

Curly wrote:

Ernie wrote:

Curly wrote:

Oh yeah, I've been a Dolphins fan since before the 1972 Perfect Season Dolphins.......

No way.....very cool!

Over half the folks on this Forum were not born yet in 1972! tongue

That was back when you had to listen to games over the radio because the TV wasn't around yet, right?


Together we'll fight the long defeat.

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