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Time To Lift the Embargo on Cuba?
This is my first post on Ricochet — though I am a long-time lurker — and have come to greatly enjoy all the great personalities and the exchange of ideas.
To bring something a little different into the conversation, I would like to hear some of your ideas regarding the US embargo of Cuba.
My take is that if there was ever a good reason for it, the time has long passed and we should be looking to normalize relations with the island.
The day of the Castros will inevitably come to an end in the not-too distant future. Maintaining the present stance toward Cuba, which certainly bears no greater threat toward the USA than any other Latin American country (and probably less than some), seems only to impoverish Cuba and, in a certain sense, the USA as well.
I have been in Cuba legally, but was not even allowed to bring back a bag of their delicious coffee, let alone the cigars, which some of my friends asked me about.
I don’t want to say too much about my experiences just now because there are some potentially sensitive issues. Maybe some day, when conditions improve, I can do that.
Canadians are able to travel to Cuba without restrictions that I am aware of, which is a degree of freedom we Americans don’t enjoy.
What do you say, my friends? Group hug to all.
Image Credit: Flickr user Doug Wheller.
Published in General
Last thread? Narrative? Oppressed Cubans are under the thumb of a totalitarian state—cold steel. Narratives have nothing to do with it.
The Castros are not going to wake up one morning and suddenly decide to liberalize. When they are gone, the Communists will continue to want to control the country. Liberalization requires political pressure from within, and taking away excuses for failure accelerates that. Right now the embargo does not harm the current regime (it can trade with the rest of the world all it wants) but it works to provide an excuse. The current embargo is pointless as a matter of policy and it feeds into regime propoganda. If the embargo were in any way effective (e.g., it was part of a global effort) then I would think differently. I would also point out that we normalized relations and trade with the Soviet Union during the 1930s and continued trade throughout the Cold War. We do business and have relations with lots of odious regimes. It gives us leverage, access, and options, which we do not have in Cuba.
The regime doesn’t need an excuse—they hold the reins of power. Lifting the embargo would strengthen the regime. The regime will allow Cubans to benefit only to the extent that it reinforces the stature of the regime.
The embargo itself is our best leverage. Why give that up to the Castros? Perhaps there will be an opening for diplomatic engagement after they are gone.
Leverage? What leverage? In 50 years what have we gotten the Castros to do as a result of the embargo? What are we forcing them to do now?
Even the most thuggish regimes will have a myth to rally the faithful around. When that ethos is entirely dissipated, it may hold on for a time but it is weakened by external pressures. See the Soviet Union – holder of all the power and collapsing like a pile of bricks when it could no longer deliver on promises nor explain away the failures.
Let’s take this from the top: What do you want to see accomplished with the embargo? Similarly, what must be the facts on the ground in order for you to support lifting the embargo?
Is it to force liberalization? Is to force the toppling of the regime? Is it to promote internal conflicts giving rise to an internal overthrow of the regime? Is it to compel compensation for seized property (which I believe is the original rational)?
Will you lift it when Fidel is dead? Will you wait until Raul is dead? What happens if there is a Fidel Jr. (i.e., another Castro taking over like the Kim dynasty in North Korea)? Does the Communist Party have to be out of power? Does the succeeding government have to meet certain requirements?
MSJL, it might help to look at all the comments earlier which dealt with all of the things you are bringing up. Most people who are against ending the embargo are just of the mind that we refuse to add any strength to these pigs.
Any excuse you can think of for them and can be blamed on us won’t make a bit of difference to the regime if we remove it — all they will do after you get your way is change to some other anti-American ploy but then we will have given them more money to oppress the Cuban people and more things for their special access stores.
We are doing the right thing with Cuba. Historically, when they had more money all they did was export their soldiers of fortune and expand Communist doctrine to dupes in the third world.
I’m referring to leverage with a future regime. And yes, the leverage would be used to incentivize the rejection of communism by said regime. That is a necessary condition if the goal is to free the Cubans.
The embargo is a statement to the next regime. There is no good reason to do business with the Castros—only lots of bad ones.
Do you think Soviet citizens had faith in their leaders’ promises? I think the collapse had more to do with their leaders failure to deliver goods and services. It was an economic collapse. People had given up on the ideology many years earlier.
Tell me, how would enriching the Castro regime (or any communist regime) bring an end to the political oppression that enslaves Cubans?
How is reinforcing every tool of repression going to bring an end to the political oppression that enslaves? How is further isolating the enslaved from access to the outside world going to end that oppression? Did 60 years of trade with the Soviet Union enrich it such that it could survive?
These regimes thrive on isolation. That is why the East Germans put up the Berlin Wall, why there were mine fields across the borders with the Warsaw Pact, and why North Korea is a virtual concentration camp. These regimes do not want their people in contact with the outside world – that’s why we have an interest in normalizing relations and gaining access and communication.
It wasn’t that the Soviet Union fell because it could not provide goods and services; it was that it failed to provide goods and services that were comparable in quantity and quality to those available in the West as had been long promised. Today the excuse in Cuba is that they have a low standard of existence because of the embargo. Let’s lift it and see how long the patience holds for an improved existence.