More On Normalizing Diplomatic Relations with Cuba...

Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth


Even some of the most virulent anti Castro communist regime Cubans recognize the value and validity of President Obama's initiative to relax restrictions and normalize relations with our neighbor 90 from the Florida cost. Perhaps Rubio, Cruz, Melendez, and the FOX News talking heads, as well as the rest of the bobbleheaded naysayers with be struck by a bolt of reason and get on board. But we're npt goona hold our breaths.

MIAMI (AP) — Hours before President Barack Obama announced an end to a half-century of U.S. efforts to isolate Cuba's communist government, the Cuban American National Foundation opened the doors to its inviting new headquarters, with a modern glass and concrete lobby in the heart of Miami's Cuban exile community

The symbolism is hard to ignore: The lobbying group was founded in 1981 by veterans of covert U.S.-supported missions to overthrow Fidel and Raul Castro, and for many years it worked to undermine the communist government from offices in an unmarked Miami building outside Little Havana. A guard kept out unwelcome visitors, and its leader Jorge Mas Canosa tended to leave little room for differing opinions.

But Mas Canosa's son, Jorge Mas Santos, has transformed the foundation since his father's death in 1997, and the new building is better suited to this latest, more direct and transparent chapter in U.S. Cuba relations.

It also reflects how a niche industry of passionate anti-Castro groups, sustained in part by millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars over the decades, will have to adapt to new ways of dealing with Cuba.

"I think now everybody is going to be — and should be — more open about the activities they do with the opposition in Cuba," the foundation's president, Pepe Hernandez, told The Associated Press in an interview.

Hernandez's own support for an armed overthrow of the Castro brothers still make it impossible for him to set foot in Cuba. But he now says the kind of peaceful, people-to-people contacts Obama spoke of Wednesday will be more effective (emphasis mine).

Hopefully Senator Rand Paul and the Chamber of Commerce will continue to speak out (and put on a full court press) along with President Obama and ultimately convince the bobbleheads to end the embargo against the people of Cuba.

Read the full story BELOW THE FOLD.

Via: Memeorandum

Comments

  1. If Cuba is a threat to us, then we have wasted trillions of dollars on defense and might as well just give up now.

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  2. It simply amazes me how anyone thinks a third world nation is a threat to the only military super power on the globe. Given Russia's own internal problems and the changing global realities I highly doubt Putin and Russia is in any position to start a new Cold War.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have a problem understanding the Cuban-American outrage: our policies (as always) punish the
    average Cuban in the streets. Why would this sector deny their fellow Cubans a chance at a better life, eg trade, tourists, etc? Especially after 50 years? Was former life under Batista all that great?

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  4. I'm thinking it was probably better than under the boot of ole Fidel and Raul.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. RN: I did a look at that, and yes, pretty much in every way.

      Delete
  5. William Wieland (US State Department) lamented that "I know Batista is considered by many as a son of a bitch... but American interests come first... at least he was our son of a bitch"
    "Batista was well liked by American interests, who feared Grau's liberal social and economic revolution and saw him as a stabilizing force with respect for American interests. It was in this time period that Batista formed a renowned friendship and business relationship with gangster Meyer Lansky that lasted over three decades."
    "Instead of loosening his grip, Batista suspended constitutional guarantees and established tighter censorship of the media. His military police would patrol the streets and pick up anyone suspected of insurrection. By the end of 1955 they had grown more prone to violent acts of brutality and torture, with no fear of legal repercussion"
    ----it sounds a little like the Ton Ton Macoute to me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ... all aspects which got even worse during the Soviet era. Such as going from a very beleaguered free press, to none at all.

      Delete
    2. BB quoted "By the end of 1955 they had grown more prone to violent acts of brutality and torture, with no fear of legal repercussion"

      And this improved after the Soviet conquest how?

      Delete
  6. This begs the question... and what was gained under the Castro oppression and exactly what wa improved under the same over the 56 years of their brand of tyranny? For me it simply right -vs-left tyranny.

    In other words, yawn.

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    Replies
    1. I think you need to learn more about Cuban history. Cuba today is an example of what happens when class stratification becomes too great - a social implosion. What the majority of Cubans got was equality, a good education, and good healthcare. For most of them, they are at least far better off than they were under Batista, and that's with all the crazy despot Castro insanity considered.

      JMJ

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    2. Should I move to Cuba? Would you move to Cuba? Is there an agenda at work?

      I don't see Cuba as a threat but I sure as hell would not exchange opportunity here for opportunity there.

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    3. Nope, RN:. It is one of the least equal, most stratified society on the planet.

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    4. Also, I don't think Batists was known for killing tens of thousands of political prisoners. Castro did this. I don't think Batista forced large numbers of Cubans to take arms and slaughter thousands of Africans in Angola for the USSR on the wrong side of one of the last wars of colonial independence. Castro did.

      The executions in Soviet-controlled Cuba were at one time overseen by Che Guevarra, a particularly bloodthirsty man who thought that the USSR played too nice.

      Blind worshippers of Castro's bloody fascist rule often bring up Cuba's high literacy as a reason to praise his reign of terror. Well, guess what, before Castro, Cuba also had very high literacy.

      I already mentioned the situation with the press (going from a harassed free press to no free press at all) Not only is Jersey's claim that Cuba in the Soviet and post Soviet ere was "far better" than under Batista completely baseless, one might make the informed case the the opposite is true. You will find things that are the same, such as literacy, and most everything else far worse.

      None of this means Cuba is a threat to the US. Nor does it mean I don't support Pres. Obama's new initiative. But we need to look at our new "friend" south of Florida clearly, rationally, and without misinformation and misperception, as we move forward.

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    5. Minimum wage in Cuba, $0.05 an hour. No wonder the US Chamber is drooling.

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    6. Unfortunate for a country where working hard and getting high compensation as a result is a crime unless you are a Castro crony. Poverty mandated by law: another aspect where the bad situation under Batista was made even worse.

      In looking for more examples where Jersey's claim is the opposite of truth. farmers under the Castro dynasty were, until recently, banned from selling their crops. They could be murdered for this "crime". Batista's bad policies didn;t come close to being this insane.

      I hope free, fair, and open trade with Cuba encourages reforms such as this one to allow farmers to get a just reward for their efforts.

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    7. I guess old style Soviet and Red China communism isn't good for wages or ones standard of living BB Idaho. But then we always knew that was the case, right?

      Delete
    8. Most of us here known that, with a, major exception

      Delete
    9. Oddly, Cuba is 50th in the world in in the life quality index, presumably free medical care/education a driver. I would be so bold to observe, RN, that communism isn't good for wages, nor is the US Chamber of Commerce. (An enemy since they campaigned in my state to lower business taxes and raise the tax on elderly homeowners). We have isolated the island for 50 years and they have survived more or less; as for economic systems, I once discussed elsewhere in the blog-o-sphere that if one can thrive in a capitalist economy they can do well in a socialist economy: in essence, if a person is valuable to
      business, they are valuable to gov't. As always though, we need observe the difference
      between economic systems and political systems.

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    10. Which life quality index is that? I tried to find one, but the ones I found lacked information on Cuba.

      As for the Chamber of Commerce and wages, I tried to find the most meaningful indicator of their impact on ages: how much the average wage is in Chamber member companies. I came up dry there too. Must not be my night for searches.

      Delete
    11. Capitalism has the greatest potential for increasing the standard of living for all; of course expanding the middle class is crucial to achieving the potential.

      It isn't rocket science but it will require breaking old paradigms and thinking outside of the box(es). Understanding (or perhaps redefining) long term rational self interest is important.

      Delete
  7. The effects won't be immediate but history has a way of showing that contact, trade, and openness eventually win out (just look at Europe in the decades between the Napoleonic and Crimean Wars).

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  8. Well, aside from an outlier praising the Castros' reign of terror, when all is said and done, there is a lot of agreement here. Much more than not.

    ReplyDelete

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