Quote:
Originally Posted by intakexhaust
Some of you guys are funny. All of a sudden you're concerned for Cubans, commercialism AND MAKING A LITTLE MONEY... HAHAHA.
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Ah. There is the problem. No, they couldn’t care less about the Cuban people.
During the cold war era, it was good defensive policy to keep them isolated. Tiny Cuba with its tin pot Commie dictator was too close for comfort. Not to mention the severe embarrassment of the laughable invasion, reputed assassination attempts etc. When the Soviets set them adrift in the 70s due to their own money issues at home, Cuba started its major downward economic spiral. And all of this time, there was the money issue hovering in the background – estimated at 1.8 billion in 1960 dollars.
“The Cuba that Castro took over in 1959 was a nation overrun with American business. Tourists could stay in American-owned Hiltons, shop at Woolworth’s, and withdraw money at American-owned banks. American-owned petroleum refineries sat amid American cattle ranches, sugar factories, and nickel mines, and an American-owned telecommunications firm controlled the country’s phone lines. According to a 2008 report from the US Department of Agriculture, Americans controlled three-quarters of Cuba’s arable land.”
Boston Globe
You have to just forget that it was dirty money earned during the Batista dictatorship – a cruel & repressive regime – as they say. Meyer Lansky even bribed the previous president to leave office so Batista could take over in 1952. So, the ‘connected’ Cubans did rather well at the time. Corruption was rampant but it was good times for the rich & for the criminals. The Cuba peasants were . . . well . . . they were disposable like all peasants right?
So that is the big sticking point in the re-opening of Cuba. Money. Repayment of the proceeds from corruption. That is why the US law still exists today. Forget the critic's vocal concern for the poor down trodden Cuban people who are prisoners in their own land. That is just a smokescreen for the money.
Ian