Despite the ruble the Cuban people are the nicest and greatest people I have ever met. It was a honor to be in their company, as a guest and a friend I never felt safer in my life. The nature and culture and heritage is unparalleled to any other Caribbean country. A joy to walk those streets it was...
Yeah. Cubans didn't deserve this economic warfare by the American Empire, blockades, embargos, etc. It's sick how disposable actual people are to capitalists in power. They were so threatened by all those nations trying alternatives to capitalism that they had millions murdered to prevent any of those experiments. They rest, they try to starve out with blocks to the outside.
And yet by adopting capitalism as their economic model, the Chinese lifted 3/4 of a billion people out of poverty and transformed a country that was one step above feudalism to the 2nd largest economy in the world! Vietnam a country that fought a long brutal war with the U.S. also made the switch and lifted it’s population out of poverty.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/courage-strength-optimism/vietnams-stunning-capitalist-success-story
https://www.vox.com/2015/5/3/8539365/vietnam-capitalism-pew
Of course the defenders of a system that has turned Cuba and now Venezuela both at one time or another the richest countries in Latin America into economic basket cases, have to blame someone or something except the political system that has turned every country that has tried it into a basket case.
“!No hay mas ciegos que los que no quieren ver!”
Cuanto?
Ahh yes blame the US instead of the tyrants who are actually in charge and running the country into the ground. meanwhile the people in those countries who escape to live in the US are the most anti-communist and pro-capitalist people you'll ever meet.
Between 2022 and 2023, 425,000 Cubans came to the US. Those were supposed to be the ones to reap the fruits of “La Revolution”. The ones who would live in the socialist “Utopia” where everyone worked together and shared the benefits equally. It worked…90-99% of the Cuban people are equal….equally poor and living in misery!
Yes, unless they have family in the US or some other country that send them “real money” they are all equally poor. The 1% those at the highest levels of government and their families have everything and anything their hearts desire. I suggest you research how Nicolas Ceasuescu and his family lived. He was the leader of the workers paradise of Romania when it was a Warsaw pact member.
Havana is such a sad place. You can tell it was once not just beautiful, but one of the jewels of the Western hemisphere.
It’s architecture was some of the oldest and certainly the most extensive and awe-inspiring cities created by the Spanish Empire. Almost universally agreed to be more beautiful than any other early Spanish and certainly early English cities. Pretty much all of that is gone now due to profound, relentless, and purposeful neglect from the Communist Party.
People say it’s still beautiful and nice bc it’s not touristy and gentrified. Bull fucking shit. It’s a dilapidated, impoverished, dirty, heavily polluted, almost unimaginably terrible transportation and infrastructure, the worst urban food scene in the Western Hemisphere (except for other Cuban cities). The only nightlife is blatantly and repellently exploitative prostitution or getting wasted on the Malecon. The only culture is overpriced cultural appropriations of Cuban music and dance put on by the regime to get the sweet, sweet American dollars the regime needs to buy its top members Mercedes and take nice trips to the wealthiest parts of Europe.
It’s falling apart to a dangerous degree. Not as in “whoa we’re losing some of the most beautiful buildings and urban artwork and spaces made since Europeans arrived in the Americas” - nah, it’s wayyyyy past that point. I truly pity anybody who specializes in Spanish urban architecture and studied Havana bc it’s fucked beyond any recovery as a place of culture and education and nightlife and even history.
I mean dangerous as in Cubans living in Havana are regularly killed by falling debris from crumbling buildings that have usually been an obvious public danger for years and people dying bc no maintenance has been done on their building since Batista fell and it just collapsed bc buildings don’t just muddle on for decades then politely tell you when their structural integrity is compromised. People walk on the street anytime they can because the buildings above the sidewalks yeet out bricks and pieces of heavy stonework every single day.
___
And no, it’s not because of the ‘blockade’. First of all because it’s not a blockade - one country (the US) decided to stop trading with them because they killed thousands of our citizens, stole massive amounts of property from American citizens and companies without any recompense whatsoever, killed/starved/exiled/terrorist about a quarter of the population based on their support for Communism.
They then sided with our top enemy and participated in a secret plan to turn the island into a dagger pointed right into the heart of our country by filling it with nuclear missiles that would be able to hit Florida and the other Gulf States with essentially no warning.
People think we have ships in some kind of giant ring around Cuba and it just makes me burst out laughing. *Anybody* can trade with them - we just choose not to. No country has a *right* to trade with every other county in the world. And believe me, the Cuban gov is doing absolutely fine.
___
Wealthy Europeans and Canadians and Mexicans etc. (again, everybody but American bc the US doesn’t want to trade with Cuba and is under no obligation to do so but doesn’t care if others do) take vacations on the best beach zone, which is a special economic zone where Cubans can’t live - they have to go through screening for entry and exit to work at the resorts everyday to make sure they didn’t get and not report any tips from people they were serving, aren’t complaining about all the money going to the Communist Party, and haven’t been given any music or a book to read from outside Cuba. It’s really nice, though - think Cancun but instead of feeling guilty about making brown people be your servants you get told you’re doing them a favor and they want nothing else but to be your servants for the good of all Cubans. Yeahhhhhhh, sure.
They received almost inconceivable amounts of economic and food assistance from the Soviet Union, which led them to stop growing food causing a famine when the USSR fell apart and Russia shockingly wasn’t really interested in renewing the deal of providing them with whatever they need or want in return for being a thorn in the side of the US. Now they receive free oil on tap from Venezuela. Their military for such a small country is North Korea level insane (more than 5k tanks on an island is insane).
Fidel Castro was incredibly angry that Khrushchev made a deal with Kennedy and didn’t just start a war and fire the missiles. His main purpose in agreeing to the missiles wasn’t geopolitical, it was military. He didn’t want insurance against the US - he wanted war with the US and he wanted to kill as many Americans as possible. He knew it would mean the death of every Cuban and it’s hard to convey how little of a fuck that fact meant to him. If Cuba had to be sacrificed to annihilate the US, so be it.
He even continued antagonizing the US after the Missile Crisis so much that Khrushchev had to bitch-slap him and tell him he had a) no control over Soviet military forces in Cuba, b) had zero ability to C&C over their nuclear weapons, and c) he was important to them but they’d cut him loose before he could blink if he tried to force them into WW3 by attacking the US. It’s a terrible, evil regime that if it had its own nuclear weapons would be just as bad if not worse than North Korea. The only thing preventing them from being a huge threat to peace and democracy is they’re incredibly incompetent and most people with any intelligence or initiative left/leave Cuba ASAP.
Cuba before Castro was hardly a good place to live for the majority of people. It was a playground for rich American tourists and the mafia who built casino’s. Meanwhile the rest of Cuba was dominated by American businesses and sugar plantations with extremely bad working conditions.
([Cuba before the revolution](https://academic.oup.com/florida-scholarship-online/book/24155/chapter-abstract/185614430?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false))
>Cuba’s Social Problems Prior To 1959
>
>Very briefly, Cuba’s social problems prior to 1959 can summarized as follows:
>
>Widespread and ever increasing poverty
>
>Highly polarized income distribution: the wealthiest 20 percent of the population recieved 58 percent of the income, while the poorest 20 percent recieved only 2 percent.
>
>Widespread unemployment: 24 pecent of the working-age population was unemployed.
nowadays, The healthcare system in Cuba is the best in Latin America and one of the best in the world.[http://www.oecd.org/social/soc/doingbetterforfamilies.htm](http://www.oecd.org/social/soc/doingbetterforfamilies.htm)
>Under the Cuban constitution adopted in 1976, all Cubans have the right to healthcare and are accordingly entitled to recieve free medial care.
>
>(…)
>
>Cuba’s primary care and prevention-based healthcare system is acknowledged as one of the most efficient and cost-saving models.
[Cuba infant morality and health](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6830455/) On top of this, Cuba has lower infant mortality and longer life expectancy that the US.So not only do Cubans have quality healthcare, the average Cuban has noticeably better healthcare than the average American.
[Cuba education rankings](https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9569b508) Cuba’s education system is of high quality and provides free education for all Cubans on all levels. According to UNESCO’s ‘The Education for All Development Index’, Cuba’s education system ranks 32nd in the world and 1st in Latin America.
>[Cuba high education](https://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/Worldbank/document/LAC/Great_Teachers-How_to_Raise_Student_Learning-Barbara-Bruns-Advance%20Edition.pdf)
>
>No Latin American school system today, except possibly Cuba’s, is very close to high standards, high academic talent, high or at least adequate compensation, and high professional autonomy that characterize the world’s most effective education systems
reactionary Cuban-Americans in Florida still coping that their family slave plantations are gone. Viva Fidel, Down with the Gusanos!!
([Yo soy Fidel!!!!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul5B--WxiAM&t=5s))
Do you really trust those statistics? Dont you think that the Cuban government is altering them? Dude you have a Lenin pfp your ideology has caused enough death.
oh really, with now like half a million people fleeing the country since 2020 due to the crisis, let me get this for you my family had to wait a whole year just to get my sister´s birth certificate in a country that is more burocratic than all of the well known burocratic countries in the world, the education that you claim is so good that you have to study all those years just to graduate, being a doctor, engineer or God´s mechanic and that some random taxi driver gets your monthly wage in a day, do the proper research my friend, and by the way i´m a cuban and you can say that right now only like a 7% of the population is communist
How come more people are fleeing capitalist mexico????? NAFTA (capitalist trade deal) has detsroyed many mexican jobs leading to increased poverty in some regions.
([People fleeing capitalist hungary](https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-49afa625772854649f7021a259f1d7c3-lq))
A major reason why some cubans leave is because of brain drain. Cuba's developed education system allows high skilled laborers to benefit from universal education and then move to the US and reap the benefits of the wealthy nation. The US also has tried to make it easier for cubans to move comparable to mexicans or other LATAM countries,
This issue was massive in east germany too.
>the education that you claim is so good that you have to study all those years just to graduate, being a doctor, engineer or God´s mechanic and that some random taxi driver gets your monthly wage in a day
They might sell their own products or services, but since this is not part of the state sector or the state regulated private sector, whatever goods or services they sell is sold by international market rates using the dollar.
It’s not that the salary system in Cuba is dysfunctional or anything, it’s because taxi driving is much more likely to be a secondary source of income and taxi drivers have a much higher chance of encountering tourists who give out tips. Doctors also get added social benefits for their career choice, and they can sign up and work overseas and get paid by the foreign country.
This is also a major reason why the tourist industry in Cuba is important to the economy.
listen i am a cuban myself, there are so many things wrong with what you just said that im not even answering all of those bs but i will tell you a few things: the salary is disfunctional the minimum wage is about 1700 or 2000 pesos and 30 eggs which are supposedly being produced in the country they cost over 1000 pesos, imagine everything else, what the actual f\*\*\* are you talking about, history has proven that people flee from their countries not because of brain drain buddy it´s because of the poor livinf conditions, and lets not talk about Mypimes why dont you look what those are, those things are more capitalist than the american dream
Most rafters came from the special period.
Also even batista's daughter is homeless in Florida. [Homeless](https://www.local10.com/news/2017/06/21/ex-cuban-leader-fulgencio-batistas-daughter-now-homeless/)
Even the US can't house their gusano leaders' daughter.
Not sure what the special period is, but according to the article below, "In fiscal year (FY) 2022, Cubans were encountered by U.S. authorities at the U.S.-Mexico border nearly 225,000 times and were interdicted at sea more than 6,000 times—numbers that combined far surpass episodes such as the 1980 Mariel boatlift or 1994 Cuban balsero (“rafter”) crisis."
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/cuban-immigrants-united-states
I know that’s the default answer, but are you sure the government’s economic policies aren’t contributing to poverty? The whole world can trade with Cuba. What’s stopping the PRC from investing there?
The United States has economically crippled Cuba in a number of ways, including:
* **Trade restrictions:** The US embargo on Cuba prohibits US companies from doing business with Cuba and foreign companies from doing business with Cuba if they use US dollars or have US subsidiaries. This makes it difficult for Cuba to import and export goods, and it also deprives Cuba of foreign investment.
* **Financial restrictions:** The US embargo also restricts Cuba's access to international financial institutions, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. This makes it difficult for Cuba to borrow money and finance development projects.
* **Tourism restrictions:** The US embargo also restricts US citizens from traveling to Cuba and Cuban citizens from traveling to the United States. This reduces the amount of tourism revenue that Cuba receives and makes it difficult for Cuban businesses to access the US market.
The US embargo has had a significant impact on the Cuban economy. It is estimated that the embargo costs Cuba billions of dollars each year. The embargo has also made it difficult for Cuba to develop its economy and improve the lives of its people.
Here are some specific examples of how the US embargo has economically crippled Cuba:
* **Agriculture:** The US embargo has made it difficult for Cuba to import agricultural inputs, such as fertilizer and pesticides. This has led to lower crop yields and higher food prices.
* **Healthcare:** The US embargo has made it difficult for Cuba to import medical equipment and medicines. This has led to shortages of essential medical supplies and made it more difficult for Cubans to access healthcare.
* **Energy:** The US embargo has made it difficult for Cuba to import oil and other energy products. This has led to power outages and higher energy costs.
* **Education:** The US embargo has made it difficult for Cuba to import educational materials and technologies. This has made it more difficult for Cuban students to receive a quality education.
The US embargo has been widely criticized as being ineffective and counterproductive. It has failed to achieve its stated goal of bringing about political change in Cuba, and it has caused significant economic hardship for the Cuban people.
Castro was not anti-American when he took power. He wasn’t even communist. The US embargo was because he nationalized the land from the Sugar Plantations and Utilities. He offered to compensate them for their loss and wanted to resume trade with the US. But the US backed the dictator Batista and the casino business led by mobster Meyers Lansky.
This Gangsterismo abused and impoverished the people of Cuba, but it was also standard Us colonial policy to control and dominate through natural resources.
But if America can’t dominate, it isolates… or overthrows. We’re not good people.
ohhhh so the US embargo makes it impossible to pick up trash?
Meanwhile North Korea, also under embargo, has made nuclear weapons and routinely launches missiles into space....
Its not just the embargo the communist cuban government will fuck anyone trying to grow their own food without permission.
Basically they get screwed by not only the US but their own shitty government any time anyone finds a way to get ahead their government steps in and takes their cut.
Hypothetically, if the U.S. and Cuba were individuals:
Why would one individual associate with another individual that not only has opposite values, but is unreasonable?
Why would you think it would be any different in the anarchical realm of international affairs?
Right? Lol
Imagine looking at these pictures and still thinking communists might have a decent idea?
Of course every commie moron will chime in about how it is somehow America's fault that the Cuban people can't pick up their garbage from the street but you can't expect much from people with that level of diminished capacity.
I’ve seen very poor America and I’ve seen very poor Cuba and poor Cuba is worse. Both are terrible, don’t get me wrong. But Cuba was really rough. I don’t believe in unfettered capitalism, but I don’t believe in communism either. I think something like a social Democratic system with a well regulated capitalist structure that the Nordic countries practice is what I’ve seen be most successful.
Hi, a cuban here, i left the country about 2 years ago and I can tell you that "all that oil pumped out" it is not being used in order to improve the economy as rightfully should be instead it all goes to our dear friend Laso and his friends like one that we know well: "The Crab"
USA sanctions prevent Cuban government from collecting trash and painting buildings? You must be a very special case of an alternatively gifted individual…
Bro they blame the US for everything even if most of their economy isn't tied to the US there are many countries that barely trade with the US and are doing a hell of a lot better than cuba.
What sanctions? USA doesn't trade weapons, vehicles or building materials with Cuba because revolution stole all cars and buildings that belonged to US citizens.
But Cuba can trade freely with any country and they receive millions and millions from cubans that fled and work in USA and USA.
They also receive tons of medicines and food from the US.
Otherwise they would be starving because communism.
Not really. Well, a few of them, like Castro, Canelo, his family and a few more are filthy rich.
Inmediately below you a few people that you can call rich but they have lots of inconveniences living in Cuba. I would say they don't live better than the top 15% in US.
Those two groups lack the talent or the work ethics necesary to earn the money they have so they are the only ones that won something.
And from there they are all poor, even talented people or people in charge. And below most population is miserable struggling to survive and eat some protein once or twice a month.
There not really a point in providing examples. Look up what a full embargo is.
TLDR: If a country or company does business with Cuba, they will be subject to sanctions and penalties from the USA.
im sure that forced economic isolation isn’t too impactful to the economy, the economy that funds resources dedicated to public infrastructure and upkeep. they’re probably just lazy id imagine
Lol, no, it's just communism, they only know how to produce excuses and propaganda.
They can trade freely with any country With a few exceptions regarding US.
Cuba can trade freely with any country but US. And even with US the limitations are only related to a few things like vehicles.
And from US they receive tons of medicines and food, and millions of dollars cubans send to their families.
Without USA, Cuba will be sent directly into a famine and total misery.
Funny, I thought that despite that effort to stunt the country the Strongman could find a way of either trading with other countries or to make the best out of that situation.
But it seems that strongman wasn't strong enough?
There’s a reason why practically every Cuban that reaches America immediately denounces Communism… and then some blue-haired freak tells them that they’re wrong lol.
After Haiti gained independence from France, the USA refused to trade with them and invaded their country mutiple times, once even stealing all of the gold from the central Bank. But it's their fault that they're poor, right?
And Cuba. Cuba stood up to the USA after they refused to help Castro after he overthrew their puppet Batista. 60 years of economic embargo by their closest neighbor and the world's largest economic power. But it's their fault that they're poor, right?
The trade among Cuba and US has been over $320 million in 2021 only in food. And it was one way, US to Cuba. Most of it controlled by dictatorship because communims.
Same with "remesas", cubans that fled from poverry send alimony to their relatives valued in millions of $ every month. Almosr half is taxed by the dictatorship.
The dictatorship is free to trade anything with any other country. But they mostly trade excuses and blamming.
Cubans on the other hand can't trade because the real embargo is the dictatorship over them.
Loved your post - a model of acuity and concision.
It’s always interesting to me that self-styled ‘progressives’ in the U.S. will always rush to the defense of a thug in uniform - provided that said thug is a ‘socialist’ and of course vehemently anti-American.
There’s absolutely no reason, embargo or not, for a country with the rich agricultural resources that Cuba has for ANYONE there not, at the very least, to have plenty to eat…
Reminds me of an old joke about the Soviets: if they took over the Sahara Desert, in ten years, there’d be a shortage of sand!
Thank you for your kind words. It's always the same old story with communists. I'm lucky to live free enough to tell what I see, it's sad to check cubans can't because they live in a state of constant deceit.
While I'm not a fan of Castro .... at all, I'm gonna have to correct you there. In 1914, the US did take possession of Haitian gold, transferring it to NYC. It wasn't really about stealing it and in turn selling the gold, but to have more control over the Haitian government. Essentially, it was a hostage situation. "Do what we say and the gold will be safe!"
Not whataboutism at all. The opposite, actually. It doesn't make sense to blame the USSR for putting missiles on Cuba while leaving out that prior, the US put missiles in Turkey. If anything it's disingenuous to only mention the missiles in Cuba without providing further context.
No one is blaming the USSR. We are blaming Cuba for letting the USSR use Cuba as a tool against the nation’s own long term interest. Imagine the missiles had stayed and there had been a nuclear war. Cuba would have been nuked first. How was that ever in Cuba’s interest?
The only person to blame for bad relations with Cuba is the US they literally tried to invade and overthrow their government in the bay of pigs. Imagine if Cuba did that to us?
Because of the embargo. If nobody is allowed to trade with you, then this large and at the time powerful nation comes and is willing to do business, you’ll do pretty much whatever you want. If the US hadn’t placed trade restrictions on Cuba in the first place they wouldn’t have had incentives to do business with Russia, and we would have had better intelligence if we had kept open relations.
Lmao, at all the Revolutionary apologists' favorite saying, "It's the embargoes fault." If only the US would trade with us, then communism would have worked. It's so comical.
what you don't realise is a large segment of the planet's unable to trade with cuba. it's no different than yanks threatening airbus, european automakers, etc., with sanctions for merely selling goods to iran. usa is the world's largest terrorist organisation.
I hate to be "that guy", but was life that much better for Cubans under Batista? Seems Cubans hated the man enough too revolt.
Dictatorship is shit, no matter who is at the helm.
Y’all really love to ignore the draconian US embargo on Cuba.
Also, there are many, many similar photos of the US that can be shared to show the triumph of capitalism.
They can literally trade with anyone else on the planet?!?!?!?!?!? You're telling me they can't have a successful economy without the US to trade with? You also know they could get trade back easily with two government reforms right? Freedom of the press and legalizing multiple political parties.
No, they can't. That is why the Helms-Burton's Chapter III was activated by Trump and kept by Biden. That punishes companies from countries that trade with Cuba by preventing those ships from coming into any US ports during six months. Given to choose between Cuba and the giant US market, you know who they will choose. Additionally, those 243 punitive measures enacted by Trump and most of them kept by Biden, along with Cuba's inclusion in the "terrorism sponsoring countries" list really limits Cuba's ability to acquire things they need. Banks that conduct financial transactions with Cuba are routinely fined by the US. Many banks do not want to accept any Cuban money because of the country's inclusion in that list. Forbidding Americans to go to Cuba as tourists and denying entry to Europeans who travel to the island are measures meant to discourage tourism in Cuba and deny the country that source of income. Europeans who travel to Cuba will now have to apply for a visa if they want to come to the US. Of course, that visa could be denied. Europeans do not require visas to come to this country. These are just some examples, but the list is long. Contrast that to the treatment Vietnam receives. It's now a most favorite trading partner and "a strategic US partner". Vietnam is also ruled by a Communist Party, but because of geopolitical reasons vs China it receives most favorite nation status by the US. Cuba has tried to liberalize its economy and make changes, but even that has faced opposition from sanctions supporters in the US. They even oppose granting the private sector the ability to have accounts and credit in the US, while hoping hardline Communists within the government abort that process. I'm Cuban-American, was never a communist, not even a "pioneer" and left Cuba over 52 years ago. I have the right to tell it like it is. There are no valid reasons for the US to maintain those sanctions on Cuba.
Cuban dictatorship can trade freely with any country (but the US, and even with the US there are only some exceptions)
The only embargo is dictatorship over Cuba and cubans that can't trade anything.
You can easily check this in multiple places.
What I see are draconian lies from communism, old news
these conditions exist in every major city in 2023 america:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4gD7GAdM-U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4gD7GAdM-U)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vc6CHRrtH8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vc6CHRrtH8)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRWmKh13b50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRWmKh13b50)
meanwhile, op posting the worst parts of habana. i don't see rough sleepers addicted to drugs, killing each other with guns, left to die on the street with zero healthcare.
You can search pictures of the same streets in Havana 64 years ago and it did not look like this. Cuba had a higher GDP per capita than many European countries.
except back then, 40% of the population outside the capital was living in poverty, with high levels of illiteracy and little/no access to healthcare. the revolution started for a reason, and it wasn't because people were content. Fidel dramatically improved the lives of millions, the little-hat-wearing terrorists to the north have seethed uncontrollably since then. doing everything possible to destroy all that's good in this world.
Yes, of course there are 'slums' in other countries. The entire county isn't one though.
Here's a better one - I'll tell you a name of a city and you find a single neighborhood in Cuba that looks like the decent parts of that city.
Neither is the entirety of Cuba a slum. Do you think over a million tourists would come to visit Cuba annually if the entire country would look like this?
Photos like this can be found within a few blocks of the center of tourism in Habana. Tourists visit for a romanticized Disney land experience of vintage cars, beaches, cigars etc and are 1000% removed from the reality of 99% of the population.
The wealthy, rich neighborhoods are just fancy pre-Castro mansions that have gone to shit. Have you ever actually been to Cuba?
at this point they should declare the revolution was a success, say the government is now socialist and gave free elections similar to the Sandinistas. within a year, the us would lift the trade blockade.
America has had its boot on Cubas neck since 1960. Strangling its economy and starving its people just because they didnt jump when america said to jump. This is punisment for over throwing Fulgencio Batista.
Frankly if the government's system worked it shouldn't matter if a single country has an embargo. US is massive but it alone would not revive the nation. People just need someone to blame and the US is an easy target because of the embargo. Cuba still has trade with China, a $20 trillion economy. Why doesn't that help?
How about this?
The United States has threatened to stop financial aid to other countries if they trade non-food items with Cuba...
...Academic Nigel White writes, "While the US measures against Cuba do not amount to a blockade in a technical or formal sense, their cumulative effect is to put an economic stranglehold on the island, which not only prevents the United States intercourse but also effectively blocks commerce with other states, their citizens and companies."
Despite the existence of the embargo, Cuba can, and does, conduct international trade with many countries, including many US allies; however, US-based companies, *and companies that do business with the US*, which trade in Cuba do so at the risk of US sanctions
additionally, the 180 day rule makes maritime transport far more difficult/expensive:
The 180-day rule is a statutory restriction prohibiting any vessel that enters a port or place in Cuba to engage in the trade of goods or the purchase or provision of services there from entering any U.S. port for the purpose of loading or unloading freight for 180 days after leaving Cuba, unless authorized by OFAC. This restriction is applied even if a vessel has stopped in Cuba solely to purchase services unrelated to the trade of goods, such as planned ship maintenance. The 180-day rule is separate from a second statutory restriction – the goods/passengers-on-board rule – which prohibits any vessel carrying goods or passengers to or from Cuba or carrying goods in which Cuba or a Cuban national has an interest from entering a U.S. port with such goods or passengers on board, unless authorized or exempt. There are certain exceptions to these rules. For a complete description of the 180-day rule, the goods/passengers-on-board rule, and the general licenses and exemptions that apply, see 31 CFR §§ 515.206, 515.207, and 515.550.
the embargo affects the entire planet, not just trade with the united states. according to yanks, cuba is a "state sponsor of terrorism", for simply negotiating peace talks in colombia. guess who else participated? norway, brasil, chile, ecuador, and venezuela. why aren't they awarded this designation?
any nation, enterprise, etc., who deals with cuba is affected by this rubbish. just like airbus and european automakers selling to iran, another country on the yanqui shitlist. threats of all types of sanctions for "harming u.s. interests".
i understand americants are poorly educated, brainwashed, and suffering from an extreme case of stockholm syndrome. occasionally try doing some research, instead of regurgitating soundbites from your oligarchs/overlords.
Oh no! Are those the 6 best photo's of Cuba's prosperity you could find? The rest of Latin America/Caribbean always looks like Tomorrowland or the best parts of Dubai. I was a Democrat who loved Communism. Now I see the error of my ways. Thank you OP.
That's not the point. You can search photos of these same streets and they looked much better 64 years ago. Cuba had a higher GDP per capita than many European countries. Look at photos of San Juan, Puerto Rico. That's how Havana would look like today if the regime didn't destroy the country's economy with disastrous economic policies.
You totally fail to understand the facts:
1. Six photos means jack shit.
2. Cuba isn't the worst or best. It is about the middle.
3. For countries South of the United States, it is actually above average.
4. Batista was a piece of shit. If you back "anti-communist" pieces of shit, you get communism. With few exceptions, if you back human rights advocates, you don't get communism. Why the fuck do you think Norwegians don't demand a communist government?
5. Cuba was not going to become a Norway. It usually has a slightly higher HDI than Mexico.
6. Cuba would probably have a higher HDI than Turkey if the US negotiated an end to the embargo. Cuba uses the embargo as an excuse as to why they fail their people. And when lifting the embargo that doesn't fully work, that would help change Cuba.
7. All of Latin America/Caribbean gets fucked. And not all of those countries are Communist. Cuba wouldn't be the exception you think it would.
Stop being delusional. You are at least as delusional as a Communist.
Okay, you seem smart, so I'll reply.
1. True, but as someone who was born in Havana and has been all over the city, I can tell you that 80% of Havana looks like this, or worse.
2. 2. In the middle in what? The infrastructure is destroyed. There are daily blackouts. Hospitals are dirty, crumbling and lack medicine and equipment. The average Cuban doesn't get enough nutrients (according to the UN).
3. Above average in what? Life expectancy, infant mortality and all that shit? Only if you trust the statistics the regime provides. And there have been studies showing that they're manipulated.
4. Many revolutionaries wanted democracy, but Castro purged them.
5. It would be like Puerto Rico, which has statistics of a developed country. Also, HDI is very simplistic. It doesn't measure availability and quality of food, medicine, fuel, water, sanitation, transportation, technology, etc. Nearly everything people need to live decently is scarce and rationed in Cuba. People stand in line for hours to get their portion.
6. I absolutely agree.
7. True, but you can go to a supermarket and get whatever you want even in the most remote town in any Latin American country. You can't do that in Cuba. In Cuba, the scarcity of goods is insane.
Weathering on historic buildings. [How is this any different from Naples?](https://www.thewanderinghedonist.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/PXL_20220326_135349587.jpg)
and nice job leaving out the building on the right in the last image, I’m sure that would have gone against your narrative.
If fascist anti communist country’s didn’t stifle growth Cuba would be a workers paradise right now. And Bernie sanders endorses Cuban education and reading programs you should be thankful for your country’s revolution.
meanwhile, the literacy rate in america is a mere 79%, on par with some of the poorest african nations. in fact, 54% of adults read beneath the sixth-grade level. medical mistakes are the third leading cause of death, behind cancer and heart disease. medical debt is the #1 cause of bankruptcy.
the bizarre bit about yanks, is they keep insisting the rest of us should be more like them.
So, if there’s problems in the U.S., it’s because of capitalism; if there’s problems in ‘socialist’ Cuba, it’s because of…capitalism.
I have a suggestion for you bud; go live in Cuba - as an ordinary Cuban - for a year and then come back here and compare the ‘problems’ there with the ‘problems’ here and see what you think. I’ll wait for your for your report…
headline should read: la habana, cuba, 61 years after el bloqueo, unilateral war, sabotage, terrorism, assassination attempts, denying access to credit & financial systems, etc. by the imperialist yanqui swine.
Havana has a lot of slums, but you won't find many pictures of them on the internet, because nobody goes there to take pictures. You can see them on Google Maps though. They're mostly on the outskirts of the city.
Here's one: 23°05'28.3"N 82°18'18.3"W
meanwhile, americants $34 trillion in the red, whilst Cuba maintains a low/sustainable debt to gdp ratio. the revolution survives, in spite of 61 years of relentless war/terrorism.
The odd part, the US supported Castro in the beginning to remove the dictator Batista. Castro was identical to Batista and the rest is history. I believe the US is waiting for the communist to completely fall apart, install a new government for and use Cuba as a cheap source of labor and a holiday destination.
Could literally go to any city in the US and take 6 pictures of slums with worse conditions than this. And people in this thread wanna try and argue that this is somehow evidence that communism is a failure lol
Despite the ruble the Cuban people are the nicest and greatest people I have ever met. It was a honor to be in their company, as a guest and a friend I never felt safer in my life. The nature and culture and heritage is unparalleled to any other Caribbean country. A joy to walk those streets it was...
Several have far more culture and heritage, but Cubans are SOME of the kindest
It just looks like Fort Lauderdale but with less homeless people.
Yeah. Cubans didn't deserve this economic warfare by the American Empire, blockades, embargos, etc. It's sick how disposable actual people are to capitalists in power. They were so threatened by all those nations trying alternatives to capitalism that they had millions murdered to prevent any of those experiments. They rest, they try to starve out with blocks to the outside.
What flavour was the Kool Aid?
Strawberry DMT and Crystal Meth™️
And yet by adopting capitalism as their economic model, the Chinese lifted 3/4 of a billion people out of poverty and transformed a country that was one step above feudalism to the 2nd largest economy in the world! Vietnam a country that fought a long brutal war with the U.S. also made the switch and lifted it’s population out of poverty. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/courage-strength-optimism/vietnams-stunning-capitalist-success-story https://www.vox.com/2015/5/3/8539365/vietnam-capitalism-pew Of course the defenders of a system that has turned Cuba and now Venezuela both at one time or another the richest countries in Latin America into economic basket cases, have to blame someone or something except the political system that has turned every country that has tried it into a basket case. “!No hay mas ciegos que los que no quieren ver!” Cuanto?
Ahh yes blame the US instead of the tyrants who are actually in charge and running the country into the ground. meanwhile the people in those countries who escape to live in the US are the most anti-communist and pro-capitalist people you'll ever meet.
Between 2022 and 2023, 425,000 Cubans came to the US. Those were supposed to be the ones to reap the fruits of “La Revolution”. The ones who would live in the socialist “Utopia” where everyone worked together and shared the benefits equally. It worked…90-99% of the Cuban people are equal….equally poor and living in misery!
[удалено]
Yes, unless they have family in the US or some other country that send them “real money” they are all equally poor. The 1% those at the highest levels of government and their families have everything and anything their hearts desire. I suggest you research how Nicolas Ceasuescu and his family lived. He was the leader of the workers paradise of Romania when it was a Warsaw pact member.
Maybe Cuba could consider Free and Fair elections. It’s not like the citizens have choices on who rules them.
Havana is such a sad place. You can tell it was once not just beautiful, but one of the jewels of the Western hemisphere. It’s architecture was some of the oldest and certainly the most extensive and awe-inspiring cities created by the Spanish Empire. Almost universally agreed to be more beautiful than any other early Spanish and certainly early English cities. Pretty much all of that is gone now due to profound, relentless, and purposeful neglect from the Communist Party. People say it’s still beautiful and nice bc it’s not touristy and gentrified. Bull fucking shit. It’s a dilapidated, impoverished, dirty, heavily polluted, almost unimaginably terrible transportation and infrastructure, the worst urban food scene in the Western Hemisphere (except for other Cuban cities). The only nightlife is blatantly and repellently exploitative prostitution or getting wasted on the Malecon. The only culture is overpriced cultural appropriations of Cuban music and dance put on by the regime to get the sweet, sweet American dollars the regime needs to buy its top members Mercedes and take nice trips to the wealthiest parts of Europe. It’s falling apart to a dangerous degree. Not as in “whoa we’re losing some of the most beautiful buildings and urban artwork and spaces made since Europeans arrived in the Americas” - nah, it’s wayyyyy past that point. I truly pity anybody who specializes in Spanish urban architecture and studied Havana bc it’s fucked beyond any recovery as a place of culture and education and nightlife and even history. I mean dangerous as in Cubans living in Havana are regularly killed by falling debris from crumbling buildings that have usually been an obvious public danger for years and people dying bc no maintenance has been done on their building since Batista fell and it just collapsed bc buildings don’t just muddle on for decades then politely tell you when their structural integrity is compromised. People walk on the street anytime they can because the buildings above the sidewalks yeet out bricks and pieces of heavy stonework every single day. ___ And no, it’s not because of the ‘blockade’. First of all because it’s not a blockade - one country (the US) decided to stop trading with them because they killed thousands of our citizens, stole massive amounts of property from American citizens and companies without any recompense whatsoever, killed/starved/exiled/terrorist about a quarter of the population based on their support for Communism. They then sided with our top enemy and participated in a secret plan to turn the island into a dagger pointed right into the heart of our country by filling it with nuclear missiles that would be able to hit Florida and the other Gulf States with essentially no warning. People think we have ships in some kind of giant ring around Cuba and it just makes me burst out laughing. *Anybody* can trade with them - we just choose not to. No country has a *right* to trade with every other county in the world. And believe me, the Cuban gov is doing absolutely fine. ___ Wealthy Europeans and Canadians and Mexicans etc. (again, everybody but American bc the US doesn’t want to trade with Cuba and is under no obligation to do so but doesn’t care if others do) take vacations on the best beach zone, which is a special economic zone where Cubans can’t live - they have to go through screening for entry and exit to work at the resorts everyday to make sure they didn’t get and not report any tips from people they were serving, aren’t complaining about all the money going to the Communist Party, and haven’t been given any music or a book to read from outside Cuba. It’s really nice, though - think Cancun but instead of feeling guilty about making brown people be your servants you get told you’re doing them a favor and they want nothing else but to be your servants for the good of all Cubans. Yeahhhhhhh, sure. They received almost inconceivable amounts of economic and food assistance from the Soviet Union, which led them to stop growing food causing a famine when the USSR fell apart and Russia shockingly wasn’t really interested in renewing the deal of providing them with whatever they need or want in return for being a thorn in the side of the US. Now they receive free oil on tap from Venezuela. Their military for such a small country is North Korea level insane (more than 5k tanks on an island is insane). Fidel Castro was incredibly angry that Khrushchev made a deal with Kennedy and didn’t just start a war and fire the missiles. His main purpose in agreeing to the missiles wasn’t geopolitical, it was military. He didn’t want insurance against the US - he wanted war with the US and he wanted to kill as many Americans as possible. He knew it would mean the death of every Cuban and it’s hard to convey how little of a fuck that fact meant to him. If Cuba had to be sacrificed to annihilate the US, so be it. He even continued antagonizing the US after the Missile Crisis so much that Khrushchev had to bitch-slap him and tell him he had a) no control over Soviet military forces in Cuba, b) had zero ability to C&C over their nuclear weapons, and c) he was important to them but they’d cut him loose before he could blink if he tried to force them into WW3 by attacking the US. It’s a terrible, evil regime that if it had its own nuclear weapons would be just as bad if not worse than North Korea. The only thing preventing them from being a huge threat to peace and democracy is they’re incredibly incompetent and most people with any intelligence or initiative left/leave Cuba ASAP.
Great job, Castro.
Cuba before Castro was hardly a good place to live for the majority of people. It was a playground for rich American tourists and the mafia who built casino’s. Meanwhile the rest of Cuba was dominated by American businesses and sugar plantations with extremely bad working conditions. ([Cuba before the revolution](https://academic.oup.com/florida-scholarship-online/book/24155/chapter-abstract/185614430?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false)) >Cuba’s Social Problems Prior To 1959 > >Very briefly, Cuba’s social problems prior to 1959 can summarized as follows: > >Widespread and ever increasing poverty > >Highly polarized income distribution: the wealthiest 20 percent of the population recieved 58 percent of the income, while the poorest 20 percent recieved only 2 percent. > >Widespread unemployment: 24 pecent of the working-age population was unemployed. nowadays, The healthcare system in Cuba is the best in Latin America and one of the best in the world.[http://www.oecd.org/social/soc/doingbetterforfamilies.htm](http://www.oecd.org/social/soc/doingbetterforfamilies.htm) >Under the Cuban constitution adopted in 1976, all Cubans have the right to healthcare and are accordingly entitled to recieve free medial care. > >(…) > >Cuba’s primary care and prevention-based healthcare system is acknowledged as one of the most efficient and cost-saving models. [Cuba infant morality and health](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6830455/) On top of this, Cuba has lower infant mortality and longer life expectancy that the US.So not only do Cubans have quality healthcare, the average Cuban has noticeably better healthcare than the average American. [Cuba education rankings](https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9569b508) Cuba’s education system is of high quality and provides free education for all Cubans on all levels. According to UNESCO’s ‘The Education for All Development Index’, Cuba’s education system ranks 32nd in the world and 1st in Latin America. >[Cuba high education](https://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/Worldbank/document/LAC/Great_Teachers-How_to_Raise_Student_Learning-Barbara-Bruns-Advance%20Edition.pdf) > >No Latin American school system today, except possibly Cuba’s, is very close to high standards, high academic talent, high or at least adequate compensation, and high professional autonomy that characterize the world’s most effective education systems reactionary Cuban-Americans in Florida still coping that their family slave plantations are gone. Viva Fidel, Down with the Gusanos!! ([Yo soy Fidel!!!!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul5B--WxiAM&t=5s))
Do you really trust those statistics? Dont you think that the Cuban government is altering them? Dude you have a Lenin pfp your ideology has caused enough death.
Seriously I don’t understand how people can quote statistics from a dictatorship.
oh really, with now like half a million people fleeing the country since 2020 due to the crisis, let me get this for you my family had to wait a whole year just to get my sister´s birth certificate in a country that is more burocratic than all of the well known burocratic countries in the world, the education that you claim is so good that you have to study all those years just to graduate, being a doctor, engineer or God´s mechanic and that some random taxi driver gets your monthly wage in a day, do the proper research my friend, and by the way i´m a cuban and you can say that right now only like a 7% of the population is communist
How come more people are fleeing capitalist mexico????? NAFTA (capitalist trade deal) has detsroyed many mexican jobs leading to increased poverty in some regions. ([People fleeing capitalist hungary](https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-49afa625772854649f7021a259f1d7c3-lq)) A major reason why some cubans leave is because of brain drain. Cuba's developed education system allows high skilled laborers to benefit from universal education and then move to the US and reap the benefits of the wealthy nation. The US also has tried to make it easier for cubans to move comparable to mexicans or other LATAM countries, This issue was massive in east germany too. >the education that you claim is so good that you have to study all those years just to graduate, being a doctor, engineer or God´s mechanic and that some random taxi driver gets your monthly wage in a day They might sell their own products or services, but since this is not part of the state sector or the state regulated private sector, whatever goods or services they sell is sold by international market rates using the dollar. It’s not that the salary system in Cuba is dysfunctional or anything, it’s because taxi driving is much more likely to be a secondary source of income and taxi drivers have a much higher chance of encountering tourists who give out tips. Doctors also get added social benefits for their career choice, and they can sign up and work overseas and get paid by the foreign country. This is also a major reason why the tourist industry in Cuba is important to the economy.
Really entertaining seeing a Marxist fighting to die on this hill defending Cuba
You gonna defend the embargo on Cuba? Do you realize how detrimental that is to their economy?
listen i am a cuban myself, there are so many things wrong with what you just said that im not even answering all of those bs but i will tell you a few things: the salary is disfunctional the minimum wage is about 1700 or 2000 pesos and 30 eggs which are supposedly being produced in the country they cost over 1000 pesos, imagine everything else, what the actual f\*\*\* are you talking about, history has proven that people flee from their countries not because of brain drain buddy it´s because of the poor livinf conditions, and lets not talk about Mypimes why dont you look what those are, those things are more capitalist than the american dream
I’ve known very few Cubanos in my life. No exceptions, they agree with your perspective there mate, that’s why they fled to the states.
If it's so great, why are people still risking their lives to get to Florida in handmade rafts?
Most rafters came from the special period. Also even batista's daughter is homeless in Florida. [Homeless](https://www.local10.com/news/2017/06/21/ex-cuban-leader-fulgencio-batistas-daughter-now-homeless/) Even the US can't house their gusano leaders' daughter.
The US isn't about housing people. It's about creating your own path. If you're looking for a nanny state, look elsewhere.
The US is about rejecting people🇺🇲🇺🇲and accepting money❤️❤️ Well said fellow patriot, i also wish others didnt have a chance in life🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅
Not sure what the special period is, but according to the article below, "In fiscal year (FY) 2022, Cubans were encountered by U.S. authorities at the U.S.-Mexico border nearly 225,000 times and were interdicted at sea more than 6,000 times—numbers that combined far surpass episodes such as the 1980 Mariel boatlift or 1994 Cuban balsero (“rafter”) crisis." https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/cuban-immigrants-united-states
💪💪💪
This is probably more because of the economic isolation imposed on Cuba by the United States.
I know that’s the default answer, but are you sure the government’s economic policies aren’t contributing to poverty? The whole world can trade with Cuba. What’s stopping the PRC from investing there?
The United States has economically crippled Cuba in a number of ways, including: * **Trade restrictions:** The US embargo on Cuba prohibits US companies from doing business with Cuba and foreign companies from doing business with Cuba if they use US dollars or have US subsidiaries. This makes it difficult for Cuba to import and export goods, and it also deprives Cuba of foreign investment. * **Financial restrictions:** The US embargo also restricts Cuba's access to international financial institutions, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. This makes it difficult for Cuba to borrow money and finance development projects. * **Tourism restrictions:** The US embargo also restricts US citizens from traveling to Cuba and Cuban citizens from traveling to the United States. This reduces the amount of tourism revenue that Cuba receives and makes it difficult for Cuban businesses to access the US market. The US embargo has had a significant impact on the Cuban economy. It is estimated that the embargo costs Cuba billions of dollars each year. The embargo has also made it difficult for Cuba to develop its economy and improve the lives of its people. Here are some specific examples of how the US embargo has economically crippled Cuba: * **Agriculture:** The US embargo has made it difficult for Cuba to import agricultural inputs, such as fertilizer and pesticides. This has led to lower crop yields and higher food prices. * **Healthcare:** The US embargo has made it difficult for Cuba to import medical equipment and medicines. This has led to shortages of essential medical supplies and made it more difficult for Cubans to access healthcare. * **Energy:** The US embargo has made it difficult for Cuba to import oil and other energy products. This has led to power outages and higher energy costs. * **Education:** The US embargo has made it difficult for Cuba to import educational materials and technologies. This has made it more difficult for Cuban students to receive a quality education. The US embargo has been widely criticized as being ineffective and counterproductive. It has failed to achieve its stated goal of bringing about political change in Cuba, and it has caused significant economic hardship for the Cuban people.
So if Cuba had pro-US leadership things would be better?
I think if the US wasn’t actively sabotaging Cuba’s economy things would be better.
Castro was not anti-American when he took power. He wasn’t even communist. The US embargo was because he nationalized the land from the Sugar Plantations and Utilities. He offered to compensate them for their loss and wanted to resume trade with the US. But the US backed the dictator Batista and the casino business led by mobster Meyers Lansky. This Gangsterismo abused and impoverished the people of Cuba, but it was also standard Us colonial policy to control and dominate through natural resources. But if America can’t dominate, it isolates… or overthrows. We’re not good people.
You mean the triumph of the involution. The democratic revolution was betrayed and sold to the soviets
How does Cuba not have garbage pick up and how do they not have a top recycling or power generation system
Are you unaware of the disincentives for personal initiative and efficient work that pervade real-world communist systems?
Are you aware of the embargo upheld but the motherfucking United States?
ohhhh so the US embargo makes it impossible to pick up trash? Meanwhile North Korea, also under embargo, has made nuclear weapons and routinely launches missiles into space....
So are you saying it’s not because of communism that the country looks like shit?
Yes, the embargo is totally affecting their ability to pick up trash.
The US isnt the only country they can export to
Its not just the embargo the communist cuban government will fuck anyone trying to grow their own food without permission. Basically they get screwed by not only the US but their own shitty government any time anyone finds a way to get ahead their government steps in and takes their cut.
Hypothetically, if the U.S. and Cuba were individuals: Why would one individual associate with another individual that not only has opposite values, but is unreasonable? Why would you think it would be any different in the anarchical realm of international affairs?
Right? Lol Imagine looking at these pictures and still thinking communists might have a decent idea? Of course every commie moron will chime in about how it is somehow America's fault that the Cuban people can't pick up their garbage from the street but you can't expect much from people with that level of diminished capacity.
Go check out Mississippi. Way worse.
Mississippi is way worse than Cuba? Lol I would say you are delusional but that’s like saying snow is cold
Where exactly? Jackson?
I bet you some of the poorest people in Mississippi have electricity, compared to the poorest people in Cuba.
I’ve seen very poor America and I’ve seen very poor Cuba and poor Cuba is worse. Both are terrible, don’t get me wrong. But Cuba was really rough. I don’t believe in unfettered capitalism, but I don’t believe in communism either. I think something like a social Democratic system with a well regulated capitalist structure that the Nordic countries practice is what I’ve seen be most successful.
These pictures could be taken in literally any city on the planet.
Look at USA sanctions
Funny they have loads of cell phones, pump oil out of Varadero but can’t seem to sort out garbage pick up…….
Hi, a cuban here, i left the country about 2 years ago and I can tell you that "all that oil pumped out" it is not being used in order to improve the economy as rightfully should be instead it all goes to our dear friend Laso and his friends like one that we know well: "The Crab"
USA sanctions prevent Cuban government from collecting trash and painting buildings? You must be a very special case of an alternatively gifted individual…
Bro they blame the US for everything even if most of their economy isn't tied to the US there are many countries that barely trade with the US and are doing a hell of a lot better than cuba.
What sanctions? USA doesn't trade weapons, vehicles or building materials with Cuba because revolution stole all cars and buildings that belonged to US citizens. But Cuba can trade freely with any country and they receive millions and millions from cubans that fled and work in USA and USA. They also receive tons of medicines and food from the US. Otherwise they would be starving because communism.
"Hey, at least they don't have to work"
They only have to 8 to 10 hours pretending they are working for goverment. Then work for real because they need to survive.
I know one group that got richer……
Not really. Well, a few of them, like Castro, Canelo, his family and a few more are filthy rich. Inmediately below you a few people that you can call rich but they have lots of inconveniences living in Cuba. I would say they don't live better than the top 15% in US. Those two groups lack the talent or the work ethics necesary to earn the money they have so they are the only ones that won something. And from there they are all poor, even talented people or people in charge. And below most population is miserable struggling to survive and eat some protein once or twice a month.
hmmm i wonder if there’s been a global effort to stunt cuba at every turn… probably not though
"global", as in one country. Most of the west have normal relations with Cuba.
The US embargo affects other countries trading (or being able to trade) with Cuba though.
can you give some examples?
There not really a point in providing examples. Look up what a full embargo is. TLDR: If a country or company does business with Cuba, they will be subject to sanctions and penalties from the USA.
yep, you answered for me
None of what the US does stops Cuba from filling potholes and picking up garbage.
im sure that forced economic isolation isn’t too impactful to the economy, the economy that funds resources dedicated to public infrastructure and upkeep. they’re probably just lazy id imagine
Lol, no, it's just communism, they only know how to produce excuses and propaganda. They can trade freely with any country With a few exceptions regarding US.
The US maintains its embargo with Cuba at the behest of one of its most valuable voting blocks, the Cubans in Florida.
Cuba can trade freely with any country but US. And even with US the limitations are only related to a few things like vehicles. And from US they receive tons of medicines and food, and millions of dollars cubans send to their families. Without USA, Cuba will be sent directly into a famine and total misery.
Ssssh, that does not support the narrative lol.
Funny, I thought that despite that effort to stunt the country the Strongman could find a way of either trading with other countries or to make the best out of that situation. But it seems that strongman wasn't strong enough?
After 1959 Afro Cubans called it "The Racist Revolution"!!
Yea here’s the proof https://youtu.be/KEjNIjmxRSo?si=X8kHFoiHSiudvZoF
These gusanos, upvoted you without seeing the vid. Goes to show how these people are
This reminds me of Porto somehow. Beautiful city that is slowly decaying
That’s the thing when you visit Havana, you realize how beautiful it must have been before the Revolution.
It was beautiful for tourists from the US . American companies owned almost everything and some were owned by American gangsters .
Yes I’ve seen the movies and old footage. And I can see why a Revolution was needed. But making it all communist, was just too much.
Incredible How Cuba and Puerto Rico went by different paths
There’s a reason why practically every Cuban that reaches America immediately denounces Communism… and then some blue-haired freak tells them that they’re wrong lol.
After Haiti gained independence from France, the USA refused to trade with them and invaded their country mutiple times, once even stealing all of the gold from the central Bank. But it's their fault that they're poor, right? And Cuba. Cuba stood up to the USA after they refused to help Castro after he overthrew their puppet Batista. 60 years of economic embargo by their closest neighbor and the world's largest economic power. But it's their fault that they're poor, right?
The trade among Cuba and US has been over $320 million in 2021 only in food. And it was one way, US to Cuba. Most of it controlled by dictatorship because communims. Same with "remesas", cubans that fled from poverry send alimony to their relatives valued in millions of $ every month. Almosr half is taxed by the dictatorship. The dictatorship is free to trade anything with any other country. But they mostly trade excuses and blamming. Cubans on the other hand can't trade because the real embargo is the dictatorship over them.
Loved your post - a model of acuity and concision. It’s always interesting to me that self-styled ‘progressives’ in the U.S. will always rush to the defense of a thug in uniform - provided that said thug is a ‘socialist’ and of course vehemently anti-American. There’s absolutely no reason, embargo or not, for a country with the rich agricultural resources that Cuba has for ANYONE there not, at the very least, to have plenty to eat… Reminds me of an old joke about the Soviets: if they took over the Sahara Desert, in ten years, there’d be a shortage of sand!
Thank you for your kind words. It's always the same old story with communists. I'm lucky to live free enough to tell what I see, it's sad to check cubans can't because they live in a state of constant deceit.
cuba yes
Why are you lying ? it was France that took all the money.
While I'm not a fan of Castro .... at all, I'm gonna have to correct you there. In 1914, the US did take possession of Haitian gold, transferring it to NYC. It wasn't really about stealing it and in turn selling the gold, but to have more control over the Haitian government. Essentially, it was a hostage situation. "Do what we say and the gold will be safe!"
And yea it is Fidel Castros fault. Why did he have to join Russia and place several nuclear misiles pointing at USA???
That was post Bay of Pigs. Needed to find a new big friend because the neighbor wasn't going to be cordial any longer.
The post above yours explained it
The US too placed missiles in Turkey.
Peak whataboutism
Not whataboutism at all. The opposite, actually. It doesn't make sense to blame the USSR for putting missiles on Cuba while leaving out that prior, the US put missiles in Turkey. If anything it's disingenuous to only mention the missiles in Cuba without providing further context.
No one is blaming the USSR. We are blaming Cuba for letting the USSR use Cuba as a tool against the nation’s own long term interest. Imagine the missiles had stayed and there had been a nuclear war. Cuba would have been nuked first. How was that ever in Cuba’s interest?
The only person to blame for bad relations with Cuba is the US they literally tried to invade and overthrow their government in the bay of pigs. Imagine if Cuba did that to us?
Because of the embargo. If nobody is allowed to trade with you, then this large and at the time powerful nation comes and is willing to do business, you’ll do pretty much whatever you want. If the US hadn’t placed trade restrictions on Cuba in the first place they wouldn’t have had incentives to do business with Russia, and we would have had better intelligence if we had kept open relations.
It was to even the score with the missiles in Turkey.
Getting “even” about Turkey was Russia’s interest, not Cuba’s.
Lmao, at all the Revolutionary apologists' favorite saying, "It's the embargoes fault." If only the US would trade with us, then communism would have worked. It's so comical.
I think there are several ways to measure “success”. Economically, sanctions do have an impact. It was trade that helped China’s growth boom.
what you don't realise is a large segment of the planet's unable to trade with cuba. it's no different than yanks threatening airbus, european automakers, etc., with sanctions for merely selling goods to iran. usa is the world's largest terrorist organisation.
Loads of European companies, including car companies, sell to Cuba. Pegeot and Citroen have Cuban websites.
Literally nobody said that quote. You just made it up because you don’t know what communism is or what an embargo is.
Beautiful architecture. So sad
Revolution just made things worse in Cuba, I'm a cuban myself
I can find pics of communities in the US that look similar
and there are people in puerto rico that want an independent communist nation smdh
I hate to be "that guy", but was life that much better for Cubans under Batista? Seems Cubans hated the man enough too revolt. Dictatorship is shit, no matter who is at the helm.
“Triumph”… smh. Not triumph here. Only suffering for the regular person. Communism doesn’t work.
Equity.
Inb4 muh embargo
You have no idea. The amount of "muh embargo" NPCs is insane.
As if crumbling infrastructure and trash on the streets is unique to Cuba. Cmon man.
Is this sub about Cuba or another country??
Y’all really love to ignore the draconian US embargo on Cuba. Also, there are many, many similar photos of the US that can be shared to show the triumph of capitalism.
They can literally trade with anyone else on the planet?!?!?!?!?!? You're telling me they can't have a successful economy without the US to trade with? You also know they could get trade back easily with two government reforms right? Freedom of the press and legalizing multiple political parties.
No, they can't. That is why the Helms-Burton's Chapter III was activated by Trump and kept by Biden. That punishes companies from countries that trade with Cuba by preventing those ships from coming into any US ports during six months. Given to choose between Cuba and the giant US market, you know who they will choose. Additionally, those 243 punitive measures enacted by Trump and most of them kept by Biden, along with Cuba's inclusion in the "terrorism sponsoring countries" list really limits Cuba's ability to acquire things they need. Banks that conduct financial transactions with Cuba are routinely fined by the US. Many banks do not want to accept any Cuban money because of the country's inclusion in that list. Forbidding Americans to go to Cuba as tourists and denying entry to Europeans who travel to the island are measures meant to discourage tourism in Cuba and deny the country that source of income. Europeans who travel to Cuba will now have to apply for a visa if they want to come to the US. Of course, that visa could be denied. Europeans do not require visas to come to this country. These are just some examples, but the list is long. Contrast that to the treatment Vietnam receives. It's now a most favorite trading partner and "a strategic US partner". Vietnam is also ruled by a Communist Party, but because of geopolitical reasons vs China it receives most favorite nation status by the US. Cuba has tried to liberalize its economy and make changes, but even that has faced opposition from sanctions supporters in the US. They even oppose granting the private sector the ability to have accounts and credit in the US, while hoping hardline Communists within the government abort that process. I'm Cuban-American, was never a communist, not even a "pioneer" and left Cuba over 52 years ago. I have the right to tell it like it is. There are no valid reasons for the US to maintain those sanctions on Cuba.
Cuban dictatorship can trade freely with any country (but the US, and even with the US there are only some exceptions) The only embargo is dictatorship over Cuba and cubans that can't trade anything. You can easily check this in multiple places. What I see are draconian lies from communism, old news
Communism is so good it needs to trade with the biggest capitalist nation in the world to survive. Almost like the model is bad
Accurate username
these conditions exist in every major city in 2023 america: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4gD7GAdM-U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4gD7GAdM-U) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vc6CHRrtH8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vc6CHRrtH8) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRWmKh13b50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRWmKh13b50) meanwhile, op posting the worst parts of habana. i don't see rough sleepers addicted to drugs, killing each other with guns, left to die on the street with zero healthcare.
Preach, brother
Name me any other country in the world and I could show you similar pictures to this
You can search pictures of the same streets in Havana 64 years ago and it did not look like this. Cuba had a higher GDP per capita than many European countries.
Yeah, turns out that before the Cuban Revolution there also wasn't a trade embargo and hundreds of sanctions imposed upon them
They were supposed to starve to death but they reached out to the Soviet Union for help . It was the only option they had.
except back then, 40% of the population outside the capital was living in poverty, with high levels of illiteracy and little/no access to healthcare. the revolution started for a reason, and it wasn't because people were content. Fidel dramatically improved the lives of millions, the little-hat-wearing terrorists to the north have seethed uncontrollably since then. doing everything possible to destroy all that's good in this world.
"America's prostitute" a quote from a tour guide in 2011
Yeah but it was a playground for the rich and was under the Batista regime, your propaganda isnt working anymore my friend
Ah yes the good old days when the economy was based on slavery.
Right, the difference is that most of Havana looks like what’s shown on these pictures.
lol Philadelphia and LA looks like this
Bro that’s Havana. Major city center. Shit show. Been there. Love it. But still a shit show.
100
Yea but you need to find pictures of the capital cities ok?
I have been to 40 and have spent most of the last 10 years in LATAM - there is nowhere else like it in LATAM. Even Venezuela is in much better shape.
Name me one country and I’ll show you
Yes, of course there are 'slums' in other countries. The entire county isn't one though. Here's a better one - I'll tell you a name of a city and you find a single neighborhood in Cuba that looks like the decent parts of that city.
Neither is the entirety of Cuba a slum. Do you think over a million tourists would come to visit Cuba annually if the entire country would look like this?
Photos like this can be found within a few blocks of the center of tourism in Habana. Tourists visit for a romanticized Disney land experience of vintage cars, beaches, cigars etc and are 1000% removed from the reality of 99% of the population. The wealthy, rich neighborhoods are just fancy pre-Castro mansions that have gone to shit. Have you ever actually been to Cuba?
He clearly hasn’t and is talking out of his ass lol
Wooohoooo big triumph yayyyyy
at this point they should declare the revolution was a success, say the government is now socialist and gave free elections similar to the Sandinistas. within a year, the us would lift the trade blockade.
Yeah, honestly was a disappointing visit to Habana.
You must be the kind of person that buys stuff from the grocery store without looking at the labels and wondering why it tastes so weird
America has had its boot on Cubas neck since 1960. Strangling its economy and starving its people just because they didnt jump when america said to jump. This is punisment for over throwing Fulgencio Batista.
Frankly if the government's system worked it shouldn't matter if a single country has an embargo. US is massive but it alone would not revive the nation. People just need someone to blame and the US is an easy target because of the embargo. Cuba still has trade with China, a $20 trillion economy. Why doesn't that help?
How about this? The United States has threatened to stop financial aid to other countries if they trade non-food items with Cuba... ...Academic Nigel White writes, "While the US measures against Cuba do not amount to a blockade in a technical or formal sense, their cumulative effect is to put an economic stranglehold on the island, which not only prevents the United States intercourse but also effectively blocks commerce with other states, their citizens and companies." Despite the existence of the embargo, Cuba can, and does, conduct international trade with many countries, including many US allies; however, US-based companies, *and companies that do business with the US*, which trade in Cuba do so at the risk of US sanctions
additionally, the 180 day rule makes maritime transport far more difficult/expensive: The 180-day rule is a statutory restriction prohibiting any vessel that enters a port or place in Cuba to engage in the trade of goods or the purchase or provision of services there from entering any U.S. port for the purpose of loading or unloading freight for 180 days after leaving Cuba, unless authorized by OFAC. This restriction is applied even if a vessel has stopped in Cuba solely to purchase services unrelated to the trade of goods, such as planned ship maintenance. The 180-day rule is separate from a second statutory restriction – the goods/passengers-on-board rule – which prohibits any vessel carrying goods or passengers to or from Cuba or carrying goods in which Cuba or a Cuban national has an interest from entering a U.S. port with such goods or passengers on board, unless authorized or exempt. There are certain exceptions to these rules. For a complete description of the 180-day rule, the goods/passengers-on-board rule, and the general licenses and exemptions that apply, see 31 CFR §§ 515.206, 515.207, and 515.550.
the embargo affects the entire planet, not just trade with the united states. according to yanks, cuba is a "state sponsor of terrorism", for simply negotiating peace talks in colombia. guess who else participated? norway, brasil, chile, ecuador, and venezuela. why aren't they awarded this designation? any nation, enterprise, etc., who deals with cuba is affected by this rubbish. just like airbus and european automakers selling to iran, another country on the yanqui shitlist. threats of all types of sanctions for "harming u.s. interests". i understand americants are poorly educated, brainwashed, and suffering from an extreme case of stockholm syndrome. occasionally try doing some research, instead of regurgitating soundbites from your oligarchs/overlords.
Oh no! Are those the 6 best photo's of Cuba's prosperity you could find? The rest of Latin America/Caribbean always looks like Tomorrowland or the best parts of Dubai. I was a Democrat who loved Communism. Now I see the error of my ways. Thank you OP.
That's not the point. You can search photos of these same streets and they looked much better 64 years ago. Cuba had a higher GDP per capita than many European countries. Look at photos of San Juan, Puerto Rico. That's how Havana would look like today if the regime didn't destroy the country's economy with disastrous economic policies.
You totally fail to understand the facts: 1. Six photos means jack shit. 2. Cuba isn't the worst or best. It is about the middle. 3. For countries South of the United States, it is actually above average. 4. Batista was a piece of shit. If you back "anti-communist" pieces of shit, you get communism. With few exceptions, if you back human rights advocates, you don't get communism. Why the fuck do you think Norwegians don't demand a communist government? 5. Cuba was not going to become a Norway. It usually has a slightly higher HDI than Mexico. 6. Cuba would probably have a higher HDI than Turkey if the US negotiated an end to the embargo. Cuba uses the embargo as an excuse as to why they fail their people. And when lifting the embargo that doesn't fully work, that would help change Cuba. 7. All of Latin America/Caribbean gets fucked. And not all of those countries are Communist. Cuba wouldn't be the exception you think it would. Stop being delusional. You are at least as delusional as a Communist.
Okay, you seem smart, so I'll reply. 1. True, but as someone who was born in Havana and has been all over the city, I can tell you that 80% of Havana looks like this, or worse. 2. 2. In the middle in what? The infrastructure is destroyed. There are daily blackouts. Hospitals are dirty, crumbling and lack medicine and equipment. The average Cuban doesn't get enough nutrients (according to the UN). 3. Above average in what? Life expectancy, infant mortality and all that shit? Only if you trust the statistics the regime provides. And there have been studies showing that they're manipulated. 4. Many revolutionaries wanted democracy, but Castro purged them. 5. It would be like Puerto Rico, which has statistics of a developed country. Also, HDI is very simplistic. It doesn't measure availability and quality of food, medicine, fuel, water, sanitation, transportation, technology, etc. Nearly everything people need to live decently is scarce and rationed in Cuba. People stand in line for hours to get their portion. 6. I absolutely agree. 7. True, but you can go to a supermarket and get whatever you want even in the most remote town in any Latin American country. You can't do that in Cuba. In Cuba, the scarcity of goods is insane.
Yay socialism. /sarcasm
Socialist country struggles -> must be because of socialism Capitalist country struggles -> must be in spite of capitalism
Actually no. My family are political refugees from Cuba, and experience the “revolution” first hand.
Tough embargo indeed!
I see equality! 🤦🏻♂️
Weathering on historic buildings. [How is this any different from Naples?](https://www.thewanderinghedonist.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/PXL_20220326_135349587.jpg) and nice job leaving out the building on the right in the last image, I’m sure that would have gone against your narrative.
Too bad the U.S won't get rid of its sanctions
Now show American cities with areas like this. I know because I am from one.
Wow, what devastating effects of communism.
What capitalist bs is this Cubans have a higher standard of living than the west and any “poverty” is due to racist US mcarthyist imperialism.
As a Cuban, I wish you the Cuban "standard of living" for a week. Let's see what you say then.
If fascist anti communist country’s didn’t stifle growth Cuba would be a workers paradise right now. And Bernie sanders endorses Cuban education and reading programs you should be thankful for your country’s revolution.
meanwhile, the literacy rate in america is a mere 79%, on par with some of the poorest african nations. in fact, 54% of adults read beneath the sixth-grade level. medical mistakes are the third leading cause of death, behind cancer and heart disease. medical debt is the #1 cause of bankruptcy. the bizarre bit about yanks, is they keep insisting the rest of us should be more like them.
This is what an embargo does to a country.
You should walk up to those people and ask them if they will lick your boots for clean, well maintained streets and see how they feel
Hate to break it to ya bud, most major cities in America have places that look like that lol
So, if there’s problems in the U.S., it’s because of capitalism; if there’s problems in ‘socialist’ Cuba, it’s because of…capitalism. I have a suggestion for you bud; go live in Cuba - as an ordinary Cuban - for a year and then come back here and compare the ‘problems’ there with the ‘problems’ here and see what you think. I’ll wait for your for your report…
headline should read: la habana, cuba, 61 years after el bloqueo, unilateral war, sabotage, terrorism, assassination attempts, denying access to credit & financial systems, etc. by the imperialist yanqui swine.
Would anyone agree that the richest country on earth has more slums than Cuba ?
Havana has a lot of slums, but you won't find many pictures of them on the internet, because nobody goes there to take pictures. You can see them on Google Maps though. They're mostly on the outskirts of the city. Here's one: 23°05'28.3"N 82°18'18.3"W
meanwhile, americants $34 trillion in the red, whilst Cuba maintains a low/sustainable debt to gdp ratio. the revolution survives, in spite of 61 years of relentless war/terrorism.
I think part of the failure of the revolution is the embargo that is had to deal with for 60+ years
Looks better than Skid Row in Los Angeles
Or the Tenderloin in SF
California has higher tax rates than cuba.
The odd part, the US supported Castro in the beginning to remove the dictator Batista. Castro was identical to Batista and the rest is history. I believe the US is waiting for the communist to completely fall apart, install a new government for and use Cuba as a cheap source of labor and a holiday destination.
Cuantos años de bloqueo económico por parte de Estados Unidos la nación más democrática del mundo ?
It's called an embargo.
Nope.....is called communism and bunch of loosers tide to the power for over 63 years.
Aren’t they under crippling US sanctions?
Nope
what sanctions do to a mfr
This looks like Detroit in the tropics, and US govt did not even sanction the State of Michigan.
63 years of economic apartheid
being isolated by your trading partners do that (see subsequent invasions, blockades, and sanctions by non ussr aligned states)
Could literally go to any city in the US and take 6 pictures of slums with worse conditions than this. And people in this thread wanna try and argue that this is somehow evidence that communism is a failure lol
Love how people blame “communism” and not the embargo and Economic Blockade that the US has put Cuba under. US imperialism is the reason.
It’s being stifled by embargo’s. Under a capitalist thumb
The U.S. will look like this in about 100 years; especially if we allow all these "socialists" to keep pouring into the U.S.