Just
when it appeared that the Castro’s Cuba was a battered raft on the verge of
coming apart in stormy waters, President Obama arrived on the scene to throw it
a lifeline. Cuba’s dictators were bailed
out just as falling oil prices had them on the proverbial ropes. The country
had been kept afloat in past years by more than 100,000 barrels of crude oil a day provided by Venezuela. Then, as
oil prices were plummeting recently, it was widely speculated that Venezuela
might turn off the spigot of oil largess to its island buddy in order to bolster its
own revenues.
Now,
with dramatically relaxed U.S. travel
restrictions, the little economic pressure remaining on Cuba (“Cuber” if you
are a Kennedy fan) after six years of
Obama’s reign will disappear altogether. As it is, remittances and
travel from the U.S. to Cuba now exceed $4 billion a year.
As the
U.S. has eased off its economic pressure on Cuba, the Castro regime has gotten more repressive, because they are more
confident that they personally will weather the storm.
Those who think that the U.S.’s decision to
open relations with Cuba will significantly improve living conditions for
Cuba’s citizens are sadly mistaken. It is illegal for Cuban citizens to engage
in commerce with foreign nationals, and all hotels and tourist destinations are
controlled by Castro. Additionally, up to 90% of wages earned by Cubans who
work in the resort or tourism industry are confiscated by Cuba’s controlling
Castros…i.e., the government.
None of
this sits well with Cuban nationals, who are also bitterly angry over Obama’s
reference to “President Castro.” There haven’t been elections in Cuba for over
half a century. Cubans have never had a vote that could have legitimized
Castro. The Cuban nationals understandably consider it a stunning slap in the
face to have the twice-elected President
of the United States call their country’s dictator “President.”
The
Castros didn’t change. They didn’t blink. They showed that a tiny,
impoverished, third-world island could stare-down the United States of America
in an era when she has lost her moral compass.
Another
coup for castro.
The Bay
of Pigs? We’ve just thrown more pork
at Cuba. It won’t work out any better for the U.S.- or Cuba’s citizens- than it did
the last time we tried to help them.
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