US Blockade on Cuba Enters 6th Decade
HAVANA TIMES, Dec. 25 – The US economic blockade of Cuba -a leftover from the Cold War against the Soviet Union- enters a sixth decade on Jan. 1, 2010. While there was some hope, especially on States side, as to a possible easing of the stranglehold under President Obama, the president’s first year in office proved the skeptics at home and in Havana right.
Last week a major US newspaper, the Seattle Times, called for an end to the blockade, but just like calls in the past it appears to have fallen on deaf ears in the White House.
The paper of the far northwest US city, considered a gateway to Asia, stated:
“We would allow Cuba to buy U.S. foodstuffs, and most other products, under normal commercial rules. We would allow Americans to visit Cuba without threatening them with fines under the Trading with the Enemy Act. We would repeal the Helms-Burton Act and allow Americans to invest in Cuba, and we would allow some Cuban investment here. We would allow the importation of Cuban sugar and other lawful products.
“We suggest this not because we support the system in Cuba, but because we support the rights of Americans to make their own decisions about it. For almost half a century, the United States has restricted the rights of Americans in order to bring down Castro and communism. The policy has done neither. It doesn’t seem to have done any good at all. Certainly it has harmed ordinary people in Cuba,” noted the Seattle Times.
There should never ever be a support of any bloqueo by any freedom loving human whether Cuban or otherwise..Especially Cubans..However i am almost 64 and this was always a part of my life. Today i am in Cuba and we always talk about how much longer this will go on..i know that Prez Obama is just a liar and is in the pockets of the Miami Right..or left.. or anyone who hates freedom and sovereignty..My guess..Obama will be gone and Fidel will still be with us..Many will never ever vote for him again
The US propaganda machine desperately needs a highly visible example of socialist dysfunction, to help keep the US people in a stupor. If this is a true statement, they will keep the blockade in place for the foreseeable future, for at least as long as the Cuban Party keeps beating the dead horse of Marxist economics.
The best way to end the blockade is to make of Cuba a dynamic, progressive example of workable socialism. This is not a continuation of the old ways, but experimentation with a new hypothesis–a modern cooperative socialist hypothesis.
I wonder if Fidel reads HT? If he does, perhaps someday he’ll realize that it’s time to try something new. Perhaps someday he’ll look at the Mondragon coops and get a big idea!
I’m as much against the bloqueo as most who post at this site, but is it as much of an obstacle as it once was? After all, the U.S.A. doesn’t really make all that much any more; most of our industrial base is crumbling since our manufacturing has been outsourced to China. Each time I visit Cuba, I see more Chinese products, like Yutang buses, rice-cookers, television sets and dvd players, etc. Of course since the U.S. is just 90 miles to the north, it would naturally be one of Cuba’s largest trading partners if the blockade was lifted. Since Cuba has an educated work force, I could see it, for example, as an alternative location and strong competitor for the corporate customer call centers now located in India. Then, at least, while we are put on hold after the recording of “Your call is important to us…” we could listen to some good salsa, rather than the wretched “easy listening” and “elevator music” which is now inflicted upon us!
That’s why we said 6th decade instead of 7th. The 1960s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, and now 2010s
Not to defend the bloqueo, which is an abomination, but it started in October 1960 and was strengthened in February 1962.