During talks with Cuba earlier this year, the United States reiterated its call for the release of Alan Gross, insisting yet again that the American development worker was jailed solely for trying to help Cubans communicate with the outside world. At the same time, the U.S. Agency for International Development was busy fielding questions from contractors interested in the latest Cuba-related opportunity.
I must apologize to the readers of Havana Times for my recent article, “Who Did Cuba’s Ladies in White Speak For?” The title, I now see, ought to have been “Who Profits from the Cuba Blockade?”, for, that is what the issue is ultimately about: who stands to benefit from the petition made by the Ladies in White?
If Washington’s policies toward Havana were a person, the poor soul would likely be confused. US officials try to starve Cuba into submission with economic sanctions for more than five decades. Then they undermine sanctions by allowing Cuban-Americans to travel freely to the island, bringing fistfuls of cash.