With Castro stepping down- why should the US embargo against Cuba continue?

Question

I've been hearing a number of right wingers argue that even though Castro stepped down in Cuba, the US embargo against Cuba should never be lifted....

Could someone explain the logic of this?

Answer 1

The short answers to your two questions are: "it shouldn't" and "no, it's illogical".

First of all, the US embargo was never put in place for the benefit of Cuba's citizens, so their plight doesn't even enter the considerations of your average American right-winger (in so far that they ever consider anyone but themselves anyway).

The US embargo was put in place to try to foil the 1959 revolution which swept Castro to power and reclaimed Cuba and its industries for the Cuban people. The big losers were the powerful American multinationals, such as the United Fruit Company and ITT, for whom Cuba was just another colonial outpost they could exploit. It was they who put the Eisenhower, and later the Kennedy regimes, under pressure to respond.

The embargo was extended in retribution when the Russians stepped in to fill the trade gaps left by the Americans. In 1992 it was made into a law and was referred to, somewhat erroneously, as the Cuban Democracy Act.

As the world now knows, having witnessed the events in Guatemala in 1954 and Chile in 1973, the US is not in the slightest bit interested in fostering democracy when it interferes with their own economic or strategic interests, and in order to protect those interests, they will use violence and subversion to bring democracies down, replacing them with equally violent despots like Augusto Pinochet.

Castro's "crime" in the eyes of the Americans was not to deny his citizens the right to vote or determine their own destiny. They don't give a dime for that. His crime was to stand up to the greed of the US multinationals and share out the spoils of Cuba's agriculture and industry with the Cuban people.

Castro has certainly been a very oppressive leader in Cuba, and Cubans deserve the right to determine their own destiny and decide how they provide for their own families. But it is also true to say that if the Cuban people hadn't been subjected to this embargo, their standard of living would certainly be a whole lot higher. Higher even than that enjoyed by many Americans.

Answer 2

Some people think that if the US comes into Cuba, they will just come right in and take over and do what they want. And if that happens then many with feel that it will just change the attitude and culture of Cuba. Most people love Cuba especially because it is not americanized.

Everyone has an opinion...but whatever the opinion, no one really knows what will unfold.

Answer 3

1.) Castro still holds a very influential post in the Cuban government.  He will effectively remain in power until he is dead or too ill to "advise" (read: command) the "official" head of the government.

Castro has been in power since 1959.  He knows how to take and keep control.  Any successor of his who wants to stay in power would be ill-advised to ignore Fidel.  So Fidel will still be in control.

2.) Since Fidel will remain in power until he's dead and buried, conditions are still basically the same in Cuba.  Fidel's rule is extremely oppressive and the US should not support such a system.

3.) Because of Cuba's communist government, all trade money goes directly to the oppressive, communist Cuban government.  When someone buys sugar from Cuba, they are effectively paying the Cuban government, not the employees of the sugar plant.  

Cubans are not allowed to run businesses (except a few self-employed businesses like driving a taxi).  All industries are nationalized.  The government gets all of the money made from trade.  They keep the little money that exists in the country to themselves, and leave the scraps to the people in the form of tiny rations.  Trading with the US wouldn't help the Cuban people; it would only help the corrupt government workers.

The people of Cuba suffer more when the government can afford the tools they use to control the people.  

My parents are Cuban, and I grew up in a community of Cuban people.  I know what it's like out there.  This is not a right-wing vs. left-wing argument.  It's just that some people don't understand the very serious human rights abuses that are being committed every single day on that island, and the real cause and effect of the embargo.  The people will suffer equally under the current system, whether or not there is an embargo.  As with all other communist governments that have ever existed, only the *bare minimum* scraps required for survival will be left for the people in the form of rations.

It's the oppressive Cuban government that we are hurting with the embargo, and it should continue until the Cuban people are given back control of their lives and their economy.

Answer 4

First this , how effective is the embargo ?? The US law forbids trading with Cuba ( Helms -Burton) but Cuba is an important trading partner and imports lots of food from the US. ( rice,frozen chickens ,etc.) There are US states that export important quantities of their food production to Cuba.

The US sends delegations with Congress members to negociate food and business deals in Cuba.

On the other hand the Cuban Government needs the embargo as much as the US Government does. Everything that goes wrong can be blamed on the embargo. Not enough food ? put the blame on the embargo. The biggest problem for the embargo and the trading is MONEY . The US gives no credit to Cuba and every delivery has been paid upfront.

An offical lifting of the embargo will not change things very much.

Castro is not the only ruler in Cuba, now his brother Raul is in command but he is  backed by the army and the partymembers and delegates. They need the embargo to justify some failures in Cuba and the US politicians need the embargo to lure the Cuban American voters ( more than one million in Miami alone) . The embargo is one big manipulation, don't lose sleep over it.

Havanalover

http://www.havana-guide.com

Answer 5

They want to keep it up because of the Regime. Even if Castro steps down the politics won't change that fast.

Actually it's not the normal Americans who are the strongest supporter of the Embargo but the Exile-Cubans who had to flee during the Revolution and their descendents.