I dunno about refugees, but a lot of undocumented immigrants are going back to Mexico. All on their own. Because they can’t find work here.
Would the Cuban model have fared better without the US economic blockade?
If the rest of the world refused to trade with America, I imagine you’d be pretty well f*cked economically, no?
Nitpick: It’s an embargo. A blockade would be if American ships patrolled Cuban waters and tried to stop any country’s ships from entering or leaving. We haven’t done that since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
We have access closed off, so it has to be one way. Apparently we fear allowing our people to go there.
Not only that, but the rest of the world does trade with Cuba. Most of it, anyway. The US has nothing to do with the failure of the Cuban economic system.
The rest of the world is not refusing to trade with Cuba. It’s mostly, if not entirely, the US that won’t have anything to do with Cuba.
My guess is that the Castros are trying to buy some more time. If they announce they have seen the error of their ways and will now institute reforms that will take the heat off of any calls to replace them - they’ll become part of the solution rather than part of the problem. They can probably string that out for another ten years in power.
That’s a bit misleading. The US was Cuba’s major trade partner prior to 1962, as you might expect. The fact that the Cubans have been able to trade with others doesn’t mean they haven’t lost out by being unable to trade with the US.
When a hurricane hits Cuba, and they do, they clear out cities with all kinds of mass transportation.
Cuba has a good medical system.
They don’t have manufacturing of any significance. When we there ,Dole Pineapple and other companies ruled them, things were worse.
As compared to…?
Why don’t you head on down?
By some measures, the US. Cuba has a lower infant mortality rate and nearly twice as many physicians per capita.
They lost trade with the US and gained trade with the USSR. It’s not our fault they relied on the Soviets to fill their bowl, instead of rebuilding a foreign trade system. They have had over 40 years, after all, to build some kind of alternative to trading with the US.
So…it’s not a bit misleading at all.
Yeah, 'cause if we didn’t close off access then there would probably be a mass exodus from the US to Cuba! We really need to keep folks under our thumb or they would flee in a heart beat…
-XT
The Soviet Union was 6,000 miles away and its economy was half the size of the US’, at best. It’s not that they relied on the Soviets; it’s that their most suitable trading partner was cut off.
But, but, that would be COMPROMISE with EVIL!!! Only extremism is legitimate & safe!!! [/sarcasm]
Look, you get what you pay for. You want genuine Cuban cigars, you pay black-market prices. You want the pure, original HIV strain, you go to Haiti and hang the expense!
Hypothetical: Suppose the Castro brothers decided, to hell with the risk, we’re gonna pull a Gorbachev: Free speech, free press, free elections with non-Communist parties included. How would that play out?
Hilarious!
Two things: First off, there is the ‘got to hate that factor’. IOW, they should have thought of that BEFORE pissing us off, no? Secondly, trade is not an indelible right, granted for all time…it’s a mutual exchange. So, the US isn’t bound to provide Cuba with the right to trade with us, nor is it our responsibility to ensure that their fucked up economy works. If they lose a major trading partner, it’s up to THEM to rebuild their markets. They chose (CHOSE) not to do so, and instead they relied on the Soviets to make up the difference. That was a huge mistake, both at the time and in retrospect.
Which gets back to the first point…got to hate dat. Poor choices.
-XT
Guess that would depend on whose standards are being used and what equipment & facilities those “physicians” have at their access.
Did not Castro go to Spain recently for medical treatment?
Two words: bachelor party.