The issue is heating up in Congress.
Well, first of all, Castro’s only mostly dead. We’re gonna wait until he’s all the way dead, then we can drop the sanctions. Even if Castro isn’t involved in the day to day running of the Cuban dictatorship, he’s still the figurehead and all decisions are still being made in his name. Since Castro finally seems like he’ll die for real this time, waiting a bit longer isn’t going to hurt much. We’ve got to save face after all, and Castro’s death is the perfect political opportunity to change policies.
I think it is time. Economic Sanctions do not appear to be ending the Castro regime and we would probably be better off normalizing relations as soon as Fidel kicks the bucket.
I heard a old quote today. “the definition of insanity is to continue to repeat the same action over and over again and expect a different result”.
I think this applies to Sanctions against Cuba.
Jim
I think you would be running into the same problem as calling for a withdraw from Iraq: Except for a small vocal minority, most of the country really couldn’t care less either way.
While I want some fine cuban cigars as much as the next guy, I don’t see whats really in it for the US to normalize relations with Cuba at this point. Even with Castro out of the way, its not like anything substantial will change with their government when he kicks the bucket.
That said I have no real problem with having the US and Cuba normalize relations between them. I just don’t see whats in it for the US…or why there would be any hurry to do so.
-XT
Yeah, but I can’t see how things could stay the same in Cuba after Castro dies. He’s the glue that holds the dictatorship together. Raul Castro isn’t going to be able to step into his shoes, and Raul is almost as old as Castro anyway.
Once Castro is out of the picture, then the apparatchiks who don’t give a crap about ideology will change things out of sheer greed. None of the younger people have an ideological commitment to communism, even if they hope to remain as top dogs in Cuba.
I thought there was a son that might take over not just Raul?
Other than that I agree.
Jim
Fidel has several sons, but none appear to have held any high government positions, except for Fidel “Fidelito” Castro Diaz-Balart, who was head of Cuba’s atomic-energy commission for a time until Fidel removed him.
I don’t understand what the purpose of sanctions against Cuba are. Is it because Cuba is communist. But that can’t be because China is communist and there are no sanctions against China.
It is because Florida is an electoral swing state and has an electorally significant population of Cuban-Americans, practically all of them extremely hostile to Castro.
China is not exactly Communist these days. Authortarian, and with a bad track record, but not exactly Communist, although the party retains much power.
I don’t think we should drop sanctions until the regime changes, and Im not talking about Fidel. Let them open up, and we can make some changes on our end. Otherwise, we’re just propping up the regime in Cuba as they prostitute their nation for hard currency.
I suspect that the possibility of a giant influx of money and modern goods would be a good motivator towards reform or revolution. Once Castro is dead, keeping Cuba at a disadvantage in the world economy would do more to help Communism maintain power. Ain’t nothing like greed to bring a nation to democracy.
Well, I agree. Of course, they WANTED to have their workers paradise, so I’m all for letting them. 
Not our problem, mon. And it isn’t we thats keeping em down…we are one of the few countries who actually still has the embargo in place IIRC. They can trade with Canada and Europe already. That they are down isn’t our problem…its how they wanted it.
As I said, I have no great stake in this…I would love to get my cuban cigars legally. But I don’t see what the US gets out of it…which is probably why we haven’t bothered to this point. Simple political inertia…and of course the history between the US and Castro hasn’t helped.
-XT
What would we get out of a non-Communist Cuba? At base minimum a nice vacation spot. But moreso, it would:
- Prevent the thousands of deaths of Cubans fleeing the country every year.
- Which would in turn lower the number of illegal aliens coming in each year.
- Make the large Cuban population in Florida feel generous to the party which was able to swing it.
The only reason I can see why the US government wouldn’t want to encourage anything which would cause Cuba to modernize would be that it would allow reporters more access to Guantanimo. But that’s only an issue to the current administration.
Hasn’t it occurred to you that our sanctions are “propping up” the Castro government ? It’s a wonderful propaganda tool; it gives Castro something to blame for Cuba’s problems.
We had an interesting thread from a Cuban guy who is now in LA
Ask the former Cuban Communist!
Personally I don’t see the point in the USA being unpleasant to Cuba, but I can see a lot to gain from saying: ‘Ok you have a different political system, but we would like you to have an improved standard of living’.
Properly managed, Cuba could be a show piece of what can happen when the USA decides to be nice to a State. Cuba has no porous borders and is relatively homogenous, it is well placed to avoid immigrants (other than former Cuban Nationals).
I would subsidize their ‘doctors for South America’ scheme, set up joint manufacturing ventures give grants for study in the USA. An architectural preservation scheme would also be a good way of pumping in money without offending national pride.
Another trick would be increasing the rent on Guatemala Bay to ridiculously high levels, enough to give a pay increase to all government employees.
If Cuba became prosperous (without being a gambling den and brothel) then other South American States would be very interested.
At the most cynical, it is not hard to envisage raising a Cuban Regiment for Afghanistan.
So what? If just trading freely with a nation amounts to “propping up” its regime, we’re already guilty of propping up dictatorships all over the world. Why should Cuba be held to any different standard than the rest?
Because it might be interesting.
Why? Because we get something out of it of course. We get basing rights or we get some other tangable benifit for the US by doing so. I’m unsure what we would get out of helping out Cuba at this time…unless they completely toss out their communist government with the demise of Castro. Which isn’t going to happen right this minute…so it answers your question as to if its time yet. Its premature.
Unless you have some points that would be a direct benifit to the US in dropping the sanctions? I mean, I can certainly see how it would benifit Cuba…I just don’t see any direct benifits to the US (though I can see some benifits to me, selfish as I am :)).
-XT
It’s been time to drop the sanctions for the past decade and a half. Cuba’s no threat to us, it’s no longer a platform for Soviet-backed adventurism in Latin America, and Castro’s government is as legitimate as those of plenty of Third World or ex-Soviet bad actors we’ve cozied up to.
But since we’ve waited this long, we might as well wait and drop the sanctions right after Fidel kicks the bucket. Won’t be long, I’m sure.