Another major difference, under Batista there was a political opposition, and a free media that was very antagonistic to Batista. Both those factors played a big role in removing Batista from power 6 years after his coup of 1953.
Fidel Castro was very aware of this which is why today in Cuba opposition political parties and non-government media are both illegal.
A couple of points here, Batista took power in Cuba in 1953, and was ousted in 1958, he had also taken power in 1933 and stepped down in 1939, a total of 12 years. So please do not equate pre-Castro Cuba with Batista, there were many bad leaders, and a couple of good ones, before him.
As for Cuba being a 3rd world country, I don’t believe it was by some measures. Take for instance the data in this link. According to that in 1957 Cuba’s infant mortality per 1000 live births was 32, better than France (34), Israel (39), and Spain (53).
Especially if you made cigars.
I’m pretty sure when you go to Cuba they don’t stamp your passport. At least they have never stamped mine.
How is that enforced? I mean, I can- quite legally- buy Cuban cigars and Cuban rum from any tobacconist or decent liquor store in Australia.
I’d say the OP has been answered, but thought I’d just inject a brief anecdote of my own concerning Cuban cigars and bringing them into the US. I have to fess up…guilty and been caught twice doing it. Was not jailed or fined, but cigars were, sadly, destroyed (well, in one case for sure…the other I’m not so sure about).
First time was when I lived in Canada. I had been living in Ottawa for about a year and a half and commuting back and forth to the US. Had a box of Cuban cigars in the trunk, not trying to smuggle em, just didn’t think and got stopped at the border. A quick inspection of my trunk revealed the cigars, which were promptly seized and destroyed. Stern injunction to never do this again was given and I was on my way.
Second time was just after the first Gulf War. Don’t know if a lot of people know this, but you can get Cuban cigars (and lots of other goodies) in the ME pretty easily and cheaply. This time I was intentionally trying to smuggle them in on a military flight back to the states. Was ‘caught’ with the goods and had them seized. I suspect that in this case some Admiral (or the security types) actually ‘destroyed’ the cigars for me.
In any case, at least in my own experience, the consequences were less than dire…though it REALLY sucked to lose both of those boxes. Oh…and Cuban cigars aren’t just about forbidden fruit. Sure, that plays a part, but frankly, they are just better. Hope the Castro’s shuffle off this mortal coil sometime soon, so we can start getting the things legally again…
-XT
Excellent parody! Bravo!
OK, I’ll attest. We’ve stayed in several different places in Cuba, and have found them unfailingly clean, in good repair, well equipped, efficiently staffed, and so on. These range from private houses to the top hotels in Havana. Not to say that there isn’t poverty or run-down areas, but that’s true of any country. There are parts of every major city I wouldn’t want to stay in, let alone live in. (For some reason, Philadelphia springs to mind, though I’ve actually never been there. Maybe something to do with Animal Cops being on in the background!) However my experience as a guest and as a tourist in Cuba has been unfailingly positive. Yes, it is a poor country. There are many of those. For the record, the worst poverty I’ve ever seen personally was in South Africa, or possibly Italy - for a value of worst which includes the shock value of finding it in a supposedly developed country.
Any thing from any embargoed country is contra-band. So, it’s illegal to even possess in a country in which it is legal. According to the fine print in your passport. The US can not support the Cuban economy directly but family members can send money back legally, you can go there for any reason OTHER than economic/business. Michael Moore went there legally because he went to shoot a film. Which is legal. To go there to start a business is illegal as is tourism as it supports the economy.
I believe the main reason for the Cuban embargo is that we, as in US businessmen and business, built the country from the ground up. Literally. Almost all infrastructure that they have now, we built, railroads, major highways, power plants, telephone, etc. Then, there was some alienation between the natural born citizens and all the US entrepreneurs rolling in. Which is always a ticklish time, and now I introduce to you Che. Nationalism kicked in fueled by Communist Russia and they turned away from us. A lot of people were pissed. Not only due to the Communist aspect but because of the money we invested. If it wasn’t for Venezuela and Hugo Chavez supporting Cuba by giving them oil they’d really suck.
I believe there was a press statement made within the past three years stating that economic reparations needed to be made to us in order to have the embargo lifted. I’ll do my best to search for that sound bit. I also hope someone else remembers it. But, seriously, people want their money back.
Great answer I remember my Mother saying that when I was 7 years old when I asked about something. Thank goodness I grew up to be an adult and don’t trat my kids with that kind of talk, I explain things to them.
History Lesson:
In the Bay of Pigs invasion, the US tried to foment a rebellion against Castro and failed miserably. Castro got the protection of the Soviets, in return for basing nuclear missles 90 miles from the US. Kennedy decided to blow up the world rather than accept that. After all, the USA having such missiles in Turkey or Germany was completely dfferent.
The Cuban Missile Crisis ended with Kruschev backing down rather than his navy delivering more missles. But to remove existing missliles, the Soviets go the USA to promise never to invade Cuba, themselves, by CIA, or by exile proxy.
Instead, the USA set out to throw its weight around and make sure Cuba had no economy. One by one the other american countries have abandoned the cause. Only the exile lobby in Florida and a bunch of hang-ons with cold war attitudes forces the US government to maintain the blockade. Geez, you’d almost think that Florida was a politically important tight race in elections or something.
Theoretically the blockade is in place until Castro returns all the goods seized from exiles and others when the workers began owning the means of production - i.e. the government stole it all for pennies on the dollar.
Like eastern Europe in 1990, I suspect that will never happen. It’s been too long. Enforcement of the bockade has been erratic; I also believe Castro(s) know that this is their biggest weapon. Nothing would destabilize the regime faster than relatives coming over from the mainland 3 times a year distributing gifts and money and telling the folks just how much better life is under democracy. China survives as adictatorship only because despite other problems, people’s lives are getting better every year. Cuba has avoided that treadmill.
Every so often the USA rattles the embargo sword. Sheritt-Gordon for example, began a joint venture with Cuba to run a nickel mine there. In the last enforcement (“round up the usual suspects”) they were told that any senior executives of the company were not allowed into the USA. When Cuban nickel ends up in the European market, mixed with nickel from everywhere else, a certain proportion must be designated “Cuban” and not shipped to the USA. A locomotive manufacturer in Canada was told by their American head office they could not sell to Cuba. Etc. VISA, Mastercard, etc. cannot process any transactions that allow money to end up with Cuban businesses, so depending on which group your Canadian bank is affiliated with, you may not be able to book a vacation on Visa. US-based airlines are not allowed to fly to Cuba, so Canadian airlines do a booming business and the tourist areas are relatively unspoiled, I’ve heard.
I wasn’t equating them but since this thread is about the embargo and US attempts to undermine Castro’s revolution, I’m not sure rulers 30 yrs previous are very relevant. If you think you think real democracy was going to re-emerge after Batista eventualy lost power, I suppose that’s relevant.
Funny you should use that stat. As of 2009, Cuba has a lower infant mortality rate than the USA.
Most likely, in the case of your tobacconist or liquor store clerk, it wouldn’t be enforced. In general, one of the purposes of the Helms-Burton Act is (from the Wikipedia link):
In other words, the executives of companies that trade with Cuba can be denied entry to the United States under Helms-Burton. From what I’ve seen here in Canada, the companies are huge corporations with executives who are often in the news; and it is these well-known executives who tend to be barred from the US. Not the tobacconist or the liquor store clerk.
Whether or not Helms-Burton is legal under international law principles, is something I’m not prepared to comment on. But it is worth noting that a number of countries have condemned Helms-Burton, and enacted their own laws to counteract it. I have briefly reviewed the Canadian legislation in this area (key word: “briefly”; I’ve not read it thoroughly enough to be able to comment knowledgably), and while it appears to offer civil remedies to the affected individual, it also appears that the matter can be taken to the diplomatic level where the Canadian government will pick up the individual’s cause. I am unsure how effective the Canadian legislation is; but FWIW, I haven’t seen in the news many incidents of Canadian executives being barred from the US since it passed.
Which reminds me, did the British get any compensation after the American Revolution?
My father sold cigars for nearly 40 years. He once told me that in the US, the reloation of old Cuban brands to the Dominican Republic to serve the American market, plus the emergence of literally hundreds of new brands in the past two decades, has resulted in there being a much wide variety of cigars available in the US than in other countries. Sure, you can’t get Cubans, but there’s much more depth in product from other countries that you won’t find outside of the US.
Well, cribbing from Batista’s wiki article, how do you square that with:
and
Not mentioned yet is the fact that many, perhaps most, of the Cuban cigars for sale in Mexican border towns are counterfeit. Buy from a real tobacco shop, not from a tourist shop, if you want to experience the real Cohiba.
Should I be getting PMs for clandestine shipments from Soviet Canuckistan?
The only thing I can say for sure about that is that I know about it.