There has been a shift towards minimizing visible harm to civilian populations since the sanctions on Iraq in the 1990s, which resulted in widespread malnutrition and epidemics. “There’s a strategy of trying to offload the enforcement to the private sector,” she said. “U.S. policy has created conditions that make it commercially compelling for the private sector to withdraw from whole markets, resulting in severe and widespread economic harm, but in a form that is not directly attributable to US policymakers.”
The Helms-Burton Act is a good example. In 2019, Trump implemented Title III of the law, which allows Americans to sue companies doing business with Cuba, which every previous president had waived. Cruise liners that took American tourists to Havana during the Obama years have since been sued for hundreds of millions of dollars in a Florida federal court for docking at Havana’s main port. The effect has been to deter multinationals from investing in the island.
But perhaps the best example of an almost invisible but insidious sanction is designating Cuba as a “state sponsor of terrorism”. Presented as a benign policy tool to make the world a safer place rather than an arm of economic warfare, it has contaminated the word “Cuba” more than ever in the global economy. Almost overnight the label provoked both global banks and vital exporters to pull out of the Cuban market, according to diplomats and businesspeople on the island.
Why though? Does anyone know why the US even care about Cuba?
Florida was a purple state until Obama started easing relations with Cuba. This set off Cuban Expats living in South Florida who are angered at the easing of relations a government associated with their exile and loss of property. This turned a region that leaned Democrat to solid Republican.
This is what flipped Florida red for the past few presidential cycles. Now no US politician will touch Cuba as long as the current government is in place.
More than likely Cubans will suffer until their current government is overthrown and the Cuban exiles in south Fl are appeased.
It’s goes back to who is the leader of Cuba and what sort of government they have. The leader is basically a dictator. If leader would resign then things would change. Do I agree with how it’s being handled? No. But it is the reason.
Cuba is backed by Russia and Cuba is on the door step of the US. The Cuban missile crises created a major problem. End of that, Russia agreed not to put missile there and the US agreed not to go into Cuba. And Cuba sits in the middle dying. Yes I worded that poorly but you get the idea.
Russia would love to expand their presence there. Honestly I’m not sure what a realistic answer is, but if there were actual fair elections there things would change. But they are too close to the border to allow Russia in there.
Ha yes, the US, famous for… Let me check me notes here… Giving a shit about dictators… Like Pinochet, Saddam in the 80s before he became a hindrance, Cuba’s Fulgencia Batista before the revolution, Park Chun Hee, Ferdinand Marcos, Humberto Branco, Jean Claude Duvalier, Shah Mohammed Reza, Anastasio Somoza (Sr/Jr), and on and on and on…
Yes that must be why!
And why exactly is Cuba backed by
Russiathe Soviet Union?..A huge Cuban voting block in Florida.
Communism can never be shown to be a viable option, especially next to a country that still has private Healthcare.
It’s on the border and didn’t roll over. Gotta be made an example of.