Internet outages in Cuba following widespread anti-government protests
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The Castro regime just can't cope without having USD coming in the country via the state owned resorts. Starvation, riots, empty stores and people risking it all on makeshift rafts just so they can land somewhere better and send remittances to their family still stuck on the island so they can buy medicine.
These protests might finally be the start of a true Cuban revolution where the island will propel itself forward toward prosperity.
Cuba has been slowly but surely allowing more democracy and more economic freedom. I think that by far the best outcome for Cuban residents is for this process to continue peacefully without the massive destruction as well as the definitive end of the embargo.
The US doesn't embargo undemocratic states, it embargoes geopolitical enemies. That's the one and only standard. The US is quite happy to trade with undemocratic states if they do align with US interests though.
Not if a basically Communist (or otherwise ideologically oe geopolitically unacceptable to the US, but that's the most likely example in this case) regime won democratically, as the US has shown time and again (and also shown that right-wing authoritarian-capitalist anti-democratic regimes are not ideologically unacceptable, and are tolerable if willing to geopolitically align with the US.)
Do Cubans have no agency of their own? No free will? No intelligence to determine for themselves whether their own political system suits them or not?
Do you think that Cubans who don't agree with your political beliefs are too stupid to know better or corrupt and bought?
I might be wrong though.
The embargo is not responsible for Cuba's repression of the press, their repression of political dissent, their single party political system, the unchanging leaders from 1959 to 2018, or of Cuba's government own mismanagement of things.
No one is talking about blaming the Cubans for their woes. We're talking about the right and capacity of the Cuban people to rally against their own government if they wish.
I feel like I'm talking to automated talking points bots.
Please don't accuse me of being a bot just because my unstated priors are different from your unstated priors. It's really poor for the conversation and for every interlocutor.
This is quite an assumption, and if it's true, it's only because those who disagreed with the regime have already been killed or leapt into the ocean to perish or prosper in Miami
It's not an assumption, there are polls with approval ratings for various political figures from even western institutions that show that approval ratings 40-60 are the norm. It's possible that the approval has decreased due to the crisis, but that's not unique to Cuba and if it is maintained it's plausible for the president to change.
GP didn't attribute any dissent to the CIA, they insinuated that the CIA would be expected to actively exploit any dissent as a propaganda opportunity.
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/blowback-p...
Embargos aren't just for "capitalist goods". "Communism" isn't against trade. There are some raw materials that a country the size of Cuba can never get without meaningful trade.
The US is a massive economic force basically pushing Cuba to adopt a political model that the US wants.
I bet you haven't, because they'll all tell you they escaped because the oppressive regime, not because of poverty.
The sanctions are there for the same reasons we have sanctions against North Korea, trading with murderous regimes is condoning their actions.
Listen to the protests and the Cuban people, you may learn something.
Hint: they're chanting "freedom", not "relieve sanctions". They're protesting their government, not ours.
But please tell me more how the Cuban people are uninformed and you understand the conflict better.
And yes I have. Cuba's regime is shit - the embargo is also shit.
America's argument with Cuba would work better if they weren't suffocating them.
No, they don't. Canada, right next door, has a vast amount of trade with Cuba. No "threats" are in play.
Cuban officials say the cargo carrier of Colombia-based Avianca Airlines declined to carry the aid to Cuba because its major shareholder is a U.S.-based company subject to the trade embargo on Cuba.
That's a lie. Cuba trades with China, Spain, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and the Netherlands.
No, it threatens to impose legal liability on any company doing business in Cuba using expropriated property. Which is a bad enough policy that it doesn't require exaggeration.
Depending on your ideology, it may be a good thing that the companies did it by themselves without requiring government force to do it, but I think the argument that these are similar actions in their purpose and effect is fairly accurate.
As far as common-carrier mandates being totalitarian, as I said, that's just one ideological viewpoints. Most European countries were quite shocked that the US allowed Trump to be banned.