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Comment by Convolutional | Hacker News Reader

It's bizarre how the US attempted to block Cuba from getting the Internet, and still blocks Cuban Internet through many means ( https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/other-site-policies/g... ), but the presentation is that the suppression of content is of Cuban origin.

It reminds me of when the US said Cubans were not allowed to leave Cuba, and the mental hospitals and prisons were filled with political prisoners. Castro announced anyone who wanted to leave Cuba, even those prisoners or mental patients, could go to Mariel harbor and leave if they wished. Suddenly the US did a turnabout and began demanding Castro stop letting Cubans leave Cuba, and too many were prisoners and mental patients, when the US suddenly discovered those were the inhabitants of Cuba's prisons and mental hospitals.

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That is not true. The US does not block Cuba from getting to the internet in general (https://ofac.treasury.gov/media/912206/download?inline), although it blocks most commerce in general under its embargo. Your linked webpage is a Github policy restricting the availability of Github Enterprise Server and Github Copilot in Cuba, not the internet.

Your characterization of the Mariel boatlift is misleading and wrong. Cubans were mostly not allowed by their government to leave Cuba. During the 1980 Mariel boatlift, Castro suddenly temporarily abolished this policy due to preceding events where thousands had rushed into the Peru embassy in Havana hoping to leave. He announced that foreign relatives of any Cubans who wished to leave could come pick them up in boats in the Mariel harbor. Those wishing to leave where subject to abusive acts of denunciation and beatings by mobs organized by the government. In a cruel twist, Castro then demanded that in addition to their relatives, the boats had to be filled with common prisoners from jails and mental patients, who were given the choice of staying in prison or trying their luck emigrating on those boats. Castro wanted to provoke a crime wave in the US to tarnish the reputations of those Cubans living there. (source: I was one of those Cuban Marielitos that arrived in 1980 in one of those boats).

> Castro then demanded that in addition to their relatives, the boats had to be filled with common prisoners from jails and mental patients, who were given the choice of staying in prison or trying their luck emigrating on those boats. Castro wanted to provoke a crime wave in the US to tarnish the reputations of those Cubans living there.

I can't help but to see a parallel with the out of control flood of migrants (some of them potential legitimate refugees) Turkey let into Europe in order to put pressure on the European Union back in 2015.

This is a positive, unbalanced spin on the Cuba issue if I’ve ever seen one.

Read about what this person is talking about for yourself here, especially the section titled “Emigration process and violence”: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariel_boatlift

It wasn’t until 2013 that Cubans could more freely leave: https://havana-guide.com/can-cubans-leave-cubaall-you-need-t...

Your post implies that Cubans suddenly weren’t allowed to leave Cuba after the US asked. That’s not the case.

I've worked at a company that shipped goods to Cuba from USA between 2009 and 2011.

The biggest restrictions where on the Cuban side. And nobody told me, I implemented the software that did the controls.

We also had to close as the Cuban Government couldn't handle the amount of goods that we send them monthly.

The only limiting Cubans access to internet is its own government that restricts internet access, blocks many websites, monitor every citizen's social media, don't respect privacy rights, and even have laws that fines and can put in jail Cubans for posting on social media complaints against the government and its politics. The Cuban dictatorship sees internet as its enemy because they cannot control the information there. I have lived through that hell for 30 years.

From outside (I am not American) the anti-Cuba position seems to have an almost religious fervor!

Almost like They're socialist, we're capitalist; it's natural, true, and necessary that we must oppose everything about them. Similar to the catholic v protestant division that was very strong in the anglo world last century.

Surely, if one really wanted to dismantle an evil empire, one would open the borders as much as possible and release the forces of greed and assimilation.

In politics it's helpful to have an antagonist to point at and blame for everything bad. There's a villain in every story, and I best point him out to you in case you think it's me.

Cuba is somewhat unique in that there are lot of ex-Cubans clustered in Florida, a swing state, who are there by virtue of being anti-Cuban-government. They are in favor of any policy that hurts the govt, even if it hurts the people left in Cuba more.

Ultimately all this animosity boils down to the nationalisation of private (US) property in the 60s. An unforgivable crime As Amerixan William Wallace might have said "you can take our freedom, but you can't take our money."

Politically though being anti-Cuban has little downside, and wins important votes.

The nationalization of private property wouldn’t have been a problem if it was just US property. Many countries make it difficult/impossible for foreigners to own land.

The problem was that they did it to their own citizens, resulting in many of them becoming the Cubans in Florida.

BTW, labeling them “ex-Cubans” is a good way to piss them off (maybe that is your intention). Many see themselves as Cubans in asylum just waiting for the regime to fall and for their family homes/businesses to be returned.

>> BTW, labeling them “ex-Cubans” is a good way to piss them off (maybe that is your intention).

It was not. I was not aware that term is offensive. My apologies. Cuban Exiles is perhaps a better description.

Now that we are here, calling exiles anti-Cuban is also a good way to piss them off. That's the government stance: if you are against us, you are anti-Cuban.

This is not only a stance towards exilees, btw. If you oppose them, you get labelled the same no matter where you are.

Stop buying into the official position. It is demeaning

Yeah, as sibling comment says: the "US" as a a whole has no real interest in Cuba either way, other than a general Monroe Doctrine one. But there are enough Floridians who want to re-litigate the revolution, that feel really strongly about it, and they get to control US discourse on the subject. Because nobody else cares.

I think the corn sweetener people might also care?

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