Cuba's biggest problem is its neighbor that through continuous embargo and immigration blockades helps cement the regime's position.
I'm not sure which embargo you are referring to cause Cuba trades with other countries, but the profits never go to the poor. You don't have to take my word for it:
Cuba exports worldwide 2024: China $270M Spain $109M Germany $68.2M Macau $57.1M Switzerland $49.9M
- Rolled Tobacco/Cigars (Habanos):
- $418M, hand-rolled. - https://www.habanos.com/en/ - https://oec.world/en/profile/bilateral-product/rolled-tobacc...
- Hard Liquor/Rum (Havana Club): $75.2M. https://havana-club.com/en/ https://oec.world/en/profile/bilateral-product/hard-liquor/r... - Nickel Mattes: $88.6M. https://oec.world/en/profile/bilateral-product/nickel-mattes... - Zinc Ore: $107M. https://oec.world/en/profile/bilateral-product/zinc-ore/repo... - Coffee: https://www.cubacoffee.co.uk/ - Honey: https://www.apisunhoney.com/ - Spiny Lobster: https://caribexseafoods.com/ - Sugar/Chemicals: oec.world data.
Previous: - https://www.onlineshop-helgoland.de/en/cigars/habanos-brands... - https://www.5thavenue.de/ - https://www.langen-kaffee.de/kaffee/kuba/Kuba/
Sources (all 70+ URLs):
https://oec.world/en/profile/country/cub https://oec.world/en/visualize/tree_map/hs17/export/cub/all/... https://tradingeconomics.com/cuba/exports-by-country https://wits.worldbank.org/countrysnapshot/CUB/textview https://www.worldstopexports.com/cubas-top-10-exports/ https://unctadstat.unctad.org/CountryProfile/GeneralProfile/...
At the risk of repeating myself....
Here are the main links covering OEC subpages, previous links, UN COMTRADE, and Trading Economics for Cuba exports data:
OEC.world (main and subpages): - Country profile: https://oec.world/en/profile/country/cub - Rolled Tobacco: https://oec.world/en/profile/bilateral-product/rolled-tobacc... - Zinc Ore: https://oec.world/en/profile/bilateral-product/zinc-ore/repo... - Nickel Mattes: https://oec.world/en/profile/bilateral-product/nickel-mattes... - Hard Liquor: https://oec.world/en/profile/bilateral-product/hard-liquor/r... - Tree map exports: https://oec.world/en/visualize/tree_map/hs17/export/cub/all/... (or similar years)
Trading Economics (full set): - Exports overview: https://tradingeconomics.com/cuba/exports - Exports by category: https://tradingeconomics.com/cuba/exports-by-category - Exports by country: https://tradingeconomics.com/cuba/exports-by-country - Annual exports: https://tradingeconomics.com/cuba/exports-annual
UN COMTRADE / related: - WITS (World Bank, based on COMTRADE): https://wits.worldbank.org/countrysnapshot/CUB - Direct COMTRADE access (example query): https://comtradeplus.un.org/ (search for Cuba exports)
Previous product links: - Habanos cigars: https://www.habanos.com/en/ - Havana Club rum: https://havana-club.com/en/ - Cuban coffee: https://www.cubacoffee.co.uk/ - Honey: https://www.apisunhoney.com/ - Spiny lobster: https://caribexseafoods.com/ - German cigars: https://www.onlineshop-helgoland.de/en/cigars/habanos-brands... - German distributor: https://www.5thavenue.de/ - German coffee: https://www.langen-kaffee.de/kaffee/kuba/Kuba/
What you should take away from the above is that I have no special skills or agenda with the exception of having a kind of Spidey sense that warns me when somebody is dissembling the facts.
The embargo doesn't affect those, which is why they can happen. The embargo isn't a blockade.
It's a series of laws which make it harder even for non-US companies to trade with Cuba. Consider the Helms–Burton Act.
"any non-U.S. company that deals economically with Cuba can be subjected to legal action and that company's leadership can be barred from entry into the United States. Sanctions may be applied to non-U.S. companies trading with Cuba. This means that internationally operating companies have to choose between Cuba and the U.S., which is a much larger market." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helms%E2%80%93Burton_Act
Suppose you are the Dutch company Philips. You make MRI machines. Cuba wants to buy a few from you. You could do that, but then you would not be able to sell thousands of MRI machines to the US. What do you do?
Hence why there are articles like https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/as-cuba-u-s-relat...
"The embargo has crippled Cuba’s medical sector since the U.S. set up the economic barrier in the early 1960s. Although the export of medical supplies to Cuba is legal, extensive restrictions limit such sales. “As a matter of [U.S.] policy, the sale of state-of-the-art technology in this sector is not authorized,” according to a 2011 United Nations report. ... The embargo has crippled Cuba’s medical sector since the U.S. set up the economic barrier in the early 1960s. Although the export of medical supplies to Cuba is legal, extensive restrictions limit such sales. “As a matter of [U.S.] policy, the sale of state-of-the-art technology in this sector is not authorized,” according to a 2011 United Nations report."
You write 'the profits never go to the poor'. That is, of course, nonsense. Some of the international purchases go to health care or electricity generation, a portion of which does go to the poor. Education funding gets high priority, and the country has effectively 100% literacy. You don't get that by having the poor fund their own education.
The Cuba emergency response system is famous for its hurricane preparations. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba_emergency_response_system , "Cuba is the largest and most populated island in the Caribbean yet consistently experiences the lowest death tolls during hurricane season.[6][1] According to United Nations, it's not because Cubans are lucky but because they're prepared." Yet somehow you believe poor people weren't part of the 1.5 million people evacuated by the civil defense program during Hurricane Ivan? Compare that to the US civil defense plan to help the poor evacuate from New Orleans should another Katrina threaten, and you'll see how 'the profits never go to the poor' is hyperbole to the point of nonsense.
What you should take from this is you don't understand the topic and your Spidey sense is imaginary.
Is it imaginary though?
First, let me congratulate you on having enough electrical power, cool fresh air while posting from your high-end/air-conditioned Cuban compound/hotel while the rest of the population bakes and dies.
While the embargo isn't a total blockade, Cuba trades freely with China, Canada, Spain, EU, even buys US "food/meds" worth "$500M+" yearly in cash.
But that's the point: Helms-Burton deters some deals, yet the regime's communist central planning, GAESA military cartel controlling tourism (55% hotels, $4B+ hoarded while grids collapse), and dual MLC system are why poverty persists.
">> Foreign investment?'"
Profits go straight to regime elites/military, not people, hotels are prioritized over food and power, doctors are exported for hard currency (regime takes 80-90%), leaving hospitals short.
Locals died from blackouts, shortages, malnutrition in 2024-26 crisis (1M+ fled or died, protests crushed).
">> Literacy and hurricane evacuations?"
Real, but irrelevant when daily life starves under totalitarianism that values tourist dollars over citizens.
Sigh, poor Dutch! The bottom line is that the regime's policies outweigh any embargo. Lost USSR billions + mismanagement did this, not Philips MRI sales.
Don't worry annexation, updated extradition laws and fair public trials will resolve all of Cuba's issues by providing a fair legal system that holds its leaders, businesses and citizens equally, retroactively, accountable and punishes abuses in a court of law.
It is clear that the island's hardliners have made the conscious choice to sacrifice the population's wellbeing for foreign tourists and dollars. There needs to be some accountability, some sort of sense of justice in a post-Castro Cuba or the only law that will exist is "The Law of The Jungle," aka "An Eye for An Eye," and nothing will be resolved.
I don't follow - I've never been to Cuba. I assume this is an ad hominem or other irrelevant commentary?
> "Foreign investment"
You must be quoting someone else, as I didn't bring it up.
> Real, but irrelevant
It was relevant evidence of your hyperbolic exaggeration.
> totalitarianism that values tourist dollars over citizens
Now tell me again that why the US doesn't have a similar economic embargo on communist Vietnam? The US bought the biggest share of Vietnam's exports - and Cuba is a lot closer.
Vietnam does not have an extradition treaty with the US. "Vietnamese authorities severely restrict the rights to freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, movement, and religion, and prohibit human rights organizations and independent labor unions, media, and political parties. Under the Communist Party-controlled judiciary, the courts routinely deny defendants their due process rights. Public Security agents patrol the internet and arrest critics they deem threatening to the Party’s monopoly on power." - https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2026/country-chapters/vietn...
> Sigh, poor Dutch!
Sigh. You think that my illustrative example of how your listing of commodity and consumer goods missed the point of the embargo was instead meant as the totality of the issue.
Okay, yes, it's horrible on Cuba. Now, how do you demonstrate that the primary issue for Cuba's situation is communism, and not a 60 year US embargo?
No, the US embargo isn't the main cause—it's a contributing factor, but Cuba's ongoing economic mess, 2024–2025 protests (blackouts, food shortages), and repression come mostly from inside: decades of rigid central planning, slow/limited reforms, mismanagement (e.g., failed 2021 monetary overhaul causing hyperinflation), lost Venezuelan oil subsidies, COVID tourism collapse, and state inertia. Academic views (e.g., Ricardo Torres Pérez, Columbia/others) and reports agree internal structural flaws are primary, with sanctions aggravating but secondary.
https://horizontecubano.law.columbia.edu/news/economic-crisi... https://www.foreignaffairs.com/cuba/cuba-brink https://www.cfr.org/backgrounders/us-cuba-relations https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2024/jan/comment-economic-crisis-...
Vietnam got normalized relations and embargo lifted in 1995 because it embraced deep market reforms (Doi Moi 1986, private sector now dominant), integrated globally, and became a strategic US partner against China. Cuba kept tight state control, resisted big liberalization, stayed aligned with US foes (Russia, Iran), and poses ongoing hemisphere issues—keeping the policy in place.
https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/54364/if-vietna... https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/02/22/cuba-and-vietnam-wha...
Unless deep market reforms are embraced and open and fair elections with a fair judicial system are implemented annexation remains the only viable option.
You have access to a PC and the Internet in your air-conditioned compound, don't you?
Try doing your own research.
Maybe you'll learn something.
The Wall Crawler
FYI: Possible reason for the lack of meaningful change on the island.
Your personal insinuations are noted. Shall we also discuss near-slavery working conditions of the Filipino staff for your Dubai lifestyle? Or should we discuss the actual topic?
> Vietnam .. embraced deep market reforms
I see you agree that with me that the claim "communism entered and destroyed that island" is an overly reductive statement.
> annexation remains the only viable option.
I reject imperialism. You are a bad person. Go back to the 1800s and play the Great Game.
I remind you that the US had none of these qualms when the dictator Batista was in charge of Cuba. I remind you that the terrorist activities against Cuba carried out by agents armed, organized and funded by the CIA were not the result of a fair judicial system. I remind you that the US has already occupied Cuba ... twice.
No, it's fake tears to justify the actions of a bully government which has no problems with the ongoing genocide in Gaza, a pointless war in Iran -- all the continuation of a centuries long national habit of using its military power primarily for its own economic interests, and not the spread of its vaunted "human rights".