Was Cuba really a developed country relatively pre Castro?
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Cuba cannot tell the USA what to do. It is clear that they need the USA, whereas the USA has no need for them. Now that the Cold War is over Cuba is a tiny country of no importance and is brazen in its attempts to dictate terms to the USA. Only Israel has that privilege because of the strength of the Jewish lobbies and the Jewish vote in key states. The Cubans in the USA are fervently anti Castro and so Cuba lacks what Israel has.
Cuba doesn't want to tell the us what to do, but the us wants Cuba to tell what to do. That's because they are bigger, stronger, and bullies in the region.
It's sad us policy is based upon lobby groups instead of on universal values and the interest of the American people. That's just another kind of corruption. The ones with the most money and influence win.
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The USA exports food to Cuba because that country cannot feed itself and the only two nations in this hemisphere with an agriculture sector large enough to feed 11 million starving people are the USA and Brazil. And with the USA very close its clearly a cheaper source.
the us exports food to every corner of the world, not only to Cuba...
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So why is Cuba whining? Before the US began to export to them they had a tremendous crisis.
they had a crisis in the 90's because the soviets ended their support, and the us even worsened their embargo. Even foreign companies who traded with Cuba would no longer be welcome in the us, the most important economy in the world...
it's like starving someone and than blaming him because he's thin.
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And why there is this desperate need for the USA is baffling to me? With very limited travel from the USA Cuba has the second largest tourist industry behind the DR. So why do they need US tourists? They have all of the EU, China and Latin America to trade with, so why do they need the USA? They accuse the USA of being evil and rapacious capitalists, so why do they need the USA?
They just want the us, which is their neighbour and an extremely important economy, to trade with them like they do with every other nation in the world. The trade embargo is unnatural and is a breech of the WTO charter, for which the us has been criticised on several occasions.
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Isn't it an admission that communism has failed that their entire fate, based upon their excuse of the damage of the embargo, rests on the USA resuming normal economic ties with them? Castro used to scream that capitalism would fail and the USA would collapse on itself and Cuba would persevere.
The unnatural embargo, unique in the world, is the reason why Cuba gets a lot of credit and sympathy all over the world, despite the fact that it's poor.
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WHAT HAPPENED?
More importantly they really don't want the trade embargo to end. Not only will it remove the excuse for their gross incompetence, but they know full well that a major incursion into that nation of US corporate interests, and of Cuban exile business interests will radically change that island just as your perestroika ended the communist rule of Russia.
of course not, they will still decide who comes in and decide the terms, they will never let their country be colonised by americans, as was the case before the revolution. If that's the condition for lifting the embargo, than better let it be as it is right now.
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If they wish more than all they need to do is to establish democracy just as every other country in the Americas has done. If they refuse to do that then the USA will refuse to remove the embargo.
The US trades extensively with Saudi Arabia (who financed 9/11), traded extensively with all kind of latin American dictators, nowadays Paraguay, such as the cruel mass murderer papa doc, trades with the worst dictators in the world and sells them weapons. Democracy is just an excuse, the us doesn't care about that, what they want is Cuba to become a colony again as it was before 1959.
Once Castro organises free elections, the us will massively finance the opposition party and bomb the air with anti-Castro propaganda. It's what happened in Nicaragua in 1990. Fortunately, Nicaraguan after 10 years saw they were being f****, and voted again for their old leftist leader.
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Cuba ought to be grateful that there is no longer the sentiment within the USA that assets stolen by the communist govt must be compensated, as used to be the pre condition. Even the old exiles no longer expect back their property.
those assets were stolen when the us colonised Cuba or given by corrupted us-puppets who ruled Cuba.
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You will note that the people who I referenced visiting Cuba live in Canada, and in fact are Caribbean people. Others live in the Caribbean. A cousin of mine who lives in Trinidad, and who is staunchly anti American, laughed when I asked her to compare the standard of living in Trinidad, compared to Cuba. She said that only the poorest 5% in Trinidad might prefer life in Cuba, but the remaining 95% could never live there. As you know US residents are not allowed to visit Cuba so I know very few who have been.
Again trinidad, why not compare with Jamaica, DR? (not even mentioning Haiti...). It seems according to you there's only West indies in the Caraibian. Yet most Caraibians live in DR, Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba.
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Here is the deal. In our part of the Caribbean we are very individualistic. We don't like old time WHITE geriatrics telling us what to do and how to think, and when we should go to bed, what books to read, etc. We believe that if we expend the effort to attend university in a rigorous discipline we ought to enjoy the benefits of life, basic middle class benefits, nothing too fancy. This business of doctors in Cuba making less than taxi drivers. "NAAAAAAAH. Cyan WUK", as we say in dialect.
in your country 40% of the population doesn't even has electricity and need Cuban doctors... so I would stop looking down on Cuba if I were you...
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Trinidad has 1.3 million, Jamaica has 2.6 so if Trinidad is a mini island then so is Jamaica. Indeed Trinidad has an economy which is many times larger than Jamaica's.
DR, Haiti and Cuba have several million inhabitants. These are the largest Caraibian nations.
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What is sensitive about the fact that most blacks in the USA exhibit a preference to marry each other? I am just confused as to why you find this odd. Don't most people in most places marry within their group? Yoruba parents in Nigeria don't even want their kids to marry Igbos, much less some foreigner. Jews, Indians and Chinese go to great lengths to marry within.
So now you're taking Africa as an example? Africa, where ethnic groups like to murder eachother with machetes? The US is in America, most American nations with a mixed population become melting pots, and that's their strenght, the combination of African and European customs and traditions.
That's the trademark of Cuba, DR and Brazil.
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So what's this incessant fuss about who people marry or don't? Why is this more important than the fact that the USA allows people to protest against conditions that they don't like whereas in Cuba people have to wait for Raul to decide if he thinks that it is important enough.
I still don't understand why, you still didn't expain it to me.
There are no religious differences, no language barriers, no geographical barriers.
I can return the question, what's wrong with marrying someone of another skin colour?
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You have yet to furnish evidence that a black Cuban can call Castro a racist and get away with it. Many of them who live in the USA do call him and his system racist so don't fool yourself that there aren't those who feel this way. And they call the Miami Cuban mafia racist as well. In fact one of them told me that Diaz Balart is a nephew of the Castro family, just so that I know who the people who run Cuba are.
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Why should someone call Castro a racist? That's not true and not constructive behavior. If they have any issues, they are free to criticise and to ask questions, and make recommendations during meetings with party officials.
In the US people like to insult and shout. Yet few know anything about the content or the real decisionmaking. Many people opposed to obamacare don't even kwow what it's all about, they only "know" that Obama is a socialist (an insult in the us), a muslim, or a ****** (of course that last word they won't say openly, because of hypocrisy, they will call him "too ethnic") The real important decisions are taken by lobby groups, behind the scenes.
In Cuba most important discussions in parliament are broadcasted life on television. Issues such as race are very frequent.
Cuba doesn't want to tell the us what to do, but the us wants Cuba to tell what to do. That's because they are bigger, stronger, and bullies in the region.
It's sad us policy is based upon lobby groups instead of on universal values and the interest of the American people. That's just another kind of corruption. The ones with the most money and influence win.
the us exports food to every corner of the world, not only to Cuba...
they had a crisis in the 90's because the soviets ended their support, and the us even worsened their embargo. Even foreign companies who traded with Cuba would no longer be welcome in the us, the most important economy in the world...
it's like starving someone and than blaming him because he's thin.
They just want the us, which is their neighbour and an extremely important economy, to trade with them like they do with every other nation in the world. The trade embargo is unnatural and is a breech of the WTO charter, for which the us has been criticised on several occasions.
The unnatural embargo, unique in the world, is the reason why Cuba gets a lot of credit and sympathy all over the world, despite the fact that it's poor.
of course not, they will still decide who comes in and decide the terms, they will never let their country be colonised by americans, as was the case before the revolution. If that's the condition for lifting the embargo, than better let it be as it is right now.
The US trades extensively with Saudi Arabia (who financed 9/11), traded extensively with all kind of latin American dictators, nowadays Paraguay, such as the cruel mass murderer papa doc, trades with the worst dictators in the world and sells them weapons. Democracy is just an excuse, the us doesn't care about that, what they want is Cuba to become a colony again as it was before 1959.
Once Castro organises free elections, the us will massively finance the opposition party and bomb the air with anti-Castro propaganda. It's what happened in Nicaragua in 1990. Fortunately, Nicaraguan after 10 years saw they were being f****, and voted again for their old leftist leader.
those assets were stolen when the us colonised Cuba or given by corrupted us-puppets who ruled Cuba.
Again trinidad, why not compare with Jamaica, DR? (not even mentioning Haiti...). It seems according to you there's only West indies in the Caraibian. Yet most Caraibians live in DR, Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba.
in your country 40% of the population doesn't even has electricity and need Cuban doctors... so I would stop looking down on Cuba if I were you...
DR, Haiti and Cuba have several million inhabitants. These are the largest Caraibian nations.
So now you're taking Africa as an example? Africa, where ethnic groups like to murder eachother with machetes? The US is in America, most American nations with a mixed population become melting pots, and that's their strenght, the combination of African and European customs and traditions.
That's the trademark of Cuba, DR and Brazil.
I still don't understand why, you still didn't expain it to me.
There are no religious differences, no language barriers, no geographical barriers.
I can return the question, what's wrong with marrying someone of another skin colour?
Why should someone call Castro a racist? That's not true and not constructive behavior. If they have any issues, they are free to criticise and to ask questions, and make recommendations during meetings with party officials.
In the US people like to insult and shout. Yet few know anything about the content or the real decisionmaking. Many people opposed to obamacare don't even kwow what it's all about, they only "know" that Obama is a socialist (an insult in the us), a muslim, or a ****** (of course that last word they won't say openly, because of hypocrisy, they will call him "too ethnic") The real important decisions are taken by lobby groups, behind the scenes.
In Cuba most important discussions in parliament are broadcasted life on television. Issues such as race are very frequent.
Trinidad & Tobago has a GDP of US $28 Billion, while Jamaica has a GDP of $26 Billion. So why is Trinidad not a valid comparison. I do not know enough about the DR. Haiti is evident and if you wish to compare Cuba with Haiti you actually insult Cuba. You rant that Barbados is too small.
So why don't you compare Cuba to Costa Rica. They have free education and healthcare and a much more vibrant economy.
Guyana was destroyed by a socialist Castro loving tyrant called Forbes Burnham. He was preceded by Cheddi Jagan who was a Marxist Leninist. The regime which followed Burnham are a bunch of ex communist thieves like Putin. Indeed a whole bunch of those clowns studied communism at one of your wonderful Moscow universities which you all established to brain wash third world people.
So Guyana's backwardness doesn't help you because that country has never been led by tried and true believers of multi party democracy. As a result Guyanese today only want to hear about compassionate capitalism.
To them socialism. communism, or what ever you call it has been an unmitigated disaster.
Bottom line. The countries which wasted time with Castro (Jamaica and Guyana) are much worse off than the English speaking countries which didn't!
You need to give that black/white marriage nonsense a rest. You look foolish as people have a right to marry who they want. Over 20% of young black men are married to white women, so clearly those who "want to taste white" can if they so wish. Most don't.
If Americans prefer to marry their own race that is THEIR business. Black and white Americans see life differently and many feel that marriage iis problematic enough without introducing that dynamic. Its not about skin color. Its about culture, history and perspectives. Some people just feel that they must put up with whites all day, because they are the economically dominant group, and so they need a break from them. Its a free country so that they can do what the want. I can assure you that they aren't as obsessed with "advancing the race" as so many Cuban blacks are.
I showed you ample evidence of a black middle class and a black elite, so believe me, marrying whites is the least of their concerns.
You babble on about it because you have no evidence to furnish that Cuban blacks are better than any other black on the planet (Castro lies). Brazilians blacks frequently marry whites, and yet life for blacks in Brazil just isn't good. So really, high levels of black/white marriage clearly is a poor predictor of whether blacks are doing well in a country or not.
The USA is a democratic country so even the foolish are allowed to have their own opinions. Obamacare does have its flaws. So why shouldn't people be allowed to speak out against it, even the idiots?
Castro is a racist and many CUBAN BLACKS say so. Who cares what they USA says on that topic. They don't have to live under Cuba's tyranny. Cubans do.
This is a Cuban black who lives in Brazil because Cuban elites, those in Havana, and those in Miami, hate him, and both have threatened him with bodily harm. Why? Because he says that they are equally racist. He doesn't dependent on Castro for anything, unlike those unfortunate to have to live in Cuba, so he can say what he wants.
As to the embargo, a pre condition for ending it is that Cuba begins to establish a multi party democracy, just as every other nation in the hemisphere has done.
Its a pity that Castro is not taking advantage of Obama, because who ever replaces him will be very hard line. Obama has said many times that it is time that US/Cuba relations improve, and has been castigated for saying this. All the Castro regime needs to do is to allow opposition parties to operate openly and freely and to establish some transitional mechanism.
The next President might well say that unless Castro goes the embargo will stay. There are no votes to get for ending the Cuba embargo, so no reason why some little stupid country should think that it can dictate its terms, unless that country is Israel.
At the end of the day Cuba needs the USA. The USA has no need for Cuba, because as it is the USA is Cuba's fifth largest trading partner and largest food supplier, so the people in the USA who most want to trade with Cuba, are already doing so.
One can only wonder what the Castro regime is afraid of. If indeed they have done as good a job for Cuban people, as they claim, then they will win. Maybe they aren't sure so they oppress the opposition. And oppress they do. That timid discussion which is allowed in Cuba doesn't extend to any talk about whether the Castro regime should stand aside and give some other group a chance. Unless you can prove that some one can go on Cuba TV and say so I remain unimpressed, especially when there are 200 political prisoners on that island.
So the Castro regime offers no concession to the USA who continues to ignore them I can assure you that no one in the USA has the slightest interest in Cuba. The only people yelping about the embargo is the Castro regime and their friends.
Its Cuba which looks stupid because the US$ is king and every one, even Cuba desires it. Russians are buying out tons of real estate in NY because they want their assets to be in a stable country which has a rule of laws. In case you didn't notice there the only brutal dictator left in the Americas is Castro. Papa Doc and others got over because of the Cold War which is over. Somebody needs to tell Castro that with the end of the Cold War Cuba means less to the USA than does the Dominican Republic, and is less important than even Panama.
Trinidad & Tobago has a GDP of US $28 Billion, while Jamaica has a GDP of $26 Billion. So why is Trinidad not a valid comparison. I do not know enough about the DR. Haiti is evident and if you wish to compare Cuba with Haiti you actually insult Cuba. You rant that Barbados is too small.
listen, if you compare Cuba with other Caraibian islands, the only good comparison is with DR, since they have the same people, the same accent and the same culture. Mini islands like Trinidad and Tobago have little in common with Cuba, their culture is completely different.
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So why don't you compare Cuba to Costa Rica. They have free education and healthcare and a much more vibrant economy.
Costa Rica already had a higher living standard than cuba in the 50's. You are singling out the few nations which are better than Cuba, thus it seems you admit Cuba is better than DR, Guatemala, Honduras, etc. All of these nations are truly capitalist and have never been ruled by socialists. Yet they are hellholes with enormous poverty. Many of those were on the same level as cuba before the revolution.
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Guyana was destroyed by a socialist Castro loving tyrant called Forbes Burnham. He was preceded by Cheddi Jagan who was a Marxist Leninist. The regime which followed Burnham are a bunch of ex communist thieves like Putin. Indeed a whole bunch of those clowns studied communism at one of your wonderful Moscow universities which you all established to brain wash third world people.
So Guyana's backwardness doesn't help you because that country has never been led by tried and true believers of multi party democracy. As a result Guyanese today only want to hear about compassionate capitalism.
I don't know enough about Guyana to comment on that. I know that the nation became famous when an American christian sect leader led his followers to commit mass suicide.
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To them socialism. communism, or what ever you call it has been an unmitigated disaster.
Nowadays there're no socialists so now it must be paradise, right?
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Bottom line. The countries which wasted time with Castro (Jamaica and Guyana) are much worse off than the English speaking countries which didn't!
Oh, so they must be really better than Haiti, Guatemala, Honduras, DR, etc. which have never experienced socialism? I remember on this thread you were defending papa doc, he was indeed certainly no socialist, so he must have been a good leader... Your anti-communist hero made Haiti a prosperous example for the region...
Haitian communists and suspected communists, in particular, bore the brunt of the government's repression.[33] Duvalier targeted them both as a means to secure U.S. support as a bulwark against Communist Cuba (see below) and on principle: Duvalier had personally been exposed to communist and left-wing ideas early in his life and rejected them.[33] On 28 April 1969, Duvalier instituted a campaign to rid Haiti of all communists, promulgating a law stipulating that "Communist activities, no matter what their form, are hereby declared crimes against the security of the State," and prescribing the death penalty for individuals prosecuted under this law.[34] Corruption — in the form of government rake-offs of industries, bribery, extortion of domestic businesses, and stolen government funds — enriched the dictator's closest supporters. Most of these supporters held sufficient power to enable them to intimidate the members of the old elite who were gradually co-opted or eliminated.[6]Duvalier's government was soon accused of being one of the most repressive in the hemisphere.[30] Within the country, Duvalier used both political murder and expulsion to suppress his opponents; estimates of those killed are as high as 30,000.[6]
You need to give that black/white marriage nonsense a rest. You look foolish as people have a right to marry who they want. Over 20% of young black men are married to white women, so clearly those who "want to taste white" can if they so wish. Most don't.
But why don't most? Still no answer.
Because you refuse to answer that question, I'll give my hypothesis...
Blacks marry blacks because whites don't usually want to marry blacks in the us, considered to be unworthy, unlike in Cuba, DR, Brazil, etc. Because the us society is intrinsically racist at its core, there are neighbourhoods for blacks and neighbourhoods for whites.
De Blasio and Obama are rare examples of the contrary. People vote for them because they want the us to change. Also I think there's some racism within the black community as well, blacks who marry outside their community are frowned upon, as blacks who have friends outside their community in prisons get beaten up by their fellow blacks in the us prisons.
In Cuba my experience is that people make funny jokes about skin colour, , which would be taboo in the us, but nearly all friends, families, companies and neighbourhoods are mixed. Basically Cubans make jokes because skin colour is not a sensitive issue, very much unlike the us.
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If Americans prefer to marry their own race that is THEIR business.
Yes, but this segregation is in fact Apartheid. This Apartheid in reality has always puzzled me when I visited the us. How come after almost two centuries after the end of slavery, you still find neighbourhoods with 95% blacks?
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Black and white Americans see life differently and many feel that marriage iis problematic enough without introducing that dynamic. Its not about skin color. Its about culture, history and perspectives.
So how blacks and whites easily mix in DR, Cuba, or Brazil? It'z indeed about culture. In the US, race is at the core of US segregationist (I'll be kind and not use the word racist) culture.
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Some people just feel that they must put up with whites all day, because they are the economically dominant group, and so they need a break from them.
So what you are saying is that blacks reject "white" society and prefere to stay among themselves. Very healthy society...
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Its a free country so that they can do what the want. I can assure you that they aren't as obsessed with "advancing the race" as so many Cuban blacks are.
Cubans aren't obsessed with "advancing the race", they are too lasy for that, they just don't care about race or skin colour. They will marry or date anyone, boy or girl(lots of "maricones" in Cuba), black or white, they like. Their skin colour doesn't matter.
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I showed you ample evidence of a black middle class and a black elite, so believe me, marrying whites is the least of their concerns.
You mean they usually only want to marry people of the same skin colour. That's the us...
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You babble on about it because you have no evidence to furnish that Cuban blacks are better than any other black on the planet (Castro lies).
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once again, when and where did I ever say that...
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Brazilians blacks frequently marry whites, and yet life for blacks in Brazil just isn't good. So really, high levels of black/white marriage clearly is a poor predictor of whether blacks are doing well in a country or not.
Because Brazil, Cuba, etc. are clearly poorer countries than the us. However if you compare to countries with similar GDP per capita as Sweden, Denmark, Belgium (with lots of blacks too, and a lot of mixed marriages, the new Belgian hype is a half Ruandese, half Belgian guy), etc. blacks in the us are worse off, as they have always been.
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The USA is a democratic country so even the foolish are allowed to have their own opinions. Obamacare does have its flaws. So why shouldn't people be allowed to speak out against it, even the idiots?
in the us the idiots and the ones who scream loudest are getting a lot of attention. But the decisions are made by lobby groups by rich, powerfull people.
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Castro is a racist and many CUBAN BLACKS say so.
You can say whatever you want, you have never visited Cuba and rely on some propaganda websites, but Castro is clearly no racist. Cuban blacks are fully integrated in Cuban society, and skin colour, as I told, is not an important issue anymore, very much unlike the us.
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As to the embargo, a pre condition for ending it is that Cuba begins to establish a multi party democracy, just as every other nation in the hemisphere has done.
The US supports and has supported bloody dictatorships, such as Pinochet, Rios Montt, papa and baby Doc, Trujillo, Stroesner, etc. It is still best friends with some of the worst dictators on the planet, such as the Saudi tyrants, where Al-Quaida comes from. So to say that there's an embargo against Cuba because they don't have multiparty elections, is rubbish and you know it. China is a much more repressive communist country than Cuba, yet the us has a multi-trillion trade with China.
Anyway, Cuba has found new friends and trading partners, it is the darling of many latin American leftist leaders, China helps a lot, and Russia has committed itself to resume aid to Cuba, so in the end Cuba will remain an example of defiance to the big bully and the empire. An example to the region of how big evil yankees try to intimidate small countries into submission. It's no coincidence that Castro is a good friend of lots of elexted leftist leaders all over Latin America, Brazil, Ecuador, Uruguay, Argentina, Nicaragua, Boivia, etc. People in Latin america are sick and tired of us dominance in the region.
China has always disregarded the helms-burton law, and the us is not prosecuting Chinese firms for doing business with Cuba. They know if they do so, China will immidiately take countermeasures which will hurt the us economy. For example I know as a fact that there are clothes factories in Cuba, they get the label "made in China" as a way to avoid the embargo. Cuba just copies hollywood films and us products without paying, since because of the embargo, the us can't claim anything. You see there are advantages too to the embargo.
I also know that increasing numbers of Americans, especially black Americans, and famous black music stars, willingly defy the laws of their country and risk prosecution by visiting Cuba. They don't get prosecuted because the us government knows all too well these trials will be used to denounce the embargo and us policy and will get a lot of media attention.
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Its a pity that Castro is not taking advantage of Obama, because who ever replaces him will be very hard line. Obama has said many times that it is time that US/Cuba relations improve, and has been castigated for saying this. All the Castro regime needs to do is to allow opposition parties to operate openly and freely and to establish some transitional mechanism.
Cuba is not ready to change its system because the us wishes so. Castro has said he wants to improve relations with the us, but the us should not involve with the internal matters of Cuba.
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The next President might well say that unless Castro goes the embargo will stay. There are no votes to get for ending the Cuba embargo, so no reason why some little stupid country should think that it can dictate its terms, unless that country is Israel.
ok, but the world around is changing. China is getting bigger every day, and latin America disregards us directives. The US embargo is a symbol in the region of how evil the us is, and Cuba is a symbol of resistance, that's why they get lots of aid from different countries. As long as the embargo stays, the regime will stay.
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At the end of the day Cuba needs the USA. The USA has no need for Cuba, because as it is the USA is Cuba's fifth largest trading partner and largest food supplier, so the people in the USA who most want to trade with Cuba, are already doing so.
nowadays the investors in the tourism industry, rum industry, etc. are Europeans, Chinese and latin Americans. American business leaders complained that, because of us embargo, they are left out.
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One can only wonder what the Castro regime is afraid of. If indeed they have done as good a job for Cuban people, as they claim, then they will win.
You know any opposition party will get billions of money from the us.
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So the Castro regime offers no concession to the USA who continues to ignore them I can assure you that no one in the USA has the slightest interest in Cuba. The only people yelping about the embargo is the Castro regime and their friends.
I know black icons such as Jesse Jackson have called for an end to the embargo since decades. Also former president Jimmy Carter did so.
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Its Cuba which looks stupid because the US$ is king and every one, even Cuba desires it. Russians are buying out tons of real estate in NY because they want their assets to be in a stable country which has a rule of laws.
actually these are Russian Jews, most of them so called tycoons who stole billions from the Russian people. They know sooner or later they'll be prosecuted for their crimes, as the large majority in Russia hates them, so they move their money out.
The us is indeed a preferate investment for people who stole billions from their country, such as quite a few Arab tyrants from Saudi Arabia, Emirates, etc.
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In case you didn't notice there the only brutal dictator left in the Americas is Castro. Papa Doc and others got over because of the Cold War which is over. Somebody needs to tell Castro that with the end of the Cold War Cuba means less to the USA than does the Dominican Republic, and is less important than even Panama.
Cuba means something in Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil, etc. It is a symbol of resistance to the us, and will remain so as long as the embargo is in place. The embargo is still hurting Cuba, but gradually the economy is doing better because so many other countries are ready to step in and help Cuba.
An analysis which shows various measurements to prove that Cuba, with all its problems in the 1950s, ranked below only Argentina, Chile, and a few other Latin American nations. This notion that Cuba was like Guatemala defies imagination. Even if Guatemala had a high per capita income then (using your Maddison data) there clearly was a very poor income distribution, and an exceedingly low standard of living endured by broad swathes of the population. This resulted in high infant mortality rates, low literacy levels, and very low per capita consumption of consumer durables.
It clearly had a thriving urban middle class, even if it did have significant rural poverty which every one who is honest will admit. The evidence of this thriving middle class was the high consumption of TVs and cars. A high % of Cuba's was used for consumption.
1. Communism failed. Even Cuba is gradually transitioning to becoming a private sector led economy. North Korea is just another fascist state. The Cold War is over so the USA has no need to support dictatorships in the Americas to block access by the USSR. Cuba is a Cold War anachronism and needs to grow up.
2. Access to the US consumer markets, suppliers and its capital markets are seen as being critical for Cuba to move forward. Cuba is a small and poor nation and all the US cares about is that there isn't another Mariel fiasco. So if the Cuba wants to end the embargo it knows what it has to do. It can continue to remain a fascist dictatorship in an era where this is archaic, or it can establish a multi party democracy, much as even its friends in Venezuela and Bolivia have done. You will note that there is no embargo against Venezuela, even though the US govt clearly doesn't like Chavez.
3.Brazil is now the world's 7 largest economy. They are vitally important to the USA for political and economic reasons and so the USA listens to them. Clearly the Brazilians are not talking about the embargo or there would have been political pressure to remove it.
4. Brazil doesn't look at Cuba as anything other than as another mid sized Latin American/Caribbean nation which provide opportunities for Brazilian goods and services.
5. Brazilians will laugh at you at you if you suggest that they see Cuba as a symbol against the USA. They will tell you that if the USA gives them a problem they will just buy them out, as they already own Budweiser, which is a symbol of USA in the heartlands, little do they know that its owned by foreigners.
6. If you were to tell West Indians or black Americans that they should accept a white wife instead of the right to fight against racism and discrimination they will laugh at you. Many don't even find white females attractive so that will be no prize instead. Even those who are attracted to white females will want to know why are they such a prize that meekly accepting discrimination against them is a good bargain. You have FAILED to prove that Cuban blacks are the best off in the world as indeed the WHITE OLD MEN who run Cuba claim them to be.
7. You are a hypocrite for denying Cubans the right to DEMOCRATICALLY chose their leaders, indeed just as those in Brazil, Bolivia,, Ecuador and Venezuela did. If those governments don't perform the electorate gets rid of them.
8. You have yet to prove that a Cuban can openly criticize the Castro without being punished.
9. Most black people see Jesse Jackson as an opportunistic hustler and indeed Castro probably pays him to say things. Nobody bothers with him any more and indeed many Chicago blacks talk about how corrupt he became.
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