Bush Unveils Measures to Weaken Cuba's Castro

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Ned
bump - no comment on Castro's mass executions Pinochet-style?

Hmmm, 500 torturers and murderers vs 5,000 political activists? Oh, and, at the time, Castro was not ruling the country. Castro didn't take power for six months after the fall of Batista. The executions happened while Uria was President of Cuba, not Castro. So stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Ned
Peuto Rico is one of the best of the Latin America "countries." Cuba is the worst - except for perhaps Haiti.

You crack me up, Ned. Really, you're priceless.

Puerto Rico is a ****-hole. A beautiful ****-hole, but a ****-hole nonetheless. It's only the lack of taxes, the massive infusions of Federal dollars in the form of welfare, and the free ticket to the U.S. (not round trip) that every Puerto Rican can have that keeps the island from being as bad off as Haiti. Cuba is far better off than our colony.

[Ned]

Che, I will check this out if you think I must, but Castro was behind the executions. This is why the US broke with him after backing him againt Batista. This is the same reason we broke with Pinochet and cut off aid to Chile - human rights abuses.

Castro is responsible. If you continue to deny I, I will find articles and such that prove it.

Anyone from Peuto Rico here to refute the defamation of Che?

[chequita guevara]

Actually, Ned, AFAIK, we never broke off relations with Chile, though we may have cut them off from military finacial aid.

We didn't start breaking off relations with Cuba until they nationalized some American owned businesses. The problem for the U.S. was that the Cuban government offered the companies twenty-year bonds based on the tax-assessed value of the companies. As the companies, under Batista, had been responsible for telling the government what they were worth, they had been low-balling their actual prices for years. They had been cheating Cuba on taxes for years, but when it bit them in the ass, they wailed to the U.S. government, who promtly slapped sanctions on Cuba. This went back and forth for a couple of years until fnially the U.S. broke off relations and Cuba said, fine, we'll sing a defense treaty with the U.S.S.R.

Really Ned, you need to learn some history.

[Ned]

I am not going to dispute your view as to why we broke relations with Cuba. But it seems clear that we still want "fair" payment for the US property confiscated, and we want democracy and freedom in Cuba. If the Europeans settled for book value, so should we. If they got more, so should we.

Regardless, the harm the Cubans have suffered from lack of trade with the US has got to be a lot more than the value of the property that was expropriated. The sooner the Cubans do everything in their power to normalize relations with the US, the sooner prosperity will return to Cuba.

It was Castro's move - but he may have missed his opportunity with Bush. I think he, like Saddam, underestimates this president.

[chequita guevara]

Cuba has undoubtedly suffered from lack of trade. How about this? Suppose your town told you how you must raise your children. If you failed to do it in the way that they dictated, you couldn't participate in any town activities, could purchase things in town, etc. How would you react (assuming you can't move away)? Would you tell them to stuff it and raise your kids how you see fit or would let the town tell you how to live your life? Sometimes you have to stand up to bullies, even if t costs you. That's what Cuba's been doing for 44 years.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Ned
But it seems clear that we still want "fair" payment for the US property confiscated, and we want democracy and freedom in Cuba.

They were offered what they told the government what they were worth. That's fair. AFAIK, the checks are still sitting there, uncashed.

And please stop talking about freedom and democracy in Cuba. The U.S. doesn't give a damn about freedom and democracy in Cuba except as a club which it can to bash over Cuba. If they really cared, they'd stop being hostile to Cuba, and take away Cuba's very valid reason to exist in a seige mentality.

The U.S. hardly blinked when Fukimori made himself dictator in Peru. They welcomed a coup d'etat against the elected president of Venezuela. We're allies of Saudi Arabia and all the other gulf states. We're allies of Pakistan, Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.