with all apologies to those who will disagree, youve got the embargo and restrictions in place, and this stuff still happens.. embargo/restrictions are in place, repression continues.. no one knows what would be if they were lifted because it has not been done.. i could just as easily turn it around and say "for those who say the embargo is a good thing, look at whats going on.. convince me that keeping it in place has made life better for the disidents/residents of the island and eased oppression.." i know im in the minority here, but its the way i see it

Daniel,

I will quote this from the thread at Matt Welch's Reason post, written by a person with an exceptional political pedigree, which, I can email you specific details there of:

There are two reasons why maintaining the embargo is preferable to lifting it. 1)Once you normalize relations with Cuba, it would be impossible to keep Cuba out of the Bretton Woods multilateral financial agencies (IMF and World Bank) For a minuscule contribution to the common fund, Castro would gain access to "drawing rights" worth billions. Since these institutions lend directly to the government and not to the private sector, the hard currency will go directly to official coffers and will inevitably strengthen Castro's dictatorship. 2) At a time when democracies all over Latin America are increasingly "wobbly" what argument would US ambassadors use to persuade the local prospective "caudillo" to stick to democratic paths when, at the same time, Washington is normalizing relations with a tyrant? In other words, our policy of supporting democracies which has enjoyed bipartisan support for close to two decades will have no credibility. So, from this perspective, lifting the embargo will not necessarily bring democracy to Cuba, but it will make it harder to advocate it in the rest of the Hemisphere.

Oy vey !-
WHAT EMBARGO?

If dollars can buy you anything from a Heineken to a BMW in Cuba, where is this fucking EMBARGO?
Cubans inside Cuba will TELL you even the die hard ñangaras – “There’s NO embargo we just don’t have MONEY!

Of the 300+ nations in the world Castro can deal with all of them and the USA is his 3rd greatest trading partner on a CASH basis . THIS is the actual "EMBARGO" the cultist refer to, that he has to PAY UPFRONT, why? He just AGAIN STOLE all mid /small sized foreign assets in Cuba without giving a cent in retribution payment. Is anyone in their right mind going to do any business with this prick? In 46 years he has managed to TWICE appropriate all foreign property and gets away with it.

Now, I just read that Brazil is also asking for CASH upfront because the debt is just tremendous... So now Brazil has an embargo against KaSStro?

How many McDonalds employees do YOU know that walk into Citibank and get a 2 million dollar mortgage.?
KaSSTRO's absolute dismay is that he will NOT stop spitting at the USA and at the same time he wants to be treated the way the USA treats Britain for example. Now isn’t that just one idiotic expectation.

VAL: thanks, that explains alot, excellent points, if you have more from that guy feel free to send it over, but i still maintain that keeping it does not ease suffering or repression on the island.. it may or may not prevent more or worse conditions, but we just wont know until (if)the policy changes

KILLCASTRO: on the brasil front, i can tell you first hand, it is a result of infighting in lulas party, which right now is going through ALOT of trouble.. the major point on shift with policy towards cuba stems from several defections of the PT (the workers party) specifically fernando gabeira, who was a revolutionary during the castelo branco dictatorship.. he in fact took part in the kidnapping of the american ambassador, charles burke elbrick, eventually he went into exile, spent time in cuba (surprise surprise right?) the whole incident is recounted in a book "o que e isso companheiro" and a movie of the same name, but the english title is "4 days in september".. anyways after the amnesty he became a politician and was a member of the PT.. recently, the PT refused to denounce human rights violations in cuba, and gabeira split and specifically mentioned raul rivero by name as part of the reasons of his departure, along with others.. gabeira is an intersting case, he is not the full blown castro supporter he once was.. while in his youth he supported the revolution, che, black panthers, etc, he has come to condem the oppression in cuba, espicially on the media and dissidents.. while youd probably consider him "pink", he is a left leaning politician and writer who does condem the castro regime.. anyways, roundabout: the new approach they are taking on cuba (and remember, lula is cordial, if not friendly with castro) is as much because of pressure from factions within the political parties in brasil as well as brasil economy, which has always been a mess..

Daniel:
Thanks for that most detailed explanation, but I was merely touching on the lowest common denominator and that which every country relays on REGARDLESS of political allegiances CASH!
You seem to know a lot about Brazil, I do not, I just happen to have recently met with a Brazilian businessman (on a totally personal level, the father of a good friend) who had lost some serious cash dealing with Cuba.

Yes you are right Lula is going through tough times but regardless Brazil is still a democratic capitalist country and companies expect to get PAID. If Company X gets screwed by Castro for N dollars, Company Y is not going to be comfortable dealing with this crook. So there you go another embargo self imposed by KaSStro

Really my friend, the embargo is just a formality VERY well explained by Val. The reality is that Cuba suffers from 46 years of TOTAL mismanagement, atrocious business decisions, whimsical politics and disastrous economic planning. AND after 46 years il Cappi de tutti HIJO DE PUTAS wants to again try the whole thing all over again.... from the beginning. I mean he is AGAIN stealing foreign private property?

Imagine if the USA had allowed the McDonalds of the world to go and open shop at La Rampa?
The USA tax payers would be bailing out these companies now.

Whether it helped, hurt, or made no difference to the anti-castro side, it would be seen as a positive gesture. And I can't think of a single reason to send any positive gestures to castro.

And the Cuban people? It would make no difference. Look at all the free food and aid we send to Africa. Does that make a difference for the starving people? Little to none.

Lifting the embargo would make castro better off, not the Cuban people. And it would send a very bad message that we've accepted castro as legitimate.