March 19, 2007
So, you want to end the embargo?
Well then hang on to your wallet. Luis M. Garcia, the Cuban down under, reports that Cuba owes Spanish businesses 1.7 Billion Euros. Some folks are trying to whitewash castro's deadbeat status so let me repeat: 1.7 billion Euros.
And Havana is in no hurry to pay up – the report says payments are late or simply not made.The Spanish companies providing the goods and services don’t mind too much because it seems the debt is eventually carried by the Spanish administration through export insurance arrangements.
In other words, the debt ends up being carried by the poor Spanish taxpayers.
How long have I been saying that those that want to end the embargo are simply looking to foist a huge boondoggle on American taxpayers? Well, since my first post on this blog.
And don't think that if we do end the embargo that Cuba's anti-American rhetoric will subside:
...this generosity on the part of Madrid has not stopped Fidel Castro and his thugs from freely and regularly attacking Spanish ministers whenever they are deemed to have stepped out of line. When the Spanish prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, had the temerity early in his term to call for "democratic change" on the island, the Castro regime went berserk, attacking the Socialist leader as an American lackey, etc, etc.It worked, says the paper: Zapatero has refrained from making such statements since. And Havana still refuses to pay its debt.
And let's not forget that Cuba recently denounced Canada, one of its defenders and biggest sources of tourist dollars for "violations of human rights."
With friends like that, who needs enemies. No thanks.
Posted by Henry Louis Gomez at March 19, 2007 11:06 PM
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Comments
As a Canadian I can tell you they are right about this in an upside down kind of way. Canada is violating human rights by putting cash into Castro's artificial anus.
I recommend putting a large bounty on his head and agreeing to recognize any successful military coup which arrests the communist party bosses and does a thorough purge, then begin opening some economic links. A military coup would likely not improve the human rights situation but it would get the nation out from under communist ideology, which would at least be a step in the right direction. Further normalization would be on a strict quid pro quo basis with improved human rights.
Even if it did not work it would make people in high places start looking over their shoulder while worrying about the paranoia of their superiors, acting to increasingly destabilize the regime. Why should ordinary Cubans be the only one's to live in fear.
Posted by: Saul Wall ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.babalublog.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at March 20, 2007 12:26 AM
Saul Wall:
What you are saying is that Cuba needs a new Batista to save it from the throes of Marxist-Fascist revolution, as Sergeant Fulgencio Batista did on September 4, 1933.
Posted by: Manuel A. Tellechea at March 20, 2007 08:16 AM
Three cheers for the numb skull investors:
Hip hip, ha ha!!!
Hip hip, ha ha!!!
Hip hip, ha ha!!!
Posted by: Tomas Estrada-Palma at March 20, 2007 08:30 AM
Tomás:
I also thought they were "numb skulls" once. But since the Spanish government is underwriting all their follies, and, in the end, though stiffed by Castro they will all get their money back from Spain and maybe even a little profit besides, it seems to me that they're all going to come out of their dealings with Castro doing a little better than alright. That is, while the regime survives. Apres, le deluge for them.
Personally, I have no objection to the Spaniards or anyone else building as much as they want in Cuba. Since they don't have legal title to the land where these properties are being built, the land and its improvements will revert some day to their legitimate owners, or, if there are none, to a free Cuban state.
Posted by: Manuel A. Tellechea at March 20, 2007 08:55 AM
1.7 billion? That's less than 1 week of the cost of the Iraq war.
As a US taxpayer, I'd prefer to pay the Cuba tab.
Posted by: kutas at March 20, 2007 10:46 PM
Yeah well you don't get to make that decision, douchebag.
Posted by: Henry "Conductor" Gomez at March 20, 2007 11:01 PM
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