Where Are the USA-Cuba Talks Headed?
HAVANA TIMES — We bring you a new illustration from Yasser Castellanos related to the recent developments between the United States and Cuban governments. So what do you think?
26 thoughts on “Where Are the USA-Cuba Talks Headed?”
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N.J. Marti, you could be right it isn’t newspapers, controlled by the elite,
it isn’t TV or movies, controlled by the elite, it’s the internet and that’s
where the change is going to start the Nueva Cuba!
The US lifted their embargo on China many years ago. The dictatorship no longer had the old excuses, but it didn’t matter. The tanks still rolled over the students in Tiananmen Square. The dictatorships in those countries live on. So what will be different about Cuba?
GOOD ONE
Haroldo and I think very much alike about this issue….his recent article parallels my sentiments, and I believe it also helps to answer your question, Moses. Once the embargo / Helms-Burton is gone, the Cuban government will have nowhere else to hide for their shortcomings. The Cuban population will have high-expectations of their government, post-embargo…and when their expectations are not met, the government will find it impossible to stifle the backlash of discontent. Under the world’s looking glass, the government will no longer be able to repress the anti-government movements without making serious concessions to the way they govern. The genie will be out of the bottle at that point, making it much more palatable for the government to make much broader changes, and inevitably, moving much closer to democracy as it will be demanded by the people once they acquire a thirst for further change.
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=109174
which wolf will win? the one you feed
How do you see this this dictatorship ending and democracy emerging? Is there an historical precedent for a dictatorship stepping down and being replaced, through peaceful means, by a democracy. You continue to make this claim but I have never read your explanation of how it will happen.
There is such a system. It is called the Nordic Model.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_model
I agree. Many feel that Fidel has continued to influence his brother from behind the scenes ever since Raul took over. I can see the same thing happening once Raul steps down too. But 25 to 50 more years? I doubt that very much…I believe the beginning of the end for the current government will come much sooner than anyone would ever expect after the embargo / Helms-Burton are repealed.
There is a remote possibility you are correct. But until I am convinced of a better economic system, at least one that doesn’t always devolve into totalitarianism and tyranny, I will ‘stick with the girl who brought me to the dance’.
Are you aware of something the rest of the world knows nothing about? Apparently Cuba and Venezuela don’t agree. What they want more than anything are American dollars!!
….must really suck for you!
Batistas fall was inevitable. His time in power was only a few years, his fall pre ordained. However the Castro brothers have held Cuba in their iron grip for over 55 years!! The Good Lord, unfortunately, did not help the Cuban people with the Castros and thus the island of Cuba is still stuck in the 1950s
Could be that way. Definitly.
So very true Dan. at the current rate, American will have nothing to buy and nothing to buy anything with. Capitalism is a gigantic ponzi scheme.
Don’t count on Castro’s going anywhere. The could linger in the back ground another decade. These types of regimes once established have a tendency to stick around. 25 to 50 more years is in the cards.
What I have observed are Socialist Totalitarian regimes. Forced redistribution is aided by a totalitarian approach. A bottom up social democracy is difficult pull off as Europe has demonstrated.
A practical challenge is fostering sufficient incentive to produce. Human’s have incredible discretionary creativity and productivity. Self interest or fear tend to be the most effective motivators. Unselfish productivity under performs when effort is not rewarded.
On the other hand, China, Vietnam and others have demonstrated that liberal governance with market incentivzed sectors does increase the wealth of the nation.
With the current trajectory of the world capitalist system, I would hazard a guess that it’s just as likely that Miami becomes Havana first.
Deja vu or history repeating itself. Back to the days of Batista.
May the Good Lord preserve Cuba and its inhabitants.
Cuba remains a problem for the GOUSA and its owners;: the capitalists as long as there is a chance for democratic economic and electoral systems to arise in Cuba after hostilities cease .
U.S. foreign policy has been predicated upon preventing democratic movements since at least 1918 and the U.S./European invasion of the just-born Soviet Union.
All other “communist ” revolutions and/or anything led by a Communist Party went the Leninist/Stalinist route once they were free from attack by the Empire .
Cuba once free of the economic burden of the embargo will be in flux and could go the Leninist top-down way of past revolutions OR be the first to establish bottom-up democratic systems in their economic and governing bodies and thereby create a model of democracy and that would be the huge threat that the capitalists always knew socialism/communism; democratic economies they would be.
I realize that to the average U.S. citizen this is standing reality on its head
but realize that capitalism is totalitarian at its base. Its faults are not human faults , due to human failings but faults that are built in to any totalitarian system.
To repeat: Cuba AS IT IS NOW- totalitarian in its economy ( state capitalist ) and totalitarian in its political system -is not only not a threat to the capitalists but just another totalitarian system that bends people to do as they are told and to bend them away from democratic aspirations.
Very insightful and true….
The artwork represents a swamping of Cuba with American businesses and tourists when Congress lifts what’s left of the embargo (some Cubans are worried that if US businesses return to Cuba, then the island’s cultural identity will be spoiled, but others don’t mind if McDonalds, Wal-Mart, Starbucks invest in Cuba because they know that France’s cultural identity has been retained despite US trade and investment in France).
The drawing is somewhat accurate, to a point. However, it’s the guards of the Cuban castle, i.e. the ruling military elite, who are inviting the American horse inside.
I believe there’s much more going on and has been going on for some time now.
That is with Cuba and the USA and regardless of the posturing I see no going back
but only a new beginning. The Castro brothers will be gone from the spotlight within twelve months and a new group will take over. Freedom of expression will
get larger with the internet and there will be no embargo by the end of 2015.
that is a clever drawing!
Replace the Cuban castle with a prostitute and the Trojan Horse for a Trojan Condom. Once the flood gates open, and they will, a Havana will become Miami without the old rich people.
Cute.
Totally analogous.
Beware of imperialists bearing gifts.
Cuba has long since seized to be a geopolitical concern to US. With the Sovie Union gone 20 some years and Cuba out of Africa, it no longer presents a credible concern. The most likely future course is for US to treat Cuba like any of the other leftist regimes in South America. That is to say, it will be largely ignore it.
The embargo, while less stringent could linger for years to come.