Facts About The Economic Embargo Against Cuba

There are a number of liberals including some members of Congress as well as leftist pro-Castro groups asking to stop the U.S. economic embargo on the Communist dictatorship. We should never forget that Fidel Castro in the early 60’s boisterously proclaimed that he did not need the U.S. to tender financial aid to Cuba. It was the intention of the U.S. to help Cuba as necessary during those difficult times. Castro rejected the offer and openly declared that he was tying Cuba’s future to the then powerful Soviet Union.

He announced to the world that Cuba was a Communist country and did not need to maintain relations with the “Yankee Imperialism.” Immediately he proceeded to expel all Americans from Cuba including the diplomatic corps, severing all ties with the U.S.

He expropriated without compensation all U.S. businesses, properties and bank accounts. The private property take over included also all Cuban’s enterprises and properties no matter their size. He established in a very short time a sweeping and complete totalitarian system similar to that existing in the Soviet Union. Cuba became a slave country under total government control and a rigid military autocracy.

We all know what happened to the Soviet empire. It collapsed on its own weight in 1991. The welcome and historical event devastated the Castro satrapy. The subsidies of billions of dollars a year the Soviets poured into Cuba to maintain a satellite serving as a sophisticated military base in the Western Hemisphere only 90 miles from American soil abruptly stopped. Communism disintegrated in the Soviet Union and their Eastern Europe satellites like sand castles blown away by the winds of liberty. Castro then became an international beggard, asking for help mostly from the Western European nations and China.

For some time the tyrannical reign in Cuba (now under his equally brutal brother Raul) has been imploring for the lifting of the embargo, while recruiting “useful idiots” to back Castro-Communism on this shameful effort. However, the totalitarian Castro regime continues to maintain a perverse system that enslaves an entire population under a repressive and barbarian police state. Following the advent of the Marxist-Leninist system in Cuba he executed thousands of his own revolutionary troops who had turned against him. A myriad of civilian dissidents have been either executed or imprisoned in miserable filthy jails for indefinite time by Kangaroo courts. There is no civil justice system in Cuba. Only recently a political prisoner, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, imprisoned since 2003, died after a hunger strike. His initial sentence was for three years and they extended it to 25 years because he refused to bend on his political beliefs against Communism. This is one of many similar cases which have occurred under the despotic rule of the Castro brothers. Amnesty International declared Zapata Tamayo as a “prisoner of conscience” in 2003.

Hardships, human rights abuses, incarceration and a rigid one-party system (the Communist Party) persists in the country with no hope for real change. You have to consider that over 2 million people have exited the island under the most difficult, unimaginable and perilous circumstances and they continue to do so up to the present time. Meanwhile don’t let the Castro satrapy and their misled defenders fool you.

Lately, the press has published news and editorials indicating that the Communist dictatorship has relaxed some of its rules, however, these are only cruel gimmicks to show the world that they are softening their tight grip on the desperate population. The truth is that the Communist system has been a total failure and they are attempting to mask it by adopting new twists to make it appear as a signal of change. They desperately need hard currency from the U.S. while keeping the same old failed system in place.

To lift the embargo all that is needed from the totalitarian regime is to re-establish democracy, freedom, human rights and free elections under a multi-party system. The plight of the oppressed Cuban people should be heard and the international community shall act accordingly.

The entire history of the Cuban tragedy under Castro-Communism is detailed in my book – Fidel Castro: The Rape of a Nation. (see side-bar for information)

Castro’s Tactics

The so-called softening of the rigid dictatorship to allow certain small businesses to be run privately by individuals is only a deceptive scheme to control the ever growing “underground” entrepreneurs in Cuba. Cubans are very inventive, they always have been. It seems that the satrapy of the Castro brothers did not affect – to a great extent – the natural instinct of many Cubans to be creative even under the most difficult circumstances.

I should explain that after the Communist regime eliminated all private enterprises, from the very large to the smallest one, many Cubans began to think of a way to become independent of government control even at the expense of their lives. They began to create clandestine, small businesses with a lot of care and discretion, risking to practice their professions and skills below the government radar.

The regime alerted by neighborhood switches took action and some self-made entrepreneurs were caught and given jail time. However in spite of all the inconveniences and urged by the necessity to sustain themselves many continued to take the risk. It was practically impossible for the government dogs to keep pace with the surreptitious activities. There were the many dispersed around the entire country. The government was also running out of space in their ominous and filthy jails. The small undercover businesses continued to grow as the economy of the country went from bad to worse.

We know that among the many concealed activities were shoe repairs, manicurists, barbers, appliances and car repairs, eateries (in-home), animal grooming, taxi drivers, dolls and toy repairs, music teaching, sale of medicinal herbs and flowers and many others. Even doctors and dentists practiced their skills secretly.

The rigid Communist rule was not getting any income or advantage from the widespread entrepreneurial activities. The regime finally realized that it was better to “legalize” all the small businesses and obtain a revenue through a contribution or taxation system. Additionally, allowing the small businesses to operate in the open was going to make it appear that the regime was relaxing its tight control over the population. What it really does is to make small entrepreneurs practically employees of the government. They would be regulated and closely observed.

It should be mentioned that taxes under the Communist system did not exist and were not needed. Under the slaved labor system existing in Cuba, the salaries are very small and the workers indirectly pay dearly for whatever meager benefits they receive, ie. children’s education, health care, etc. That is why the so-called “free” education and precarious health care they receive are all a shameful fallacy. In contrast, well equipped hospitals are reserved for the high ranking military elite and the privileged top level civilian members of the regime. In fact, the underground entrepreneurs, now free to surface and become “legal” will be the losers. The dictatorship becomes the winner expanding its surveillance to the segment that wa previously undercover and additionally getting an income.

The Communist government is calling this sinister trap “an economic reform package,” pretending is opening up the failed Communist model implanted by brutal force in Cuba.

The entire history of the Cuban tragedy under Castro-Communism is detailed in my book. (see sidebar for information.)

Castro's Dementia

This article was submitted to the Chicago Tribune in September, 2010. In their usual fashion, they did not publish it since they rarely publish articles that expose the truth about communism. 

Castro’s Dementia

In his old age, a physically and mentally deteriorated Fidel Castro, is uttering statements that do not deserve the attention of the news media. He was a psychopath and now he has entered into a clear case of dementia. However, in his intrinsic malice, he is still looking for attention and does not spare an opportunity to hit the limelight again by making contradicting and utterly ridiculous pronouncements with the sole intention of getting his name in the news.

Evidently, he misses the good old times when he was the darling of the extreme left. The sober fact is that he betrayed a revolution, he ruined a beautiful and prosperous country and he enslaved a nation. We should never forget that he tortured, executed and imprisoned thousands of Cuban fighters whose only purpose was to have a free and democratic republic. He maliciously manipulated the brightest, the bravest and the fittest to establish a totalitarian communist regime in an effort to satisfy his thirst for power and fame.

It is estimated that two million Cubans have left the island since Communism was established in Cuba, many under very perilous circumstances. Still millions would like to have the opportunity to do likewise. They are the best proof of the Castro brothers dismal failure. As a rapacious scum, Fidel Castro and his equally infamous brother Raul belong in the trash heap of the human race.