Thread by @LauraJedeed

Hi there, are you curious about Cuban sanctions and what they've done to the Cuban economy and generally what the hell is going on?

So was I, so I did some research

The US first passed a blanket embargo on trade to Cuba (including food and medicine) in 1962

In 2000, America loosened the embargo to allow food and medicine, but that's it

US sanctions against Cuba "include[s] every major method available...: trade control, suspension of aid and technical assistance, freezing of the target’s financial assets, and the blacklisting of foreign companies involved in trade with Cuba."

ethicsandinternationalaffairs.org/2020/u-s-econo…

USA Today feels it's very important to emphasize that the US hasn't barred foreign countries from trading with Cuba which, obviously? America doesn't have that power

What they can do is disincentivize it, and oh boy do they

google.com/amp/s/a mp.usatoday.com/amp/7954883002

"The U.S. cannot prohibit firms from other countries from trading with Cuba...however, the U.S. has instituted various economic sanctions that make that trade and investment riskier and more costly, creating serious disincentives"

Sophistry, y'all

google.com/amp/s/amp.usat…

Obama began to normalize relations with Cuba. He visited the
country, allowed Americans to visit, removed Cuba from the State Sponsors of Terror list, reopened embassies, and allowed people to send money to Cubans

Sanctions remained but it was a start

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_thaw

Then along came Trump, who not only reversed Obama's thaw but doubled down.

He made it possible for America to sue "U.S. and international companies profiting from property that was nationalized or confiscated after Cuba's 1959 Revolution."

mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/id…

In other words, as of 2019 the United States government can sue any company, from any country, that has anything to do with nationalized Cuban businesses, which as I understand it is most of them

Companies started pulling out of Cuba left and right

In 2021, just before leaving office, Trump fucked over Cuba one last time

He put the country back on the State Sponsors of Terror list, which severely limited the amount of money people could send friends and relatives in Cuba ("remissions")

google.com/amp/s/www.pbs.…

Remissions make up a staggering amount of money flowing into Cuba--over a billion dollars some years. Many families depend on money sent over by Cubans working in the United States to support them

horizontecubano.law.columbia.edu/news/us-restri…

To review:

Cuba's been virtually cut off from international trade for 60 years, then after a brief ray of hope had their trade further destroyed, got hit with COVID, and lost a major source of capital

How would ANY COUNTRY'S economy be doing after all that?

So Cuba is predictably impoverished and people are hungry

And they are protesting

And Cuba is doing some repressive government shit to try to contain unrest that looks a lot like what America does

And we have the audacity--the AUDACITY--to call them a failed state

Look I do not know what you call a country that has managed to survive 60 years of the harshest sanctions America is capable of dishing out other than a success

Cuba is not perfect. I've been pretty irritated at certain leftists pretending that it is

Their crackdown on protests is bad actually

Military-run stores sell goods for dollars only and reap a disgusting amount of profit from this exploitative practice

iwpr.net/global-voices/…

There's an easy solution to all of this

If we really care about the freedom of the Cuban people, we need to give them freedom to trade. Kill the embargo

Cuba is a sovereign nation and must decide it's government and economic system for itself

It is none of our goddamn business