The truth on the other hand, is the unshakable reality that has driven every sanction, every sabotage attempt, and every assassination plot since 1959: Cuba is a threat only to an idea. It is a threat to the imperial doctrine that a small, poor nation in America’s ‘backyard’ must not be allowed to choose socialism, to provide free healthcare and education, and homes to live without the permission of Washington.
For this sin of self-determination, the crime of building a society where capital is not god, Cuba has been punished with the most enduring economic siege in modern history. This is not an ‘embargo’, which I consider to be a sterile, political term. It is a total blockade, designed to constrict and cripple. It is enforced by a plethora of laws with names like the Helms-Burton Act, which terrorises foreign companies from trading with the Island and allows the US to seize ships in international waters. Its goal, as US politician Robert Torricelli once admitted, was to…
‘Wreak havoc’.

    • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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      7 hours ago

      I don’t know about that. Genocides don’t usually take 80 years, as the population grows. I don’t think that fits the description.

          • LeeeroooyJeeenkiiins [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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            5 hours ago

            Im not the one conflating decades of “embargo” (still fucking horrendous btw) largely dictated by the economic choices of shipping companies whether to serve cuba or the U.S. (hint: companies that make money will choose the profitable option) with the recent extreme escalations by the Trump admin which are attempting to tighten it into a full blockade (which I shouldn’t need to tell you since they’ve been really fucking overtly vocal about their actions and intentions)

            • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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              4 hours ago

              I don’t know what youre talking about I’ve been calling for the end of the Cuban Embargo since the end of the Soviet Union.

              The Cuban embargo made good political sense to pressure the Soviets when they were trying to use Cuba as a nuclear base to bomb us from, and any country would have done the same, in the face of the same threat.

              But that threat is gone, and the embargo has just become casual cruelty, which is the MAGA hobby. Of course they can’t help but crank it up to 11. That’s MAGA for you. If they see chance to hurt someone, they can’t resist.

              Now the embargo just drives the Cubans deeper into the arms of Mother Russia. Lifting the embargo, and flooding them with American products, tourists, and lower prices would do far more to break their connection than anything else.

              • KimBongUn420@lemmy.ml
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                3 hours ago

                The Cuban embargo made good political sense to pressure the Soviets when they were trying to use Cuba as a nuclear base to bomb us from, and any country would have done the same, in the face of the same threat.

                If you werent a lib you’d know that the US and NATO were the escalating/aggressing party, shitlib.

                • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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                  2 hours ago

                  I do know that, and I also know that the whole thing was over and all bombs removed from both Turkey and Cuba by 1963. The embargo continued to keep Russia from re-arming Cuba, and it worked. However, after the fall of the Soviet Union, it should have been lifted. Continuing it has been cruel, and dumb, and both Republican and Democrat presidents are guilty.

              • LeeeroooyJeeenkiiins [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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                4 hours ago

                The Cuban embargo made good political sense to pressure the Soviets when they were trying to use Cuba as a nuclear base to bomb us from, and any country would have done the same, in the face of the same threat.

                i-cant

                1. yeah the evil Soviets just wanting to bomb us for no good reason. Hey, when did the U.S. try to put nukes in Italy and turkey again? Oh, huh

                2. Dawg there’s a memo from the office of the secretary for inter american affairs from 1960 detailing the specific plan for the embargo to cause hunger, desperation and consequent counter revolution. Translation: “we’re going to starve Cuba until they do what we command”

                The cuban missile crisis wasn’t until two years later. They intensified the embargo FEBRUARY 1962 and the missile crisis didn’t begin until the END of that year. But yeah sure uh the missiles after the fact totally justify an overtly stated goal of starving civilians for political change (hey what’s the definition of terrorism again btw)

                going off about MAGA nonsense as if Joe Biden did anything to end the embargo

                Oh my god, liberal. Liberal! Liiiiiiibeeeeerrrrraaaaaaallllll! As if your “actually putting missiles in cuba would have justified starving them” statement wasn’t enough confirmation on its own. Christ