Cuban Embargo
The United States government has declared that it will aggressively pursue any person who violates the trade embargo that was set on Cuba over twenty years ago. The violations include illegal traveling, money laundering, and trading with Cuba. Any of the above could easily now result in very heavy fines and a ten year prison sentence. The trade was first restricted in the 1960s and have become increasing severe over time. The plan has evolved into depriving the Castro regime of revenue from the United States in hopes of a political revolution.The UN has condemned the embargo for fourteen years, but it hasn't faltered the position of the United States government. This policy was originally put into place because of the Cuban missile crisis forty years ago and it seems quite outdated to still be in effect. Even though Fidel Castro is no longer ruling over the country, his government is still in power making the plan ineffective. This embargo does not seem to be working, so why is it such a strong policy? Cuba has lost 1.8 billion dollars annually as a result of the program, but their governmental structure is still the same.
I think opening Cuba to trade and tourism would bring a flood of new ideas, money and hope to the island. Maybe it would not be enough to change the political structure, but it wouldn't be promoting poverty and extreme economic recession for such a small country. Many people who were born in Cuba cannot even travel back to their homeland because these restrictions are so severe. Time seems to be the only factor that could end the communist and destructive ways of the country, and this time could maybe be spent in more beneficial ways.
U.S. Tightens Trade Sanctions
posted by Anonymous @ 10/11/2006 07:37:00 PM
2 Comments:
A trade embargo was an effective way to get a country to bend to you demands before the popularization of the jet aircraft and globalization. It's ineffective because it has no real teeth to it; Cuba's not getting US dollars from the US, but it can just as easily get them from the other Caribbean and South American countries that don't have trade embargos in place. I just don't see why we still have the rather useless piece of legislature still in effect today. It was started due to the missile crisis, yes, but we sorted that fiasco out with the Soviet Union directly, and now, around 17 years later, the Cold War is over. Yet we still enforce that relic today, even more forcibly than before. It seems like a waste for both countries, since the American outgoing tourist companies (Travel agents, Cruise lines, hotel chains, etc.) could benefit from having a closer tropical destination. Cubans would certainly benefit from the vast flood of money that would be brought in from tourism. The American economy would also make good use of the Cuban workforce, just like it does in China, India, and other developing Southern Asian/Oceanic countries. Sure, Castro's still kicking, but he will expire, and his brother who, in my opinion, looks to be an incompetent leader. When that happens, I would think that the people would finally revolt and establish a more US friendly democratic government. And if not, we could encourage/stage a coup d'état. Again.
The United States is the most powerful, and dominates country worldwide. We have declared that we are aggressively pursuing any person who violates the trade embargo that went into affect on Cuba over twenty years ago. A few violations are illegal money laundering, illegal traveling, and trading with Cuba. We have set theses law onto them, if any are disobeyed there will be heavy fines, and ten year of prison served. We first restricted this in the 1960’s, and have been growing fast. I believe that this is a great plan for the US to step in and try to help Cuba’s government and people. It is not right for people to be laundering money, you need to earn your money not create it. Its not that simple many people go to school for years to get ahead financially, its not fair that they can just make it. Illegal traveling to other countries isn’t right they need to get passports or get certified to do that. They have lost money from this program but I think this will help them overall to be a better country and safer. I agree that if we open Cuba trading it will bring many of more ideas to the country. I think its sad that since we have theses restriction on Cuba they are not allowed to ever go back to there homeland. I think they should be able to visit but not stay because if they have family there it would be nice to visit them. We may w
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