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‘There is no money’: Cuba fears total collapse amid grid failure and financial crisis
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2024
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An embargo is not a blockade.
The embargo excludes food and medicine, and, in fact, Cuba has, previously, explicitly rejected unconditional offers of US aid.
Cuba's core problems are not due to the embargo, as much as the Cuban government and the terminally online left would like to peddle that narrative.
The embargo is stupid, pointless, and immoral. But it's not what's causing Cuba's current problems in any significant degree.
The state-wide weed markets are another example of what happens when the US government decides your business shouldn't be recognized by banks abroad.
Call it what you want but the effect is still the same.
Yes Cuba can trade with whoever they want in the world ... the US just makes it so difficult and complicated that no one wants to be bothered.
Is that why Cuba's biggest trade partner is that notable enemy of America, Canada?
Yes but the amount of trade that happens is so miniscule that it doesn't do much for their economy.
It's like having someone pin you to the ground, tie up your hands and feet and rest their knee on your neck and then ask why you're having a hard time getting up on your own
Bruh, Cuban-Canadian trade is worth over a billion annually. They're one of Canada's largest trade partners.
I guess the Netherlands and Spain are also inconsequential, and China is, of course, holding back on TRULY trading with Cuba out of fear for US sanctions despite the fact that China is already trading with Cuba on a massive scale.
Cuba was the third richest country in Latin America before the fall of the SovUnion. Could it possibly be that their economy was built on a house of cards and they haven't meaningfully shifted since it fell?
At some point you have to accept that the embargo, while wrong, is just not even close to core to the problems Cuba faces.
Just to give a perspective on this: The Dutch are notorious traders, that is, much of their business involves being middlemen, lots of stuff made anywhere in the EU flows via the Netherlands, nominally or physically. Spain, well, is self-explanatory: They're speaking Spanish over there. The EU overall is Cuba's second largest import and third largest export partner, a third of tourists to Cuba come from the EU.
As to the EU itself: It's generally illegal to comply with US sanctions on Cuba and Iran. If you're affected you can contact the commission and ask for an exemption if it's really bad but generally speaking you're supposed to work with the commission to find a way around the sanctions. There's literally EU civil servants specialised in sanction-busting by finding ways to transfer money, ship stuff etc. that doesn't involve the US.
They used to enjoy preferential tariffs but have become too rich by now so standard tariffs apply.
True. Also it would be way worse if Cuba didn't have Canada and the EU to fall back on. Also, OTOH: The current trouble is specifically cause by US sanctions -- secondary ones regarding Venezuelan gas, though, not the primary ones on Cuba itself. Cuba doesn't really have money to import that stuff and the Venezuelians are basically giving it away for free when you happen to be Cuba so of course they're buying it.
Heck in a couple month's time we might be seeing news about a large-scale Namibia-style investment: Build lots of renewables with European money, gain a stable electricity network and pay the whole shebang back with hydrogen exports. Cuba is plenty stable (and sunny) enough for such a deal.