Cuba never had been a particularly politically stable country, but they did have some form of elections until Batista.
Certain prominent Miami Cubans would dictate policy in Cuba... and one such Cuban policy would be for America to invade? That's just nonsensical on many levels.
Other Latin American countries have their own problems. Cuban was doing fairly well economically until Castro came along.
However, this seems to confirm that your wives' relatives live in a unique (even if not rich) part of Cuba, since the fact that there are no new cars there is not only something observed by my aunt, but also present in an entirely book of pictures of modern Cuba we were given.
It is, regardless of whether it contradicts your preconceived notions. It really shouldn't be much of a surprise to anyone who knows anything about the nature of Castro's dictatorship, but clearly you don't.
I actually didn't even know that Generacion Y had confirmed this, though that just seems to prove it. I was merely passing on my aunt's experiences.
And if you really believe they don't arrest political dissedents anymore, three words: Orlando Zapata Tamayo.
And it wasn't before, because they weren't that poor.
That's just a fact. Cuba's GDP per capita was, in 1958, on par with Japan, whereas it is now ten times less (and no, Japan's GDP per capita has not grown ten times since then in comparison to the rest of the world). Cuba is importing sugar now. Think about that. They are importing sugar. A huge portion of their economy was based on exporting sugar, because it was so abundant and because the land was so furtile. In fact, one of my great-grandparents worked for Hershey, helping him get sugar. Their baseball team was called the Cuban Sugar Canes. But now nobody's growing anything, because it would just be confiscated.
This sentence suggests that you know absolutely positively nothing at all about Fidel Castro.
You don't get to stick around as a dictator for 50 years by being gentle. Even if you were popular at first, eventually people would tire of you. Castro had to have been as brutal and oppressive as he was to get as far as he did.
Why would they need to if he was in jail? That they arrested him should show you something it itself.
Of course they've made plans, but nobody will simply have the political strength to hold the regime together that the Castros did.
That's just idiotic. Americans aren't going to make laws for Cubans. Really they (and we) have much more to fear from a mass exodus away from Cuba to the U.S.
True, it might happen for other reasons. It might even happen under Raul. But it'll happen soon.
Not really; obviously circumstances are going to be unique in each individual case, but it's pretty much the same result that Russia and China and North Korea had, just each of them to different extents.
And thanks to Castro, that means hogwash. A highly educated person might as well be a waiter, because thanks to the extra tips they get, that's pretty much as high-paying a job as they're going to get.
Oh lordy, I cannot believe the propaganda spewed here. "The people"? That's why the people can't have a say in their government, or even have a negative opinion of their government. That's why the people can't legally leave the country, because it's theirs now. That's why they're leaving in tiny drafts, risking their lives, just to get out of "the people's" country. And how many people are doing the same to get in?
Well hey, I guess by the same standards the North Koreans "let" their system become the tyranny it is today.
I happen to know dozens of Miami Cubans in my family alone. None of them want to invade Cuba or any of that hogwash, but all of them are anti-Castro. This includes conservatives, moderates, liberals, and mega-liberals, and every one of them despises Fidel Castro, in some cases as much as they despise Ronald Reagan. My great uncle was a member of the Communist Party of Cuba. Castro took over, he fled to Miami, and he became a Republican (though he did vote for Obama).
Given what I've already seen from you, I'm not surprised that a statist piece of sh*t like you supports a tyrannical piece of sh*t like Castro, though it does surprise me that your wives' family is moronic enough to like the man who destroyed their country. Frankly though, if they're perfectly fine with people who oppose them going to jail, they can go suck on turds for all I care. People like them and like you are a disgrace to humanity, as are all the others who "allowed", as you say, an evil tyrant impose his will on his country. F*ck them.
Spoken like one more little American raised Cuban boy who speaks like an authority to a country he's never been to. But since I have no time to debate people who only repeat what they
hear from the very people who obviously were profiting from American rule of Cuba before they got told to take a hike, I'll make this just one long post and you can verify
every single part of it if you like.
The reality of the Cuban "democratic" system before the revolution and even before Batista is that there was no democratic system. Free elections in Cuba is a myth like in most of Latin America. Generally, whatever party serves to U.S. interests is the one which is most likely to win. Democracy or no democracy. This is confirmed in the PRI - Which inexplicably held power for 70 years - and the Pinochet government in South America. It was no different in Cuba, the only legacy democracy in Cuba left was a long line of puppet governments who catered to U.S. companies. From the United Fruit Company to the AEP, Cuba was a country where large profits could be made at the expense of a mostly uneducated populace.
This ultimately explains why the Cuban Revolution has been so successful in terms of staying in power. There are people in Cuba who still remember times where nobody but the rich could go to university. People who still remember being out of work for 5 months of the year because the only mass employer in Cuba were sugar cane growers. People who lived in towns of 20 or even 30,000 where the majority of the population couldn't read.
Whether you accept the negative repercussions of the Cuban revolution or not, there is no question that it is unique in terms of revolution and coups. Cuba did not experience famine, genocide or even mass disappearances. Revolutions are characteristically followed by such. Specially when the country is completely isolated economically and/or switches political systems. North Korea, Russia, China all experienced this when becoming socialists. Cuba didn't. That is u.n.i.q.u.e. in history.
Not only is it unique because of that but because it was a revolution supported in large numbers by the urban population. The 26th of July Movement was primarily made up of university kids in the cities engaging in guerrilla warfare in the cities while Castro's forces put pressure on the South. When Batista saw that he could no longer control
the people he fled. Soon followed by all those people in Cuba who had benefited from his puppet government.
Finally, showing just how unique the Cuban revolution is historically, is the fact that the populace supported the swift changes almost overnight. Fidel didn't need to have the military patrolling the streets of Cuba to start social programs. He didn't need hold thousands of Cuban kids hostage to get work accomplished. Cubans simply supported his revolution. The proof is in the history books, the videos of the time, the writings about Fidel Castro even by American politicians like Nixon who saw him as a force to be reckoned with
because of the support he had behind him.
And this support has persisted. Whether the younger generation in Cuba has become disillusioned with how it has turned out for them is another issue. But the Cuban revolution gave most Cubans the chance that no
democracy in Latin America would have ever dreamed of. It turned the sons of campesinos into doctors, lawyers etc. It gave heavy farming equipment to guajiros who before had to spend countless hours on their field. It gave women equal footing with men in the work place. This is not
debatable.
Now I do not know your family, but from the looks of it they sound like people who left shortly
after the revolution. Which would explain why your entire argument is based on what you've heard instead of what you've seen or even read. They sound like people who obviously benefited from an economy which very few Cubans did. GDP is not indicative of the social conditions in a country. Proof of this are found all over the place today. Take Greece, the GDP in Greece is 30,000pc yet the country is facing the greatest financial crisis in its history. Explain that? I bet you can't. Because GDP is nothing more than a red herring in these discussions.
However, the social conditions of a country are indicative of whether or not a revolution is going to happen. And in Cuba the social conditions were
perfect for a revolution. People were disenfranchise. Beyond Habana and cities like Santiago, there was very little infrastructure in the country. Cuba's national highway wasn't even built then. Do you understand now why the revolution is so important to Cuba in terms of what it gave them?
Regardless of whatever you've
heard, and wish to repeat (I'll keep saying that from now because your posts are indicative that you are nothing more than a parrot - if you'd like
un perico) there is no such thing as
rich parts of Cuba. Ask your 'parents' where Cayo Hueso and El Cerro are. Not rich by any stretch of the imagination. Cars like these ones,
are now a common sight in Cuba(look behind the old car in Cuba and count the number of new ones). More than that, Cuban people are buying them. And they're not from the 50s, they're not from the 60s. They are brand new. This ridiculous assertion you have that there are parts of Cuba that are richer than others is ridiculous. There are parts which are more developed than others. But then again what country doesn't have this? The U.S. does, Canada does so does Japan etc. No. You're simply wrong even on the cars.
But why stop there? As long as we're talking about being wrong, tell me. What do
you know about Orlando Zapata Tamayo? Please tell me because you obviously don't even know why he was put in jail. The guy had a criminal record spanning assault with a deadly weapon(a machete), fraud etc. In other words, he was a common criminal. Nothing more, nothing less.
The worst part about your entire post is that you bring up your great uncle like I'll be impressed or something. The Cuban Communist Party pre-Revolution was like the Argentinian Socialist Party. They were there to give the populace the belief that there was opposition. The public was hyped up with rhetoric it couldn't comprehend and then when voting time came, the same people remained in power. The workers, the trabajadores, los descamisados, all the same thing at the end of the day
never got anybody who represented
their interests elected. The fact that your
great uncle went over to Miami after Fidel took power is proof that Cuba was a farce in terms of democratic tradition.
It always has been.
Finally there is your quote about me being a statist. Oh little Cuban boys who talk about countries they've
never been to! I do not support the Castro government. What I do support is the idea that at the end of the day, Cubans at the end of the day support a Castro government more than they would a Miami friendly government which is commanded from D.C. - But then again, this is because :
1. I've been to the country and spoken to Cubans actually
living in the country.
2. I actually have knowledge of Cuba prior to the revolution.
3. I didn't have to hear it from other people.
But please little Cuban boy who's never been to Cuba. Tell us all, what is the history of democracy in Cuba. I'm sure some here will find the words of somebody who's never even been there more than enough to convince them. Whatever you do though, read a book first. Don't repeat what you hear and most of all, no comas tanta pinga.