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Cuba says it has run out of fuel, blames U.S. embargo

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Re: Cuba says it has run out of fuel, blames U.S. embargo

#281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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By the same logic Iran is not blockading the strait of Hormuz — just send them 25 BTC and your oil tanker too can pass. By the same logic the mafia aren't disrupting your business when they ask for a protection fee — just pay up and the same mafia won't empty a clip into your store during business hours. By the same logic street muggers are not actually taking your stuffs by force — just hand them your wallet and you…

No, that logic doesn't apply. The US will not sink ships that send oil to Cuba. Nor will they charge any fee to the country sending oil to Cuba. Unlike your examples, there is is no threat of violence at hand here.

What is being threatened is that the US will charge Americans higher tariffs on goods imported from the countries sending money to Cuba. Fundamentally, an embargo is an economic lever, whereas your examples are threats of military action.

There's a very substantial difference between:

"If you don't pay us money we'll shoot missiles at your ship and sink it."

and

"If you send oil to Cuba we'll charge tariffs when Americans import your country's goods."

Re: Cuba says it has run out of fuel, blames U.S. embargo

#282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A boycott is a crime? The US has decided not the trade with Cuba, that's it. Cuba is still free to trade with any other country that's willing to trade with them.

This comment shows that you do not understand the basic facts of the situation or are willing to lie about it. No one should engage you until you put in the bare minimum effort to at least know what you're talking about.

If you're going to accuse someone of lying, it'd be good to actually lay out that what you believe is a lie.

Re: Cuba says it has run out of fuel, blames U.S. embargo

#283

What we're doing to the Cuban people with this blockade is criminal. I don't expect to see justice in my lifetime. What a miserable state of affairs.

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Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.

Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents. Omit internet tropes.

Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. It tramples curiosity.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Cuba says it has run out of fuel, blames U.S. embargo

#284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> continue to trade with Cuba without triggering retaliatory tariffs Why are there "retaliatory tariffs" in the first place? Why is the US forcefully inserting itself into affairs with which it should have no concern? Or are you saying it's the US's concern because... what? They're the world's watchdog and ultimate authority on right behavior? Other countries trading with the countries they've embargoed should rightl…

Because the US wants to economically isolate Cuba to prod the single party authoritarian regime into liberalizing. It's fine if you think that's a bad thing. My only point is that it's not a blockade, it's an embargo. Countries have the option to trade with Cuba and live with the additional tariffs on their exports to the US. Under an actual blockade, that option doesn't exist. The Royal Navy didn't let ships into Ge…

When you have the force of negotiations & ability to cause mass ruin to any nation that engages with Cuba, when Cuba is literally without power, I think the violence & damage being done makes the extreme grandstanding nonsense you've spent hours and hours cooking up in this thread look extremely extremely wicked and hollow.

Whatever point you have was lost on me. The minute technical difference doesn't make a ton of difference when there is so so so much massive human suffering and death going on. Your cloak of obsfuscation is deeply deeply insulting to what is happening, and you had a relentless ability to steal all the oxygen from the room & leave no room for discussion again and again. I despise low power plays like this and I am insulted at how your trampled over everyone and the death and suffering that is being created by the US denying anyone's access to Cuba.

Re: Cuba says it has run out of fuel, blames U.S. embargo

#285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’d have to ask them. Also curious about US motive behind blowing up fishing boats and school children.

I think the Iranian school bombing was pretty clearly a mistake, given its proximity to an IRGC base, and (IIRC) the previous usage of that plot of land for military purposes, suggesting an issue of outdated target intelligence. That compounds with the lack of a plausible motive, and numerous demotives for hitting it deliberately. Which is not to present the action as significantly less blameworthy; it's a heinous ne…

I’m curious what the “demotives” are considered, since the strike killing hundreds of children happened on day 1 of the military strikes, and I haven’t seen any meaningful action to address the “mistake.”

Re: Cuba says it has run out of fuel, blames U.S. embargo

#286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the US wants to economically isolate Cuba to prod the single party authoritarian regime into liberalizing. It's fine if you think that's a bad thing. My only point is that it's not a blockade, it's an embargo. Countries have the option to trade with Cuba and live with the additional tariffs on their exports to the US. Under an actual blockade, that option doesn't exist. The Royal Navy didn't let ships into Ge…

When you have the force of negotiations & ability to cause mass ruin to any nation that engages with Cuba, when Cuba is literally without power, I think the violence & damage being done makes the extreme grandstanding nonsense you've spent hours and hours cooking up in this thread look extremely extremely wicked and hollow. Whatever point you have was lost on me. The minute technical difference doesn't make a ton of…

As I've told others in this thread who purport to see no difference between an embargo and a blockade: if you really think there is no difference between a blockade and an embargo, then why not just correctly refer to this as an embargo?

Re: Cuba says it has run out of fuel, blames U.S. embargo

#287
post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, then forget the sermons; how 'bout this? The USA, like all serious countries, seeks to defend and advance its interests. Those interests include the suppression of self-declared enemies like Cuba and Iran, or seeking regime change so they cease being self-declared enemies of the US. The irony of your claim that the US is starving the Cuban people is that in fact, the US could go that far and it would actually end…

> The USA, like all serious countries, seeks to defend and advance its interests. Those interests include the suppression of self-declared enemies like Cuba and Iran, or seeking regime change so they cease being self-declared enemies of the US. 1) I'm not aware of such a declaration coming from Cuba. Please give a link. 2) Are you sure it's USA's interests, not just a few very rich people from USA?

> 1) I'm not aware of such a declaration coming from Cuba. Please give a link.

> A speech by Raul at the University of Havana on 20 April [1959], however, attacked the United States as an "enemy of the Cuban revolution," in sharp contrast to Fidel's concurrent speeches during his visit to the United States.

- https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80B01676R0027000...

But don't worry, Fidel dropped the mask:

> Cubans are admired for their spirit, for their deeds, for their courage, for their enthusiasm, because the Cubans are a people who, when they are told "it is necessary to meet to respond to aggression, to show the enemy of Cuba that the people are with the revolution, to show that the people have no fear, so that they can see that the people are ready to carry out their pledge of "homeland or death"!" (SHOUTS)

- https://cuba-solidarity.org.uk/resources/declarationofhavana...

> And that is also our position on Laos, and North Vietnam, and South Vietnam. (Applause) We are a small nation, not too far from the shores of the imperialist homeland. Our arms are eminently defensive. But our men, wholeheartedly, our revolutionary militants, our fighters, are prepared to fight the imperialists in any part of the world. (Applause) Our country is a small one; our territory could even be partially occupied by the enemy; but that would never mean a cessation of our resistance. > But the world is big, and the imperialists are everywhere, and for the Cuban revolutionaries the field of battle against imperialism takes in the whole world. (Applause) Without boasting, without any kind of immodesty, that is how we Cuban revolutionaries understand our internationalist duty. That is the way our people understand their duty, because they realize that the enemy is one and indivisible; the one who attacks us along our shoes and on our land is the same who attacks the others. Hence we say and we declare that Cuban fighters can be counted on by the revolutionary movement in any corner of the earth. (Applause)

- https://www.marxists.org/history/cuba/archive/castro/1966/01...

> The enemy had to be shown and the enemy had to be taught that there can be no fooling around with the people. The enemy had to be shown that there can be no fooling around with the revolution. [applause] The enemy had to be shown that a people cannot be offered with impunity, [applause] that a people cannot be threatened with impunity. [shouts of `No"] And this image, this image is what they dreamed of destroying, the image of what the people are, the true revolutionary people, the proletarian people, the working people, the peasant people, the combatant people, the student people. [prolonged applause, indistinct chanting] > Perhaps they thought the revolution has weakened and you can see what weakness of the revolution they have uncovered. [rhythmic applause, indistinct chanting] You can see what type of a revolution they have found. That is why it was necessary to wage this battle. > As you know, over recent months our party and our people have been waging a tenacious and selfless struggle for exigency, to overcome inefficiencies, to overcome difficulties. This work was being done quietly and insistently for months. It could be said that our revolution, our people and our party were devoted to this work and to productive activities, especially the sugar harvest and the planting [of sugarcane], coping with the problems of the diseases of tobacco and sugarcane and the swine fever which mysteriously, mysteriously appeared almost simultaneously in our country. We were tackling various problems of our revolutionary process. We were struggling for development, struggling to improve everything within our material capabilities, and preparing for the congress of our party. We were involved in that task. But, why does this situation emerge? It is not a coincidence; it is not a coincidence.

- https://www.marxists.org/history/cuba/archive/castro/1980/05...

> 2) Are you sure it's USA's interests, not just a few very rich people from USA?

First of all: This is just splitting hairs. A few very rich people from USA are in charge of US policy. And a few very rich people from Cuba and Iran are in charge of Cuban and Iranian policy.

When I say that Cuba and Iran are USA's enemies, I mean that in the geopolitcal sense. I don't mean that all citizens/residents of Cuba and Iran are enemies of all citizens of the USA.

Second: Significant fractions of both those countries' citizens are--unlike their few very rich policymakers--quite friendly to the US. This encourages US policy of regime change.

The misalignment of interests you point out cuts both ways.

Re: Cuba says it has run out of fuel, blames U.S. embargo

#288

What we're doing to the Cuban people with this blockade is criminal. I don't expect to see justice in my lifetime. What a miserable state of affairs.

Cuba is a Criminal state, the smart ones already left for America several times, 10% of the population in 2022-2023.

So many false tears shed for doing a 100th of what the Cuban government has done to it's own people. Iran, the Houthies, Cuba in the 60s etc none of them believed in free trade, infact they expropriated billions in American owned assets.

Re: Cuba says it has run out of fuel, blames U.S. embargo

#289
post #288

What we're doing to the Cuban people with this blockade is criminal. I don't expect to see justice in my lifetime. What a miserable state of affairs.

Cuba is a Criminal state, the smart ones already left for America several times, 10% of the population in 2022-2023. So many false tears shed for doing a 100th of what the Cuban government has done to it's own people. Iran, the Houthies, Cuba in the 60s etc none of them believed in free trade, infact they expropriated billions in American owned assets.

As a sovereign country, Cuba has the right to nationalize economic activity if it deems it necessary. It compensated all countries whose businesses were nationalized, such as Switzerland, France, and Canada. Except the United States, which refused the compensation and began attacking its neighbor.
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