re: Boy the economy in Cuba is really getting bad

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I wonder how it would look if the US didn’t maintain its ridiculous trade embargo?

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It would certainly be better but still bad. I visited Cuba about a dozen years ago. As my plane descended into Havana I noticed what appeared to be a rather nice four lane highway. As I got lower I noticed there were no lane markings and only one vehicle in sight. It was a horse drawn cart. While there, I saw numerous oxen drawn plows.

Damone, You can’t blame that on a US embargo. You just can’t.

I had about a dozen meals there. One thing that stood out is that the fruit was bland. It’s a tropical island and they can’t source fresh fruit. I’m afraid you can’t blame that on the US, either.

The mansions along the ocean front, that used to belong to the rich and powerful, are falling apart. About one in ten had already collapsed. Many of the rest had chunks of concrete missing with exposed reinforcing steel. You see, Damone, you socialists had forced the homeowners to admit peasants from the hills and had taken possession of the houses by the government. With no one owning it, no one maintained it. They are all too far gone to be salvaged.

These houses are microcosms of all of Cuba. Che was in charge of sugar production, and it fell from pre-war levels of 5 to 7 million tons per year to less than half of that. Now it is below half a million tons. There are a lot of customers for sugar in the world, and many are enemies of the United States. I don’t see how you can blame the US for all of this.