Can the Cuban Embargo imposed by the U.S. be considered a contemporary social issue in Cuba?
480145
The embargo could hardly be called a new event since it was put in place by John Kennedy. Why don't you do one based on the soon to take place change of power in Cuba. What will happen when Fidel dies? Or about how even with the increases in tourism to Cuba in recent years, the everyday person is still denied access to visiters and the illeagality of cuban ownership of any kind of foreign currency.
834113
Since Cuba is a recognized enemy of the USA Cubans that set foot on dry soil are admitted.   The Wife and family can be negotiated for.
327113
No one in the USA, citizen, or not is allowed to bring Cuban cigars onto USA soil. The penalty is 50,000. per cigar, if you get caught in the USA, with them, due to the embargo against Cuba. I discovered this during a cruise, by a US Customs official. We could smoke them while on the ship, and encouraged to attend the cocktails, and Cohibas party the night before arriving to dock. It was a cruise to remember. Several people were detained, their bags open, and dogs working the contents, once we docked. I suspect that if only cigars were found, they would be confiscated. I took no chances.
824020
Yes I agree with you. Cubans can stay in the U.S as long as they reach U.S soil, and no one throws a fuse. Are Canadian borders are left open and no one throws a fuse. But God forbid Mexicans coming over to look for work is a cause for panic.
601644
I'm no expert, but most of the Cuban people seem to like American culture enough to push consensus to accept Democracy. There may be figures in the military that want to take the reigns like Castro did, so that may be a potential source of conflict. But if the US really wants to impose it's will, they can really pressure a new guy in different, more direct ways. Especially since Russia doesn't have their back anymore.
416599
possibly but it has to do with more than castro because when he dies, he already has a brother, (or relative), that is going to take over. Maybe the U.S. and the next cuban president can work things out but its unlikely
197935
Puerto Rico is part of the United States. Cuba is a dictatorship under Castrol The Dominican Republic is a very unstable country in the area.
112128
The U.S. control of this Cuban territory has never been popular with the Cuban government or the Cuban people. The Cuban government strongly denounces the treaty on grounds that article 52 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties declares a treaty void if its conclusion has been procured by the threat or use of force — in this case by the inclusion, in 1903, of the Platt Amendment in the Cuban Constitution. The United States warned the Cuban Constitutional Convention not to modify the Amendment, and was told U.S. troops would not leave Cuba until its terms had been adopted as a condition for the U.S. to grant independence, making the Geneva Conventions applicable to the 1903/1934 treaty upheld by that Amendment.\n\nThe United States holds that by cashing the first check received in accordance with said treaty, Castro's government effectively ratified the lease, and cannot unilaterally change its mind after the fact on account of political tensions or ideological differences. It further argues that all claims regarding an original violation of sovereignty under the Platt Amendment, and questions of an illegal military occupation, became moot once the new and independent revolutionary government freely reaffirmed the base's legitimacy.
633899
The Mexican, Cuban, and other foreign people need a place to go where they will be accepted. If this place happens to be America then so be it. Its inhumane to shoot people trying to cross the boarder or to send them back to Cuba after traveling across a fairly substantial strentch of water. We're the great American melting pot and it would be great if that could continue  peacefuly.
407434
certainly,cuba is for Cubans, Germany is for the Germans; and so forth, why espouse democracy,independence and self reliance  to the people of the World when in reality these are not being practiced. These are only rhetorics a misnomer
309240
The trade embargo with Cuba is not successful because there are plenty of other countries that wish to trade with them. It was only the United States that had a problem with Cuba's regime change and subsequent romance with Communism. The Russians have had a healthy trade with Cuba since the early 1960s.\n\nBasically, trade embargos can only work if they are universally adhered to. This one is not. In fact, some countries around the world believe that the trade embargo with Cuba is unjust (possibly illegal) and only serves to hurt the common people of the country.
424325
Yes.  My two cents...  Expect relations to thaw the day Castro passes away (soon).  Everything is set in place for a thaw in relations, however waiting for a new leader would carry far less political risk than forgiving Castro himself.
679623
Because whether it is right or wrong to do, it's a political loser.\n\nWhoever votes to lift the embargo will lose Florida in the election. Then there is the sugar agri-businesses, who would then have Cuban cane sugar to compete with. More political costs.\n\nLet's face it - politicrits are re-election whores at heart, and have no courage to make such a bold move.\n\nPersonally, I am against trade with any of those bad countries. But I understand that politics and principle rarely mix.
367189
Elián González (born December 6, 1993) was at the center of a heated custody and immigration battle in 2000 between the Cuban and United States governments, his father, his Miami relatives, and the Cuban American community of Miami. The climactic stage of this prolonged battle was the April 22, 2000 seizure of six-year-old Elián by federal agents, which drew the ire and criticism of many in the Cuban-American community and presidential candidates Al Gore and George W. Bush and prompted a Senate inquiry. However, after the Miami relatives' appeals met several rejections by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, and a refusal to hear the case by the US Supreme Court, Elián González returned to Cuba with his father, Juan Miguel González, on the afternoon of June 28, 2000.\n\nHostility between Cuba and the United States has been persistent since the Cuban Revolution. Over that period, a considerable number of Cubans have tried to leave for the United States, hoping for greater freedom and better economic conditions. This emigration is illegal under both Cuban and US law; any Cuban found at sea, attempting to reach US shores, will be deported by the US Coast Guard or if caught by Cuban police, executed. Since the Carter era, US policy has evolved into the current "wet feet, dry feet" rule: If a Cuban refugee is picked up at sea or walking toward shore, he will be repatriated by force (i.e., sent back to Cuba against his will). If he can make it to shore ("dry feet"), he is permitted to make a case for political asylum. Under a 1995 migration accord with Cuba, Cubans who make it to US soil are generally allowed to remain in the country (a policy applied exclusively to Cubans because those returned to Cuba may face imprisonment or death).\n\nIn November 1999, Elián, his mother, and twelve others fled Cuba on a small aluminum boat with a faulty engine; Elián's mother and ten others died in the crossing. The boat was operated by his mother's boyfriend, who resided in Miami and smuggled Cubans into the US for money (a felony under federal law). Elián and the other two survivors completed the journey across the Florida Straits on an inner tube. Elián was rescued at sea by two fishermen who then gave him to the US Coast Guard.\n\nThe Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) released Elián to his great uncle, Lázaro. Lázaro's daughter, Marisleysis (first cousin once removed to Elián), became something of a maternal figure to Elián. Armando Gutierrez, a local Miami-based Cuban-American activist became the family spokesperson and a close friend of the family. INS officials told reporters neither they nor the State Department had any legal say in the matter. It was demanded that the boy be returned to Cuba to the care of his father, touching off the firestorm that ended only when Elián was taken at gunpoint by federal agents who forcibly entered Lázaro's house. Elián was flown back to Havana with his father, Juan Miguel González-Quintana, Juan Miguel's wife, their son, and a cousin, on June 28, 2000.\n\nElián's mother, Elizabeth Brotons, had taken Elián without Juan Miguel's knowledge, so in addition to the case's political refugee overtones, it was also a child custody battle. The debate was whether US immigration laws mandated that he be returned to his father, as Juan Miguel could speak for Elián only if it was assumed Juan Miguel was not under duress from the Cuban government.\n\nFor much of early 2000, Elián's plight dominated the news in the US and in Cuba. On April 14, a video was released in which Elián "tells" Juan Miguel that he wants to stay in the US. Many considered that he had been coached, as a male voice was heard off-camera directing the young boy. In a September 2005 interview with 60 Minutes Elián claimed that during his stay in the US his family members were "telling me bad things about [my father]", and &quo
1176317
Cuba -- will that bug ever get squashed.  Americans have had a presence in Cuba since the Eisenhower Administration.   We are on Cuban soil; hence, anything done to anyone on Cuban soil is not covered under the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights, or the Geneva Convention Rules on Prisoners of War.\n\nAs long as America ships prisoners to countries that are not obliged to honor the Constitution, prisoners can be treated any way the captors want to treat them.  So, does that make the prisoners in Cuba any less "terrorists?"  We will never know.  \n\nI don't know if you understand this or not-----"you do know this, right?"----but America is no longer run by the people, of the people, and for the people.  America is being run by, of, and for the corporations who can pay enough money to keep this war going so they can get rich on the government contracts George Bush is giving to all the people he bankrupted in Texas.  I guess that's one way to pay off your debts!\n\nIt's sad, though, that the lives of honorable, courageous, and loyal Americans are being bought and sold to the highest bidder in the Bush Administration.
729128
Ultimately, I think this is a non-partisan issue.  \n\nPreserving societal morals is a human question, not a Republican one.  \n\nTaking the vote to the states, is a good start, and wholly supported Constitutionally, under the 10th Amendment.
529589
Cuba is ninety miles from the US.  Cuba was the only country in the western hemisphere that was communist.  Russia put missiles in Cuba directed at the US,  The wealthy Cubans got out and moved to Florida when Castro took over, became a political force.  Russia was the only other superpower that could challenge the US and in Cuba they were too close for comfort.  Remember the times -  it was early 60s.  Only two powers had nukes, Russia and the US.  School children practiced drills against nuke attacks.  They were taught to hid under school desks. Shelter were set up  and stocked by the govt in case of a nuke strike.  It was not too long after the Red scare congressional hearings and many US citizens being ruined by blacklisting.  A big difference now and then is that the US economy was strong.  Manufacturing took place in the US.  We had the natural resources to  keep the country going.  It was  around 20 years since Europe was torn apart by a World War.  It was around 20 years since the US saw what a nuke could do.  Rmemmber Japan.  Memories were fresh and not yet part of history  that few people are still alive to remember. Items made in Japan were trinkets with a low value.  We had a nice little war going called Viet Nam against the Communist.  How could we say it was OK for them to be in Cuba even though the previous system was a place of extreme wealth and extreme poor.  Corruption was common and then go to war against the same political system in Southeast Asia. War in the past  always helped the US economy. The reason that we don't don't beat the drum against China the way we did USSR is that China holds a huge chunk of the US debt now.  If they called it in the US would be bankrupt.