Cuba collapse - Drinkin’ rum and Coca Cola

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mindlessobserver said:
Only landlocked country to do so lol
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No, Laos, Paraguay, Ethiopia, and Uzbekistan are landlocked countries who also have naval forces, but this is not not counting countries that are de-jure landlocked but have access to big lakes (i.e. Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Malawi), and countries with a negligible amount of small patrol boats on rivers (i.e. Rwanda, Central African Republic, Hungary, Serbia).
 
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I had thought of this article from earlier this year, but couldn't find it until now, though it's still applicable.

Some select interesting quotes:
In Cuba, the Terminal Stage of Communism Is a Mafia

Regime corruption, economic collapse and public anger point to trouble ahead​

MARTIN GURRI
MAR 26, 2024
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On February 5, Mirtza Ocana, an American citizen of Cuban origin, arrived at Tampa International Airport from Havana and was arrested for attempting to smuggle more than $100,000 into the country. When questioned, Ocana confessed to having carried out 45 similar assignments since May 2023. The smuggling operation involved millions of dollars.

Because Cuba has slipped beneath the attention horizon of the news media, this incident attracted zero interest. Yet it posed a perplexing riddle. Cuba’s communist regime currently faces the most disastrous economic collapse in its long history of such failures. The reasons are many, but most immediately it’s a lack of foreign currency with which to buy food and fuel for the population. The Cuban economy resembles those broken-down cars from the ’50s still found on the streets of Havana: It produces little for internal consumption and almost nothing that can be sold abroad for hard currency.

Why, then, is the island now exporting dollars to the United States?
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The search for an answer leads to two radical transformations that have taken place, largely unnoticed, in Cuba. The first concerns the regime, which has given up any revolutionary pretensions and become what ordinary Cubans call a “mafia.” Don’t think of the pushy American racketeers in the style of “Godfather II.” The mafia in Cuba is indistinguishable from the regime itself. The matter is naturally shrouded by fictions and smokescreens, but the godfather may well be the country’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel.

Outwardly, nothing has changed. The worn-out slogans are still piously intoned. The Communist Party, with its repressive apparatus, still dodders on. Raúl Castro, 92, remains a shadowy but frightening presence. But new people are in charge of ruling a society that, top to bottom, has lost all faith in the system—and, as often happens in moments of exhausted zealotry, those who command power and resources want nothing more than to enjoy the good life and protect themselves against an uncertain future.
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Corruption can be simple or complex. Officials fortunate enough to have control over scarce resources like fuel sell these on the black market and realize enormous profits. The preferred approach is more indirect, however. Following the outbreak of anti-regime protests in July 2021, the government allowed the establishment of private “micro, small, and medium enterprises,” theoretically as a way to open up the economy to market forces. But most if not all of the 9,000 private enterprises operating in Cuba today are owned by powerful regime figures who then funnel public works contracts to them.

This is an old game in Latin America. The governor of Cienfuegos can invoke an urban preservation law to raze a city block and award the rebuilding contract to an enterprise he himself owns, netting two million pesos in the bargain. In his video, Cuéllar cites many such maneuvers. Even by Cuban standards, astonishing amounts of money are flowing to the peak of the political pyramid.
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Where does the money go? Some of it buys what passes for the good life in Cuba. The vast majority of the island’s inhabitants, we must remember, subsist in conditions of abysmal poverty, enduring constant power blackouts and food shortages while stuck in housing that is literally crumbling into ruins. But a thin crust at the top can afford to live in modern comfort. Even minor members of the Cienfuegos mafia dwell in new suburban-looking homes with garages, sun panels for air-conditioning and water heating and generators to avoid those pesky blackouts on cloudy days.
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Higher-ups like the governor own luxurious residences—according to Cuéllar, designed by the minister of interior’s favorite architect—as well as places of rest and recreation at the beach and in the countryside, a magnificent sailing ship and shiny BMWs. Two palatial buildings in the city and an extensive marina are said by Cuéllar to be controlled by the country’s prime minister, Marrero Cruz. Since another money trail leads directly to president Díaz-Canel’s brother-in-law, we can safely assume that the local rackets enjoy the benevolent protection of the regime. Life is truly good for the Cienfuegos mafia.
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But most of the money is converted into dollars and sent illegally out of the country. In an economic distortion possible only under late-stage dementia communism, it is likely that Cuba’s dearth of foreign currency is due to the mafia siphoning all dollars in the island, then smuggling them to safe havens overseas. Cuéllar maintains that the governor’s wife, a Chamber of Commerce representative who in her official capacity frequently travels abroad, acts as the “mule” or smuggler for the Cienfuegos gang. That may or may not be the case—but it’s plain that here, at this turn of the screw, the Cuban regime’s new criminal vocation connects with the arrest at the Tampa airport. Ocana was bringing millions into the U.S. on behalf of some member of the Cuban government. That person is probably known, and as we’ll see, the revelation could trigger a crisis within the regime.
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Why are Cuba’s rulers intent on taking their wealth out of the country? The answer should be apparent. For all their power and luxury, these people are terrified of the future. To be a member of the Cuban ruling class is to perform, every day, a high-wire act over an active volcano. Since the courage provided by ideological fervor has dissipated, the only safe move is out.

The wreckage of the Cuban economy really can’t be exaggerated. The perpetual blackouts are an apt symbol of a country that is headed for the dark ages. For the first time since the revolution, Cuba is begging the United Nations for food aid. Nearly half a million persons have fled the island in despair during the last two years—that’s 4% of the population, the equivalent of more than 12 million Americans. Yet the failure cascade is moving faster than the capacity to emigrate. People feel trapped and hopeless. The volcano is growling. Despite the words we use, national economies never actually implode—but the regimes that exploit and mismanage them often do.
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At the same time, the Cuban public has found its voice. That is the second radical transformation of Cuban society. Despite the blackouts and the poor connectivity, large numbers of Cubans are venting online. I have no idea how this happens, but the web in Cuba has turned into an immense chorus of anger and disgust.
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Yamil Cuéllar, we have seen, can put together high-quality investigative documentaries, posted on YouTube, in which his contempt for the system is expressed in earthy Cubanisms. Cuéllar’s relentless attacks on the government and predictions of its imminent fall make one wonder: Why is this man not in prison? The most likely answer, once again, is a crisis of nerve at the top. Regime enforcers don’t want to be caught striking the wrong pose when the volcano blows.
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Most moving are the expressions of little-known individuals trapped in the catastrophe of a failed utopia, trying to make sense of the nightmare of everyday life. Those unable to flee Cuba today escape to the web. They post on Facebook and X, they exchange links and opinions on WhatsApp, they complain of the dark and the heat and the mosquitos at night, they mock the regime, they pray to God for consolation. “How lucky we Cubans are that we can go to the web!” reads a Facebook post. “That’s the end of the state monopoly over information!” During a blackout, one poster asks, “Where can we protest?” Another answers: “Right here.”
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Cynicism toward the authorities is absolute. “They’re trying to do damage control and offer Alejandro Gil’s head on a silver platter.” “This was a plan, this wasn’t about errors, this was a plan to destroy from within everything we had believed and built.” Amid a volley of emojis, one wag claimed on Facebook that the words of the communist anthem, the “Internationale,” had been written about Cubans: “Arise, wretched of the earth, stand up you slaves without bread ...”

Once the jokes and the defiance stop, we are confronted with the awful spectacle of human existence in a state of pure desperation. “Of course I’m unwell with blackouts of 15 hours one day and eight hours the next. I feel dissociated, I’m not well. I think I’m entering into insanity,” a woman wrote. A poster warned: “This can’t continue indefinitely.”
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Karl Marx taught that the final stage of socialism is communism. We have learned from the evidence of Cuba that the terminal stage of communism is a heedless gangsterism. After that, the deluge.
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Just when you think Cuba reached the bottom of the barrel....

December 27, 2024

Cuban communists fumble economy so badly that they now import sugar—at $25 a pound​

By Olivia Murray

For the better part of a century, Cuba has been under the control of communists and their ideologies, and the previously inconceivable has finally happened—they’ve run out of sugar. Like John Hinderaker at Powerline quipped, “This is like Libya running out of sand.”

Or…like Alabama running out of cotton.
Like Costa Rica running out of pineapples.

Like Russia running out of vodka.
Like Saudi Arabia running out of oil.

Like China running out of rice.
Like the Midwest running out of corn.

Like Afghanistan running out of opium.
How is this even possible? Do you really even have to do anything to get a tropical crop to grow on an island nation with a literal year-round growing season?

According to a new report from CiberCuba, the communists are now importing sugar at about $25 a pound, and have stopped exporting entirely, after a number of “failures” over the years. NEWS FLASH: Communism never works, and it is always a failure. If anyone needs a refresher as to what happens to a plot of land after communists take over and try to grow something, look no furhter than the CHAZ community garden in Seattle from the summer of 2020:
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Clyde Cash's Left Teste said:
Yeah, Cuba's government is running on fumes now. How much longer they have left. I don't know.

I wonder if Trump is going to end up annexing Cuba.
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The current Cuban economy is probably going to irreversibly collapse in 1-3 years.

Russia can't help them, China has had enough of their idiotic BS (same with Venezuela as well in Chines thinking) and everyone else knows investing in Cuba isn't worth it at this moment.
 
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Falcos_Commisar said:
The current Cuban economy is probably going to irreversibly collapse in 1-3 years.

Russia can't help them, China has had enough of their idiotic BS (same with Venezuela as well in Chines thinking) and everyone else knows investing in Cuba isn't worth it at this moment.
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That's why I think its plausible that Trump could pull off annexing Cuba.
 
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One guy posted a good rant about Cuba who's worth to read.

January 6, 2025

Another January to remember Cuba​

By Silvio Canto, Jr.


Cuba became an independent country in 1902. You can divide the island’s history into two periods: the pre-Castro years and the current regime’s period in power since 1959.

I was born in the last decade of pre-Castro Cuba. My story so typical of the other kids born in the 1950s. We were the grandchildren or great-grandchildren of immigrants from Spain or elsewhere.
Our ancestors came to Cuba because it was a prosperous island, an attractive place for Spaniards seeking a better life, for Jewish refugees from Europe, hardworking Asians, and others.

It was a young and vibrant country with hope and a future. In other words, the island of Cuba attracted people rather than driving its citizens away looking for a future.
It is really sad to watch Cuba today, from energy blackouts to importing sugar. Let me repeat: importing sugar. As a result, the young escape and look for a better life, preferably in the U.S. The old get stuck behind.

As I saw yesterday, Cuba is on track to have the oldest population in Latin America.
It is even more painful when you realize that pre-Castro Cuba attracted thousands of immigrants from all over the world, as our friend Dr Carlos Eire wrote:
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I apologize for the double post but Trump put Cuba back on the list, fixing what Biden did.

January 23, 2025

Cuba back on the list​

By Silvio Canto, Jr.


It did not take long before President Trump reversed one of President Biden's most outrageous decisions. In other words, the corrupt Cuban dictatorship is back where it belongs. Here is the story:

President Donald Trump’s swift action after his Monday inauguration to return Cuba to the list of countries that support terrorism is a necessary step to uphold U.S. national security interests -- and to show the island government that Trump, whom they hate, is back.
The change to Cuba’s status came as Trump signed 78 executive orders on Day One of his presidency.
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Interesting if true- in the end, there is nothing really that the world needs from Cuba except for its rapidly declining human capital (and its location as a base against the US)- perhaps this why the US embargo is as effective as it is.

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cybertoaster said:
What were you doing there?
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Visiting it, went from Camaguey all the way to Havana.
jje100010001 said:
Interesting if true- in the end, there is nothing really that the world needs from Cuba except for its rapidly declining human capital (and its location as a base against the US)- perhaps this why the US embargo is as effective as it is.

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LMAO. All that communist brotherhood is falling apart
 
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