Does Rubio have a point??

[VeguerosMAN]

8 hours ago, ha_banos said:

Meanwhile in the world of Kirby and the cigar masters. Everything's fiiiine. I can't believe he's still pushing Cuba content like this right now. Just feels so tone deaf.

In Kirby's defense I don't think he is in Cuba right now and is pushing his Cuban content. The Sahakians post similar Cuban content as well. If Kirby is in Havana right now, then it's a different story. 

[El Presidente]

8 hours ago, VeguerosMAN said:

Similar playbook, but Iran has oil (maybe for now?), and Cuba doesn't. I don't know whether people will stay civil til Nov when they are dealing with 22 hour blackouts daily. 

Cuba has Iran keeping the US occupied...for the time being. 

I am just suppositioning that Cuba and Iran will drag out the process of negotiation out to November if they can. I doubt the Republicans will want to go into midterms with 2 conflicts unresolved. 

That makes the next 8 weeks for Cuba/Diaz especially critical. 

Regardless of midterms, Cuba in it's present form is unlikely to continue. There is little income. With the new US Administration rules effective 1st of June, the last of the major foreign companies have cut ties.  ourism down over 50% in the past 18 months. 

[Ken Gargett]

no question that the cuban administration has their own interests first and foremost but for the US to suggest that they do not bear any responsibility is ridiculous. as someone here said, if the embargo is not doing this then get rid of it and prove it. it should have been gone decades ago but Cuba is a tiny place and an easy target. plenty of other nations are presumably just as equally deserving as Cuba but are not so easy to bully. if the embargo had been removed decades ago, we would see a very different Cuba today. so easy for the Cuban admin to use it as the reason for the problems, to keep the people under the heel. once the world gets in to Cuba, much harder for the admin to justify so much of what they have done. 

if the US does invade, we all assume that it will be over in the blink of an eye. Cuba have made it clear that they will resist. we have seen that it is not always as easy for larger stronger nations to overwhelm presumably weaker ones as quickly as they would wish. ukraine an obvious example. iran also, although one suspects that they were always a lot stronger than some wanted to believe. if Cuban resistance proves even vaguely more than anticipated, it will be massively embarrassing for the US and the suggestion that the US does not want to be dealing with two conflicts as they go into midterms is surely true. 

i think Rob is correct and the next step is to hang on for midterms and see what happens. and the GOP does not want to be fighting those elections under the shadow of any American deaths in Cuba. 

but one other factor. given the way certain long term republicans have found themselves kicked out for not sufficient bending of the knee, while they are still there it does seem some have finally found a backbone and will make it more difficult for such actions to take place by opposing their leadership. they have nothing to lose and little is as vindictive as a politician spurned. 

[Ryan]

The way things are going, Cuba won't last until November without some kind of change.

I just heard that Visa and Mastercard payments will be suspended from Saturday.
https://today.rtl.lu/news/world/us-sanctions-interrupt-visa-mastercard-payments-in-cuba-1782429347

One of the last mechanisms of receiving foreign funds in Cuba. 

I'm hearing the last Spanish banks, still dealing with Cuba, will suspend transactions this month too.

Since Covid, more and more Cubans are openly expressing discontent. Those that haven't already left.

However nobody likes to be told by a foreign entity how they should run their government. Not by embargo, energy blockade, financial sanctions or suspension of international payments and especially not at the end of a gun.

Even the Cubans unhappy with the current system are still proud of their sovereignty. Every country deserves that right. 

What does the US want from Cuba, it changes every day. Successive US presidents, at least since Clinton, would have been happy with a Vietnam type relationship, as would the government in Cuba. But Vietnam hasn't had an ex-pat population in the US with a lobby strong enough to prevent this from happening.

Vietnam paid compensation to US companies and interests that were nationalised after 1975. About $200m.

I have heard of $9 billion in compensation asked of Cuba, that doesn't sound too bad in the scheme of things. However, Cuba has requested $165 Billion in compensation from the US for lost business and opportunities since 1962 due to the embargo. That is not going to be sorted out too easily.

Trump mentions sending back 500,000 Cuban nationals to Cuba as part of a deal. Including some naturalized US citizens. What do they go back to? Speeding up a humanitarian crisis?

Europe has been disgraceful through all of this, sitting on their hands. I had a conversation with a vice-president of the European Investment Bank (the vice-president in charge of Developing Nations) about development/investment aid to Cuba. It was a short conversation, basically "we can't take the risk".

I'm hearing from cigar retailers all over Europe of accelerated difficulties accepting Visa and Mastercard payments for Cuban products. Providers and acquirers sending "cease and desist" letters to retailers.

Hopefully this situation will at least wake up Europe and the rest of the world to fact that sovereignty doesn't just mean borders. It also means freedom of financial transactions, technological and military security and freedom to trade with any country they wish. There are signs that this is beginning, and that's a good thing, but probably not in time for Cuba.

[Dadof3]

8 hours ago, VeguerosMAN said:

Cuba will abandon fossil fuels all together and go straight to solar power as their main source of energy and lead the clean energy revolution that the world will envy in the near future. Perhaps that's what the regime is doing - transitioning from oil to solar. 

If Cuba could develop a full fledged solar grid it would be pretty impressive. Long term the world has to get away from burning fossil fuels. I’m skeptical it happens right now, but it can’t hurt and might help.  

[chris12381]

On 6/2/2026 at 12:34 PM, El Presidente said:

The GAE is not the product of secrecy, nor of elites, and certainly not a means of enrichment for a select few

An institution that hid its finances from the Cuban National Assembly, barred government auditors, registered subsidiaries in Panama and the Cayman Islands, and whose existence Díaz-Canel himself refused to publicly acknowledge until foreign companies started walking out the door is claiming it was never secret. 😂

They tout the construction of 10,000 homes and a Pioneer Camp as evidence of GAESA's contribution to Cuban society. After 30 years and $18 billion in assets while people are searching through garbage on the streets of Havana under the shadow of Torre K.

[El Presidente]

2 hours ago, chris12381 said:

An institution that hid its finances from the Cuban National Assembly, barred government auditors, registered subsidiaries in Panama and the Cayman Islands, and whose existence Díaz-Canel himself refused to publicly acknowledge until foreign companies started walking out the door is claiming it was never secret. 😂

They tout the construction of 10,000 homes and a Pioneer Camp as evidence of GAESA's contribution to Cuban society. After 30 years and $18 billion in assets while people are searching through garbage on the streets of Havana under the shadow of Torre K.

Tongue in cheek 

Diaz should have issued a meme coin.😉

...The day all these buffoons are gone the better.

[VeguerosMAN]

According to my Cubans in Havana and Pinar, Diaz is just a puppet for the Castro family. The Castros still control Cuba. I may be wrong, but I believe most Cubans want a complete regime change and become a part of the US as the 51st state.  

[VeguerosMAN]

21 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

no question that the cuban administration has their own interests first and foremost but for the US to suggest that they do not bear any responsibility is ridiculous. as someone here said, if the embargo is not doing this then get rid of it and prove it. it should have been gone decades ago but Cuba is a tiny place and an easy target. plenty of other nations are presumably just as equally deserving as Cuba but are not so easy to bully. if the embargo had been removed decades ago, we would see a very different Cuba today. so easy for the Cuban admin to use it as the reason for the problems, to keep the people under the heel. once the world gets in to Cuba, much harder for the admin to justify so much of what they have done. 

if the US does invade, we all assume that it will be over in the blink of an eye. Cuba have made it clear that they will resist. we have seen that it is not always as easy for larger stronger nations to overwhelm presumably weaker ones as quickly as they would wish. ukraine an obvious example. iran also, although one suspects that they were always a lot stronger than some wanted to believe. if Cuban resistance proves even vaguely more than anticipated, it will be massively embarrassing for the US and the suggestion that the US does not want to be dealing with two conflicts as they go into midterms is surely true. 

i think Rob is correct and the next step is to hang on for midterms and see what happens. and the GOP does not want to be fighting those elections under the shadow of any American deaths in Cuba. 

but one other factor. given the way certain long term republicans have found themselves kicked out for not sufficient bending of the knee, while they are still there it does seem some have finally found a backbone and will make it more difficult for such actions to take place by opposing their leadership. they have nothing to lose and little is as vindictive as a politician spurned. 

I don't think Cuba will fight back if the US takes over the island. It would just be like the Maduro operation 2.0 as China and Russia bark from the sideline but won't bite.  

[Khimerah]

18 hours ago, Dadof3 said:

That's an excellent point. If the US could work things out with Vietnam they should be able to work it out with Cuba. I guess the issue is whether the US can agree on some reforms for Cuba and leave the government there intact? My guess is that if the Cuban government said they would distance themselves from Russian and Chinese influence if the US took over the subsidies they receive from those countries they'd have a lot of common ground at that point. I don't think the US anticipates a complete change in how Cuba is governed but I'm sure they want a neighbor that is not so friendly with the bigger rivals of the US. I question whether the Cuban community in the US will accept anything less than a regime change coupled with some sort of recognition of their old property rights.

I think if you look at the Venezuelan example, the U.S. government looked for people they could trust if Maduro was ousted. I wouldn’t doubt this is being done right now in Cuba, but one particular issue is the military receives a large portion of the sanctions. So, it’s a very tricky situation but ultimately if Cuba completely collapses or entirely opens up I think it will be interesting to see for example in the cigar world how that looks. The amount of lawsuits and trademark infringement cases would be very high. I’m not sure if the admin wants that to all happen though. 

[VeguerosMAN]

11 minutes ago, Khimerah said:

I think if you look at the Venezuelan example, the U.S. government looked for people they could trust if Maduro was ousted. I wouldn’t doubt this is being done right now in Cuba, but one particular issue is the military receives a large portion of the sanctions. So, it’s a very tricky situation but ultimately if Cuba completely collapses or entirely opens up I think it will be interesting to see for example in the cigar world how that looks. The amount of lawsuits and trademark infringement cases would be very high. I’m not sure if the admin wants that to all happen though. 

I think once the shi t goes down, cigar lawsuits and trademark issues will be the last thing on the Trump admins mind. I can see heavy hitters like Padron, Davidoff, and Fuente take over Cuban tobaccos once the regime collapses 

[ha_banos]

28 minutes ago, Khimerah said:

I think if you look at the Venezuelan example, the U.S. government looked for people they could trust if Maduro was ousted. I wouldn’t doubt this is being done right now in Cuba, but one particular issue is the military receives a large portion of the sanctions. So, it’s a very tricky situation but ultimately if Cuba completely collapses or entirely opens up I think it will be interesting to see for example in the cigar world how that looks. The amount of lawsuits and trademark infringement cases would be very high. I’m not sure if the admin wants that to all happen though. 

Oh my. The lawyers are rubbing their hands in glee! No one else cares given everything else that needs sorting out. 

[BrightonCorgi]

32 minutes ago, VeguerosMAN said:

I think once the shi t goes down, cigar lawsuits and trademark issues will be the last thing on the Trump admins mind. I can see heavy hitters like Padron, Davidoff, and Fuente take over Cuban tobaccos once the regime collapses 

Easiest solution is the introduction of new brands for US import or export of tobacco for Clear Havana production in the US.  I would much prefer the latter.  

[yuppie]

I'm hugely interested to see how all this plays out. I'd love to visit once the last shoe drops and I really want to see Cuba liberated from communism. I think if it became a US territory like Puerto Rico, that'd be the best thing.

[BrightonCorgi]

10 minutes ago, yuppie said:

I'm hugely interested to see how all this plays out. I'd love to visit once the last shoe drops and I really want to see Cuba liberated from communism. I think if it became a US territory like Puerto Rico, that'd be the best thing.

Imagine Cuba as our 51st state?  Would be way cooler than if Puerto Rico was.

[Dadof3]

34 minutes ago, yuppie said:

I'm hugely interested to see how all this plays out. I'd love to visit once the last shoe drops and I really want to see Cuba liberated from communism. I think if it became a US territory like Puerto Rico, that'd be the best thing.

The US would have to offer a rebuilding plan and revitalize the Cuban economy which would take however many years.  But I'd leave it up to Cuban elections and the Cuban population to decide what they want to do in terms of governance.  I don't see them wanting to be a state but maybe a territory?  It's an interesting idea as a thought exercise for sure.

[Ryan]

In this country in the 1980s, unemployment was at least 20%, the dream of most school leavers was to emigrate. Rural Ireland cleared out. Successive governments as corrupt as any Banana Republic and every dog in the street knew it. Members of government not elected on ability (just like many places) but on their father's or grandfather's name. 

However, if a referendum had been held then to rejoin the United Kingdom (and there was always some chatter about that), it would have been at least a 95% "No".

What I'm saying is; people, once they get independence, especially if it was fought for, tend to like the idea of it. Often regardless of how corrupt or poorly managed their government is.

They regard it as theirs.

[BrightonCorgi]

Name a Latin American county that is not corrupt?

[Li Bai]

To be fully honest I can't say I believe in our rulers' moral high-ground...

[Çnote]

34 minutes ago, BrightonCorgi said:

Name a Latin American county that is not corrupt?

Canada!

[VeguerosMAN]

36 minutes ago, BrightonCorgi said:

Name a Latin American county that is not corrupt?

El Salvador... and maybe Argentina with Milei??  

[ThePolskiOgorki]

32 minutes ago, BrightonCorgi said:

Name a Latin American county that is not corrupt?

Why are you asking us to limit ourselves to just Latin America? 

[El Presidente]

2 hours ago, ThePolskiOgorki said:

Why are you asking us to limit ourselves to just Latin America? 

Touche

There are a lot of people in this thread who appear to live in glass houses 

[El Presidente]

6 hours ago, VeguerosMAN said:

  I may be wrong, but I believe most Cubans want a complete regime change and become a part of the US as the 51 state.  

From those I know who are still there, all despise the Cuban govt/military and would give a right gonad for freedom and a new start with the US. 

Those same people would line the Malecon to protest if not fight a US invasion. Again that is a small sample size.

 

[VeguerosMAN]

33 minutes ago, El Presidente said:

From those I know who are still there, all despise the Cuban govt/military and would give a right gonad for freedom and a new start with the US. 

Those same people would line the Malecon to protest if not fight a US invasion. Again that is a small sample size.

 

Perhaps we know the same people who are still there lol.  Those same people told me that they want a military attack from the US and take over the regime and yet they also told me the US should be wiped off from the map along with Israel.  Then again those are Cuban girls' opinions... take it with a grain of salt as all  women are erratic creatures regardless where they are from.