Washington and Florida insiders are exploring lucrative deals for a post-communist Cuba crushed by ever-increasing US sanctions

Spanish hotel chains. A Canadian mining firm. European shipping giants. Visa and Mastercard. Scores of foreign companies have been driven out of Cuba this summer over fear of being hit with potent, new secondary sanctions. Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, told Axios last month there are “no escape valves” from his unprecedented pressure campaign against the island.

But not everybody is losing out. A growing cast of Washington and Florida insiders – from billionaire Trump cronies and Rubio-linked lobbyists to Cuban exiles – are jockeying for control of the communist-ruled island-nation’s key assets, charging top dollar to help clients navigate the ever-expanding web of sanctions, and positioning themselves for lucrative business opportunities in the case of regime collapse.

Since an executive order signed by Donald Trump on 1 May drove Canada’s Sherritt International from its nickel and cobalt mining joint venture with the Cuban state, two rival US bids to buy out its stake have been presented to US authorities.

    • SpruceBringsteen@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      25
      ·
      9 hours ago

      There were a lot of very well off Cubans who fled to the US who probably see this as an opportunity to go and reclaim what they see as long lost family fortunes.

      • comrade_twisty@feddit.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        17
        ·
        edit-2
        9 hours ago

        It’s all gonna be Trumps family fortune and they will probably be deported by Steve Miller and charged an exit fee or some BS.

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      9 hours ago

      They are generally the ones that benefited from the fascist Batista regime, such as plantation owning slavers. They fled from the Cuban revolution, especially once the Cuban government implemented land reform and gave land to the peasantry.

      • MrSpArkle@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        56 minutes ago

        What kind of fantasy bullshit are you talking about? You think every Cuban that floated to miami on some piece of garbage was some wealthy slave owner?

        Fucking sapingo over here.

        Fidel imprisoned and punished and persecuted all kinds of people, and the American sanctions made life hard. The dry foot policy made it an easy decision for many people looking for a better life.

        The main driver for their support for Trump isn’t some fear of “the revolution”, it’s that Cubans are socially conservative, so they will latch onto the Republican Party.

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          45 minutes ago

          I said “generally,” not “every single Cuban in Miami is a slaver.” There are people that left because of economic hardship, not necessarily because they oppose socialism, but the reason so many Miami Cubans are far-right is because a great many of them did have ties to those slavers, gangsters, and plantation owners.

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        8 hours ago

        It’s more that the US (Canada too) has been at the imperialist stage of capitalism for a century. The fact that many Statesians support this system is because it benefits them materially. It’s logical, and thus trying to view it as irrational behavior leads us to ineffective means of combatting it.

        • codydodd@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          6 hours ago

          It is upheld by reducing education of USians and promoting American exceptionalism. It is not logical in that it is slowly destroying their own nation.

          • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            6 hours ago

            There’s certainly the ideological components, you’re not wrong there, but the reason its bought into is because of class interests.

  • TheJesusaurus@piefed.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    25
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    9 hours ago

    We backed down on this shit? Fuck that why are we doing anything in fear of America at this point. They’re going to do whatever they want anyway. Fuck trump, fuck the USA. Solidarity with cuba

    • 6_electrons@piefed.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      4 hours ago

      While I support the former sentiment Cuba was a horrible horrible place. You should be far more specific with “solidarity with Cuba” because I initially read that and it seemed to me you support political executions, nationalizing property, and stamping down free speech.

      The enemy of your enemy doesn’t have to be your friend they can be bad as well.

  • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    9 hours ago

    Sanctions aren’t going to make people overthrow the Cuban government. They will only make the Cuban people defend their socialist project more, while they die of preventable causes due to a lack of critical medical supplies and energy. Thank goodness countries like China are helping Cuba develop sovereignty in the energy sector through solar!

    • balsoft@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      25 minutes ago

      I’m afraid this may be overly optimistic. Last year the same was said about Venezuela, and look where it is now.

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        20 minutes ago

        Venezuela hasn’t been overthrown. The commune movement is still alive and well, and the reactionary elements still oppose the PSUV. It’s still an incomplete revolution, one with its hands tied and had to make concessions it did not want to. The Cuban revolution already succeeded, and thus has far more political stability.

    • LocalAreaMan@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      9 hours ago

      What’s up America’s obsession with Cuba? An embargo against a country who never harmed America for SIXTY YEARS?

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        8 hours ago

        The PCC ended the colonialism of Cuba that was making the US quite a lot of profit, and the Statesian ruling class never forgave the communists.

      • JustPlainDave@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        8 hours ago

        Maybe the Cuban missile crisis? I don’t know and never understood it, however, Obama had pretty much ended all that, the the orange idiot showed up.

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          10
          ·
          edit-2
          8 hours ago

          The Cuban Missile Crisis started because the USSR offered nukes to Cuba, and they accepted. Cuba accepted because the US invaded Cuba 1 year earlier in the Bay of Pigs operation. The reason the US hates Cuba so much is because Cuba used to be a US colony with open slavery, run by “gansterismo,” literal Miami gangsters. Further, Obama did not end hostilities towards Cuba, at the same time he was thawing relations, the US was supporting right-wing groups within Cuba to destabilize the state. It was a two-pronged carrot and stick approach, vs. the genocidal blockade currently being carried out.

          Blowback season 2 goes over the history of the Cuban revolution and the October Crisis, which is what the Cubans call the Cuban Missile Crisis. It also goes over Operation Anadyr, the soviet mission to give Cuba nukes as detterence from further US invasion, and as a response to NATO missiles in Turkey pointed at Moscow, and encroachment into the GDR.

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      9 hours ago

      He sees it as an easier way to gain a colony/neocolony. US imperialism is breaking down, so we are seeing a return to overt colonialism in an attempt to retain super profits for the imperial core.

      • potter2010@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        4 hours ago

        I had to look up these numbers to put it in an American/tRump context.

        It’s about the size of the USA states of Virginia or Tennessee. About 3.5x the size of Hawaii and 9x the size of Puerto Rico.

        It would be 36/57 of USA state, federal district, or territory by size.

        They’re also butt hurt since their invasion failed at the Bay of Pigs.

        None of that justifies a USA takeover of a foreign country. The only people that can decide Cuba’s future are the Cuban people.

        Edit: In a European context it would rank 17/50 in size between Iceland and Bulgaria. Bigger than either Hungary, Portugal, Austria, or Ireland to name a few.