First Person: Returning to Cuba more than a half-century later I just went back for the first time s

[Judi Lynn]

First Person: Returning to Cuba more than a half-century later
I just went back for the first time since my family left in 1959
DAVE RIVERA
FEB 23, 2018 11:00 PM

I lived in Cuba from the age of 1 to 14 — my father was in the U.S. military and my mother was Cuban — and I returned last month to Cuba for the first time since our family left in 1959. I didn’t know what to expect, mainly because of the economic sanctions that have been imposed on the country by the United States for nearly 60 years. From some of the images we have seen from afar, we expected to see a lot of old cars, bicycles, general shortages of almost everything else and a broken people.

We landed at Jose Marti airport, went through customs and exited to a waiting fleet of modern European cabs. Our cab ride to the bed and breakfast where we stayed took us on a modern four-lane highway to the crowded one-way streets of Old Havana.

Early on, the U.S. trade embargo deeply affected Cuba. More recently, though, the rest of the world has resumed trade relations with Cuba, and the main effect of the U.S. embargo has been keeping American investment and tourism down to a trickle. While we were there, we saw ample evidence of Europeans, Asians and South Americans.

Old Havana streets are bustling with tourists and tourism-related activities. Drivers with their antique cars gather around plazas near hotels waiting for fares. Street vendors populate corners, and roaming groups of street performers were everywhere we went in the center city. Markets, sidewalk cafes and stores were busy; some even had waiting lines.

More:
http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/Op-Ed/2018/02/24/First-Person-Returning-to-Cuba-more-than-a-half-century-later/stories/201802240022

Editorials and other articles:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016202276

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Glad to here you enjoyed your trip.

And again,the Sick Old White Politician's screwed up . Friends from Canada travel to Cuba every Winter. They always talk about the Money being spent by the Canadian Investors and Italian Investors in Hotels and other Projects.

[GatoGordo]

2. And it all ends up in the Castros pockets. EOM

[Wellstone ruled]

3. And the Castro Family owns most of the

Sugar Cane growing operations in the Caribbean.

[Judi Lynn]

6. What they can't eat, they sell! Yummm. n/t

[Fred Sanders]

4. The modern airports and four lane highways are too big for pockets.

[Judi Lynn]

5. No doubt you have a credible source outside the exile community for that information.

By the way, it's interesting that the supporters of the Batista dictatorship, many of whom skeedaddled to Miami and New Jersey insist the Castros have taken Cuban national treasury money when everyone who ever bothered to research knows Batista and his inner circle of racist jerkoffs stole every damned coin in the Cuban National Treasury before oozing their way out of the country to hide from the wrath of the Cuban people at the end of the revolution. Totally cleaned them out.

Please do share your source material for the claim Castro took the money of the Cuban people for himself, or himself and his brother, etc. Looking forward to reading all about it.

Thanks.







http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/12/18/article-urn:publicid:ap.org:d8bf08ad0cb84f3cb1153b2e3d3f0d5c-6UtszMZKHHSK2-738_634x422.jpg



https://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2042366.1418904304!/image/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/box_940/image.jpg



Miami Cuban "exiles"

[GatoGordo]

8. So, opposition to Castro's communist regime means...

... by default I must support Batista style regimes? Is that the logic?

Does that mean that because I oppose Chavismo, that I support the likes of Donald Trump?

[secondwind]

7. The regime owns everything, including the gas stations.

We were there in 2011 on a “humanitarian mission” — a disguise for wealthy people to visit the country with a tour operator .

We saw old people rummaging through garbage cans. Castro doled out money to those who can work. As far as we could see, that excluded the old folks.

On a bus to the countryside, our local guide said “welcome to the largest prison in the world “.

I’m happy to hear that things have improved but you can’t believe what you see there. They even controlled the streets that we walked through, which showed lovers kissing, a lovely girl strutting in high heels and a mini skirt. Those streets had colorful buildings, while the rest of Havana was a drab gray.