Pre Castro Cuba was a Mob playground, noted for the world's best whores. Along came Fidel stole all the money and put the working girls outta business.

The Havana Riviera built by Meyer Lansky in 1957 was the place to be. Today the website states it still maintains its 50s decor. Yeah has not been updated since and is falling apart.

Despite Protests, Cuba's Communists Still in Firm Control

It’s a pleasant fantasy. The Cuban people rise up en masse to throw off the yoke of the Communists and their odious system of oppression. They bring peace and prosperity to their island nation after six decades of poverty and suffering.

But then, reality hits and the fantasy disappears.

Reuters:

But another protest flared late Monday in the southern Havana suburb of La Guinera, where one man died and several others, including members of the security forces, were hospitalized with injuries, according to state-run media on Tuesday.

It did not say what caused the death. No other deaths and injuries have been officially confirmed so far.

Hundreds had taken to streets in La Guinera, shouting slogans like ‘down with communism,’ and ‘freedom for the people of Cuba,’ according to two residents and video footage seen by Reuters. Some started throwing rocks at security forces who eventually responded with gunfire, said resident Waldo Herrera, 49.

“I think the Communists have lost control, they won’t have a solution to this situation,” he said. “The people are tired of so much humiliation, so much repression.”

The people may be tired, but the government has the guns. Rocks vs. automatic weapons is not a good matchup.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel tried to rally his supporters to defend the government. In an address on Monday evening, Diaz-Canel did his best Fidel Castro imitation.

Related: Thousands Protest for Freedom in Communist Cuba. The New York Times’ Framing Would Please Stalin.

“We are not going to let any counterrevolutionary, mercenary, U.S. government sellout, imperial sellout create destabilization in our country… We are ready to do anything and we will be on the street fighting… The order to combat has been given. Revolutionaries: to the streets,” he said.

International relations scholar Daniel Rey thinks the protests are significant.

Spectator USA:

The last time Cuba’s government faced a popular mobilization was in 1994, when hundreds of demonstrators in Havana protested the handling of the economy in the years after the Soviet collapse. On that occasion, the march was broken up by the arrival of Fidel Castro and his anti-riot police. This time, thanks to social media, the protests spread instantaneously across the country.

Hammered by financial constraints, there have been many times when Cuba’s communist government has been ‘on the brink’. But Sunday’s demonstration feels more significant. After six decades of rule, the regime is facing the inevitable generational shift for which it seems ill-prepared. If previous generations felt a certain goodwill towards the revolution for its early achievements, in the face of blackouts, hunger and medical scarcities, millennials and Gen Zers see little reason to be loyal to an ineffective administration that began life in the 1950s.

During the Bay of Pigs invasion by U.S.-backed forces, tens of thousands of Cubans rallied to Castro’s defense. This time, about 300 pro-government protesters took to the streets while security forces opened fire on pro-freedom demonstrators.

As long as the military and security forces stay loyal to the government, the people don’t have a prayer of succeeding. They can try to organize via social media, but what happens when the government pulls the plug on the internet?

“The pattern of restrictions observed in Cuba indicate an ongoing crackdown on messaging platforms used to organize and share news of protests in real-time,” said NetBlocks director Alp Toker. NetBlocks track social media availability worldwide. “At the same time, some connectivity is preserved to maintain a semblance of normality.”

It’s clear that the critical mass for revolution has not yet been reached. The protests show no signs of growing into a mass, nationwide movement, although it wouldn’t take much from the government to light the fuse.

The Cuban Communists can breathe easier — for the moment.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-p...irm-control-n1461746

Every Cuban I know is a republican. Their parents either escaped or got out somehow. They know how bad living in Cuba is and have made a great living for themselves here.
They are such nice people and yet they wont tolerate shit from anyone. I guess they have heard the horror stories from their parents, relatives and friends.
I wish Cuba was free.

quote:

Originally posted by 1s1k:
Is this the video that shows that the average Cuban citizen scrapes by making $25 a day while Fidel died with $900,000,000 in the bank and his brother Raul is sitting on $100,000,000.

While the numbers may differ slightly, reminds me of our politicians.

No, no, no... Cuba's not like that because of socialism. It's like that because of us being so mean to it all those years and not allowing socialism to work.

You clearly don't understand how socialism and the socialism blame game works.

Absolutely shameful but anyone with half a brain knows these BLM types are all Commies themselves so it's no real surprise to me:


The Black Lives Matter organisation has issued a statement clearly aligning itself with the Marxist government’s brutal oppression of the Cuban people throughout the country, prompting widespread backlash but little surprise given that BLM itself was founded by avid Marxists.

quote:

“Since 1962, the United States has forced pain and suffering on the people of Cuba by cutting off food, medicine and supplies, costing the tiny island nation an estimated $130 billion,”
'Without that money, it is harder for Cuba to acquire medical equipment needed to develop its own Covid-19 vaccines and equipment for food production. This comes in spite of the country's strong medical care and history of lending doctors and nurses to disasters around the world.'

That well worn trope is good comedy; there's only one country that has an embargo against Cuba, otherwise, its wide-open to the world. Plenty of tourists and trade from Canada, Europe, and Latin America, many Cubans living in Spain, they just never go-back or, continue doing business there, wonder why...

quote:

'Cuba has historically demonstrated solidarity with oppressed peoples of African descent, from protecting Black revolutionaries like Assata Shakur through granting her asylum, to supporting Black liberation struggles in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau and South Africa.

Great examples, stellar! Such successful and thriving places...

quote:

Originally posted by Captain Morgan:
Every Cuban I know is a republican. Their parents either escaped or got out somehow. They know how bad living in Cuba is and have made a great living for themselves here.
They are such nice people and yet they wont tolerate shit from anyone. I guess they have heard the horror stories from their parents, relatives and friends.
I wish Cuba was free.

I heard on Jordan Peterson's podcast that Cubans who fled to the United States when Castro took over had, within a generation, a higher GDP than the entire nation of Cuba they left behind. I can't think of a more powerful indictment of Cuba's communist system.

Everything? Even the sammiches??

quote:

Originally posted by Captain Morgan:
Every Cuban I know is a republican. Their parents either escaped or got out somehow. They know how bad living in Cuba is and have made a great living for themselves here.
They are such nice people and yet they wont tolerate shit from anyone. I guess they have heard the horror stories from their parents, relatives and friends.
I wish Cuba was free.

Hmmm....I wonder why we will turn refugee boats away but let the Mexicans flood in?

Well, you got your ham & cheese; your bacon, lettuce and tomato; your pastrimi on rye; your roast beef and swiss; and your Cuban. I'm thinking they left all those ingrediants behind, except the Cubans.

quote:

Originally posted by downtownv:
Pre Castro Cuba was a Mob playground, noted for the world's best whores. Along came Fidel stole all the money and put the working girls outta business.

Not true. With the unofficial and then the official reopening of travel to Cuba from the U.S., I have seen reports that the working girls have gone back to work, and for just a few bucks a pop. Those greenbacks are valuable in the worker's paradise.

quote:

I have seen reports that the working girls have gone back to work, and for just a few bucks a pop. Those greenbacks are valuable in the worker's paradise.

Hookers and blow!

quote:

Originally posted by Krazeehorse:
...
Hmmm....I wonder why we will turn refugee boats away but let the Mexicans flood in?

I remember reading sometime a while back that if they are caught on the boats, they are turned back, but once they set foot on dry land, they are given asylum. Not sure if true, but it made for an interesting read.

That video should remind everyone once again just how important the control of information is in this country and elsewhere. Complete fantasies can be created for large portions of the world with little more than a few keystrokes and altered JPG's. And people as a whole have been completely indoctrinated to accept it.

I believe more than ever, whoever controls the flow of information, controls the world.

Wasn't Michael Moore extolling the virtues of Cuban communism a few years back?

I figured if it was so fantastic, he would have immigrated there, renouncing his Canadian citizenship.

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:
I dated a Canadian girl back in my college days and the topic of travel and Cuba came up. I perked up and asked what was it like and she laughed. Oh you American's, clinging to this notion that Cuba is this exotic, tropical paradise like in the Godfather movies...the embargo is only with the US, everyone else can go there.

She had visited twice, and both times she said they stayed on an all-inclusive resort, populated by other Canadians and Europeans. Zero tourism industry, no restaurants, no sight-seeing, no shopping, food sucked, aggressive pan-handling if you stepped-off property so, nobody left. No clubs or, nightlife, the diving/fishing in the surrounding waters was all fished-out and reefs destroyed due to desperate fisherman.

In short, its not the US embargo that's resulted in Cuba's plight but, their own govt. They have access to the world market, however their political ideology prevents them from understanding what economic freedom and choice allows.

Why would you go a second time.

Cost Cuba money? Heck we sent them millions!

(Supposedly, the CIA sent oodles and oodles of counterfeit Cuban currency into Cuba in the 60's to mess with their economy.)

I recently found this couple. Great perspective.