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.

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[–] 2 points 9 hours ago (18 children)

What is with Trump's obsession with Cuba?

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  • [–] 17 points 9 hours ago (7 children)

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

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  • [–] 1 point 8 hours ago (5 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 10 points 8 hours ago* (4 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 5 points 9 hours ago (6 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 hours ago (5 children)

    I guess, but Cuba is so small there's nor really anything to be gained by colonizing it.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 hours ago (4 children)

    There actually is, Cuba used to be a tremendously popular sugar colony and gambling outpost for the US Empire.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 hours ago (3 children)

    Sure, but is that really something we have a use for today?

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  • [–] 1 point 8 hours ago (1 child)

    I guess, but Cuba is so small there's nor really anything to be gained by colonizing it.

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  • [–] 4 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 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.

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