Free Republic

"In the wake of the disrespectful, unacceptable and meddling statements made by President Donald Trump in his address to the U.N. General Assembly at a time when the U.S.-Cuba Bilateral Commission was sitting in session, the Cuban delegation voiced a strong protest," the (Cuban) Foreign Ministry statement said. The Castro Dynasty’s eunuch ambassador to the U.S. Jose Cabanas also went on social media to whimper that the “U.S. government presents dangers and inevitable dilemmas” and that the U.S. was acting aggressively and said the trade embargo burdens Cuba with “humanitarian and economic hardships” that are “extraordinary and growing.” And what...

A company controlled by Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, secretly conducted business in communist Cuba during Fidel Castro’s presidency despite strict American trade bans that made such undertakings illegal, according to interviews with former Trump executives, internal company records and court filings.

Donald Trump’s hotel and casino company secretly spent money trying to do business in Cuba in violation of the U.S. trade embargo, Newsweek reported Thursday in a story that could endanger the Republican presidential nominee’s Cuban-American support in South Florida. Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts paid at least $68,000 to a consulting firm in late 1998 in an

HAVANA — The 54-year economic embargo of Cuba needs to end, President Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro said Monday, so the economic ties between the two nations can improve. "The embargo's going to end," Obama said. "When, I can't be entirely sure. ... The reason is that what we did for 50 years did not serve our interests or the interests of the Cuban people." "The list of things we can do administratively is growing shorter," said Obama, who said that "for more than half a century, the sight of a U.S. president here in Havana would have been...

President Obama believes Congress will lift the embargo against Cuba — under the next president. Obama made the admission ahead of a historic visit to the communist island nation, intended to cement his new policy of openness toward the United States’s former Cold War foe. “My strong prediction is that sometime in the next president's administration, whether they are a Democrat or a Republican, that the embargo in fact will be removed,” he said in an interview with CNN en Español that aired Monday. The president has relied on his executive powers to establish new trade and travel links with...

The United Nations General Assembly has almost unanimously voted to condemn the US embargo on Cuba, in the first such resolution since US-Cuban diplomatic ties were restored earlier this year. The motion won more support than it has done in the past, with 191 members of the 193-member body voting in favour. Only the US and Israel opposed the resolution, which is non-binding.

Right off the bat, Congress must make it crystal clear to President Obama that he lacks the authority to lift the embargo on Cuba, allow trade to take place between the two nations, let tourists to go to Cuba to bail out the regime or give Cuba have access to capital markets. U.S. law—the Helms-Burton Act of 1996—gives the Congress power to override any action taken by the executive to lift the embargo. In order to lift the embargo, the Cuban government would have to give the Cuban people a number of rights—of association, speech, political activity, etc.—that President Obama...

President Obama will unilaterally remove most of the embargo on Cuba, according to John Kavulich of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council and White House officials. According to Mr. Kavulich, by himself, President Obama will remove nearly all restrictions on Cuba and will forgo Congress. The “embargo” will still exist, but it will be in name only. “The embargo is a container — it’s been that way since President Eisenhower — that’s had regulations and laws put into it and taken out of it and mixed about,” Mr. Kavulich said. “President Obama is saying, ‘I’m going to leave a shell,...

For nearly five decades, the United States has pursued a policy toward Cuba that could be described as incredibly stupid. It could also be called childish, irresponsible and counterproductive -- and, since the demise of the Soviet Union, even insane. Absent the threat of communist expansionism, the refusal by successive American presidents to engage with Cuba has not even a fig leaf's worth of rationale to cover its naked illogic. Other than providing Fidel Castro with a convenient antagonist to help him whip up nationalist fervor on the island -- and thus prolong his rule -- the U.S. trade embargo...

Those who lobby for Cuba's tyrant are foreign agents Editorial, posted on Tue, Oct. 05, 2004 in The Miami Herald. People who make deals with the devil shouldn't be surprised when the bill comes due. U.S. businesses that signed ''advocacy agreements'' with Cuba have no cause to complain about the regime pressuring them to lobby for lifting U.S. trade and travel sanctions on Cuba. That's exactly what the agreements ask them to do, even if it is legally nonbinding. The U.S. signers, in turn, get to sell agricultural goods and services to the regime. This is a quid pro quo....