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