Want to curtail Chinese influence in the Caribbean? Increase trade with Cuba

Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar was a criminal propped up by the Dulles brothers to rule Cuba until Fidel Castro led a socialist revolution there in 1959. When Castro took the reins he dissolved the previous constitution with all its treaties, wrote a new manual and ruled by decree. Yes, those same Dulles brothers conspired to murder President John F. Kennedy. 

Cuba is among the Earth's most literate countries while the United States surfs the middle. President Jimmy Carter tried to save the world by embracing Cuba but few Americans cared. Recall that in 2015 Republican South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture Lucas Lentsch ranted about the challenges facing agriculture at a conference in Deadwood and talked about getting genetically engineered food-like substances into Cuba.

In 2020 President-elect Joe Biden said he wanted to see trade relations loosened and improved between the United States and Cuba and South Dakota Farmers Union President Doug Sombke was also pleased to see a Democratic administration focusing on that island nation as a possible trading partner. In 2021 Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and others moved to end the cruel embargo against Cuba.

Today, South Dakota's current Republican governor has taken steps to bar Cuban ownership of agricultural land in that state. But with indicted Cuban-American Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) likely going away his threatened filibuster of any bill to repeal the travel ban to Cuba will go away with him. 

The US learned of a Chinese espionage operation in Cuba in 2023.

More than 60 years after the embargo took effect, the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture led a trade mission in February to the island country south of the Florida Keys to identify and address trade barriers for U.S. ag products. The U.S. exported $372 million worth of goods to Cuba and imported $6 million worth in 2022. Cubans already buy a lot of the chicken from the U.S., mostly quarter legs. [Cuban-U.S. trade relationship hints of change]

After the US trade delegation met with Cuban officials a special representative from China visited the island earlier this month.

A record cicada outbreak is expected this year so harvest those insects then export them to Cuba where farmers can feed them to chickens and hogs.

This blog wants Cuba to be the 54th State.

The president of Mexico’s proposal for stemming immigration includes:

- The U.S. commit $20 billion a year to poor countries in Latin America and the Caribbean
-Lift sanctions on Venezuela
-End the Cuban embargo
-Legalize law-abiding Mexicans living in the U.S. pic.twitter.com/rmJ1j78SxQ

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) March 24, 2024