Trumps’ new attacks on Cuba are anti-democratic—anti-freedom

By SJ Otto

We know that Donald Trump thinks socialism is the opposite of freedom and now he seems to believe he has the right to prevent nations in Latin America from voting for socialist candidates. He is taking the most undemocratic methods possible to try and stop socialism in Latin America, by banning travel to Cuba..

He has singled out three countries, Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela, as undermining U.S. policy. From AP News:

“U.S. national security adviser John Bolton, who declared Cuba part of a "troika of tyranny " along with Nicaragua and Venezuela as he outlined plans for sanctions in November, said the new policy is intended to deny the Cuban government a vital source of revenue.”

 Apparently US policy is to prevent actual democracy. Of those countries, Nicaragua has a democracy that was partially created by past US leaders.[1] The only thing Nicaragua has done wrong is to elect a man that Trump does not approve of.

His latest actions are to ban travel to Cuba, which is now moving the US backward to the old cold war with Cuba. Also from AP:

“Cruise travel from the U.S. to Cuba began in May 2016 during President Barack Obama's opening with the island. It has become the most popular form of U.S. leisure travel to the island, bringing 142,721 people in the first four months of the year, a more than 300% increase over the same period last year. For travelers confused about the thicket of federal regulations governing travel to Cuba, cruises offered a simple, one-stop, guaranteed-legal way to travel.

That now appears to be over.

"Cruise ships as well as recreational and pleasure vessels are prohibited from departing the U.S. on temporary sojourn to Cuba effective tomorrow," the Commerce Department said in a statement to The Associated Press.”

That takes away a US citizens right to travel as he/she see fit. For those of us who want to see for ourselves what the communist nation of Cuba has to offer traveller, our rights have been violated. Our right to chose where we travel is now gone, when it comes to Cuba. I plan to travel to Cuba in just a few weeks through Pastors for Peace. Trump will not be stopping me.

One thing that is obvious in this article I’m using, trump is using this issue to try and win votes in Florida, a major home of right-wing gusanos.[2] According to the AP article:

Collin Laverty, head of Cuba Educational Travel, one of the largest Cuba travel companies in the U.S., called the new measures "political grandstanding aimed at Florida in the run up to the 2020 elections."

And further proof is this comment by Trumps’ Republican hack Marc Rubio:

"The Trump administration deserves tremendous credit for holding accountable the Cuban regime," Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said. "The United States must use all tools available under U.S. law to counter the Cuban regime's deceitful activities to undermine U.S. policy."

The AP article presented several opinions that were opposed to Trumps’ Cuban action:

"This affects all of us," said William Mártinez, 58, a Cuban-born American who lived in Florida for 46 years but returned five years ago to drive a classic car for tourists. "It's inhuman, the sanctions that they're putting on Cuba."

……"I've been dying to come to Cuba forever, to see the cars, the buildings," said Maria Garcia, a 46-year-old teacher from Puerto Rico who arrived in Havana Tuesday morning on a Norwegian cruise line. "I could do it with this cruise ... Trump needs to understand that people should come to this country, to enjoy and get to know its culture, just like we would do in any other part of the world."

Also:

“Cruises have become more popular than flights for leisure travelers to Cuba - nearly 30,000 more came by cruise ship than flights this year. The figures exclude Cuban-born Americans visiting family on the island.”

There are many of us here in the US who would like to have more politicians such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez elected to office. There are already political groups trying to smear Ocasio-Cortez as un-American.  Some of us would like to see Bernie Sanders elected president. If we lived in a smaller country in Latin America, Trump would be treating us as if we were terrorists. This is the kind of non-sense we all need to stop Trump from doing. Ocasio-Cortez is a member of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). That group has been gaining membership since Sanders ran for president. We don’t need our party treated as an illegal or un-American organization. There is nothing anti-democratic about socialism.

Pix by Cuba to Welcome 26th Pastors for Peace “Friendshipme.

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[1] See Trump is so stupid he thinks Nicaragua is a dictatorship. 

[2] Gusanos (worms in English) is a slang insult the Cuban left uses to refer to the exiles who live in Florida.