Despite Embargo, Cuba 30th Largest US Agricultural Purchaser

Cuba is a small nation (11.4 million people as of July, 2006), but it is the 30th largest purchaser of US agricultural goods out of 224 countries that purchase food from the US.

(yes, there is an embargo in place, but in 2001, Congress relaxed the rules to allow Cuba to purchase foodstuffs).

this, of course, means profits to US farmers to the tune of $350 million in 2005 alone.

and it debunks one of the many myths of the disaster that is the Cuban economy. "Of course they don't have anything to eat," apologists say, "they are under a US embargo."

sorry ... wrong answer. Cuba can buy as much food as it wants from the U.S.

why doesn't it buy more, enough to feed everyone adequately?

could it be because it instead chooses to buy luxury goods from the European Union and Asia to sell to tourists visiting Cuba to make a profit in hard currency so that it can finance its "humanitarian" aid to other nations, such as sending doctors to third world countries, financing education programs for third world students, and feeding people abroad while Cubans barely survive on their meager rations?

perhaps. and why would it do this? you are watching King Fidel buying goodwill so that it has friends to defend his horrible humanitarian track record and blatant 50-year-old dictatorial regime.

of course, the communist elites need their Mercedes and their lobster dishes, so some of Cuba's hard currency is spent keeping the elites happy. if the elites are happy, they aren't plotting against King Fidel, and if they aren't plotting against King Fidel, then King Fidel is happy.

so next time someone says "Cubans are hungry because of the US embargo," remind them that Cuba buys all the food it wants from the US.

It so happens that it chooses to buy only so much food, and instead spend its cash promoting the corrupt and senile Castro dictatorship abroad, to the great detriment of the Cuban people.