Ulises Aquino Post Economic Reform Announcement

Ulises Aquino Guerra ·

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" Open wounds, too deep damage "

Reality speaks for itself, there is no need to add or add to it, it is so unnecessarily hard that not even the most imaginative fiction can overcome it.

Regardless of the obvious pressure that the United States government exerts on the government of Cuba, pressure that has condemned an entire people to even more cruel shortages, which lead them to the point of despair, the government of Cuba focuses its attention on the "defense" of territories, municipalities and areas.

However:

What will we defend in the event of U.S. aggression against Cuba?

In my opinion, that is the point.

Beyond all the measures that the U.S. administration has launched, against Officials and Institutions, against GAESA, Tourism, Public Health, etc.

Beyond the more than carried and brought Blockade, for many years the Cuban Party, State, Government has prostrated itself in power without listening or assuming its responsibility in the face of the demand for profound changes that a significant part of the Cuban people demands, turning dissent or civic protest into a crime, repressing with brute force and with long sentences those who exercise their right.

Serious economic problems existed before Trump's new term, and before the previous one.

The archived guidelines, the measures for Agriculture, Reorganization, Banking, Decree 349, etc, etc, etc, going through lemonade and guarapo and the Conjunctures have not resolved, nor will they solve the historical demands of those who still dare to question the management of this government and the good cause of this socioeconomic system.

Our people not only suffer from the measures that the United States imposes on Cuba, they suffer the consequences of very serious errors and historical burdens and debts in the capricious and omnifuscated management of their economy.

This deafness and institutional blindness can cause a state of extreme violence that will be impossible to reverse.

Not accepting it will bring horrible consequences for our lives and that of our children and grandchildren.

That things have never been good, you don't even need to ask anyone.

Sustaining this state of affairs is a circumstantial entelechy, which when the time comes will be deeply questioned and judged, and impossible to prove that it was worth so much sacrifice, lives cut short, miseries and calamities inflicted, to sustain a state of affairs, which as is evident, is only a Utopia of those who intend to walk even if the horizon line recedes at every step.

It is therefore necessary to consult the people. To know if they want the Utopia that has worked very well for them, or the Utopia of a different, dignified, free life without political discrimination, without exclusions for thinking differently and expressing it, without constant political controls, without having to give explanations for every act and exercising the natural right to act as free men in the eyes of a grateful Homeland.

It is time to decide how history will remember them.

7/25/64

My response:

John McAuliff

My friend Ulises writes eloquently about the failings on the Cuban side. It is hard to disentangle the failings on the US side. Each side created conditions that worsened the actions of the other. Early hostility from the US (Bay of Pigs, embargo) pushed or justified Fidel and the Party into authoritarianism, radical economics and foreign alignments to protect the elusive goal of cultural, economic and political sovereignty that had been compromised from the time of independence.

 Cuba's acceptance of the Platt Amendment, including the theft of Guantánamo, was similar to Ireland's acceptance of partition that led to bloody civil war and the more recent Troubles and a still unresolved border problem. Viet Nam's acceptance in Geneva in 1954 of "temporary division" forced by the US, Russia, China and France led to two decades of bloody US intervention followed by twenty years of diplomatic isolation and embargo. Ukraine suffers horrifically today to protect its sovereignty from Russia while Cuba for its own survival forgets principle and aligns with the hegemon.

 Both sides in the Cuba US impasse are afflicted by ideological self-righteousness compounded by arrogance and fear. To escape the trap requires imagination and courage on both sides. Cuba has taken a major step by adopting long overdue but significant market reforms and by making symbolic prisoner releases. Everything from the US side in the same time period has been negative, from rhetoric to additional sanctions. Secretary Rubio touts realistic gradualism at ASEAN but puts nothing on the table of what Cuba can gain.

Distrust dominates, typified by the anonymous State Department polemic that was a paranoid compliment to the prowess of Cuban intelligence. To overcome distrust, the two governments should immediately return to the initial year of the first Trump Administration. That could mean renewal of cruises and other forms of people to people travel and exchanges. In the same spirit, the US should enable Western Union and other remittances and the return to more relaxed banking processes. The US must also remove Cuba from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism as well as end the oil blockade and recent OFAC sanctions, including restrictions on American use and European management of all state owned hotels. Cuba should quickly implement announced economic reforms, release all 2021 protestors and permit greater diversity of opinion and civil society.

In a changed more positive atmosphere, serious negotiation can begin to end the embargo and facilitate US investment and explore Mariela Castro's thesis that as a result a single party system would no longer be necessary. https://cubapeopletopeople.blogspot.com/2026/04/mariela-castro-on-political.html Absent the embargo, Cuba would not be the same country economically or politically.

Viet Nam offers lessons in economic reform and in turning bitter enemies into export markets, investors and comprehensive strategic partners. But perhaps the most relevant lesson for Cuba is how to manage a much larger and more powerful neighbor with a similar culture and centuries of hegemonic ambitions. Less than fifty years ago China destructively invaded a northern province of Viet Nam in defense of its Khmer Rouge allies. China today occupies Vietnamese territory, bars oil exploration and assaults fishermen in the South China Sea. Its actions against Viet Nam are worse than US treatment of Cuba so far, as terrible as it is, but despite that Viet Nam and China have close economic, diplomatic, military and Party relations. Of course the Vietnamese have 3000 years of practice.

Don't give up on a deal with Trump as difficult and unpredictable as he is. You have only had to deal with US imperiousness for 300 years. My paper for CIPI/ISRI on the history of US Viet Nam relations is here https://cubapeopletopeople.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-path-to-us-viet-nam-normalization.html

A final thought of a collaborative way out. GAESA is often criticized for diverting resources to luxury hotel construction instead of to maintenance of the power system. Its decision was presumably based on a mistaken projection of the situation as a result of the Obama opening. I remember at that time the substantial shortage in Havana of good hotel rooms for tour groups. GAESA could not have anticipated the devastating impact on tourism of COVID followed by the maximum pressure restrictions of Bolton and Trump and the inadequate reversal by Biden. Rather than generating substantial national income, GAESA was left with many vacant rooms.

If US policy changes, Cuba's state owned hotels are an extremely valuable resource. To reclaim its investment, Cuba could sell or long lease buildings to the current European management companies that Trump has forced to withdraw and to US chains. Priority use of income could be to restore the national power system. Privatization of hotels was a major factor in the dramatic expansion of Viet Nam's tourism sector. The virtually empty Selection La Habana that towers over La Rampa would be a perfect investment for the Trump Corporation. Viet Nam sold land to the Trumps for a controversial golf resort near Ha Noi. Having the Trump name on the highest building in Havana would aggravate many Cubans and Americans but is a lesser cost than war.

Ulises Aquino Guerra

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I imagine this is fake news, right?

Negotiate? Who is this individual to negotiate on behalf of Cubans?

Who empowered this man to speak on my behalf and on behalf of Cubans?

If this is true, then the President of the Republic must resign, the narrative of the Revolution must be dismantled, and they must publicly acknowledge that we are living under a banana republic monarchy.

This undoubtedly requires urgent explanations, because silence is complicity with nepotism and dynastic imposition.

 Ulises Aquino Guerra  https://www.facebook.com/uaquinoguerra/posts/pfbid031bS1sVwJxtaDqpWf1Rv53P2r12cnbcXtiCZHXZat3cdMfCuGv2AjdWWSdpDFoiqsl

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And if it depended on us, why didn't they change it?

Many people, everyone told them for years, did they have to take us through this ordeal to realize it?

It's not enough. It's just one step. Many things are still needed for the above to happen.

What are the guarantees?

Will there be a separation of powers?

If there were so many obstacles left and you didn't remove them even knowing the consequences we have suffered, the most honorable, dignified and logical thing to do is to resign.

It is not about Socialism or Capitalism, it is about the people, about the Homeland lacerated by so many wounds.

It wasn't about pleasing Trump, or Rubio, it was about listening to us.

Nor is it about accepting that exile brings rules, or your rules; it is about everyone's right to create those rules and conditions.

It is very sad that they are more concerned about what they have called Socialism than about the people.

These changes depended on the signature of the one who truly holds power, and you approve the kind of socialism that suits you. Therefore, the project is incomplete because you need those same openings and freedoms that you now need—to think, to express yourself, and to live.

Therefore, it won't work properly; many things are still missing.

They started backwards.