Should Guantanamo be given back to Cuba?

[2952-0-0]

If US policy towards Cuba wasn't driven by an obsession with Florida's electoral votes, the embargo would have been scrapped in the 1990s, as was the case with Vietnam. The embargo serves as a useful distraction from the Cuban government's domestic failures. Also, having Guantanamo officially under Cuban sovereignty but permanently leased out by a puppet government a century ago is an insult to the pride of any nation, and any Cuban government regardless of its ideology will demand its return.

A competent US administration that wasn't obsessed with Florida's electoral votes would publicly offer to lift the embargo and return Guantanamo without making any demands about changing the Communist system, while privately insisting that the phase-out of the embargo and the timeline on the return of Guantanamo will depend on Cuba ending its special relations with Russia and China.

[2952-0-0]

I was referring to Obama's thaw. Cuba did not agree to our demands and they don't have much that we want. There isn't really any real benefit for America to give anything to Cuba especially when it gets nothing in return.

Exhibit #256 on why resentment towards US hegemony is so widespread in Latin America, even among those who otherwise agree with the ideals of liberal democracy.