Cuba's Yoani Sánchez Speaks Out - Full Interview | MetroFocus

[MADem]

25. USAID has an interest in maintaining the status quo?

I'm just not following the logic. Those exiles--the loudmouthed ones, anyway--want their "stuff." They'd be happy if the grandson of Batista took over and "un-nationalized" everything and gave them back their buildings and land. That's not going to happen, and, like Castro, they grow older every year. Their influence is diluted, too -- it used to be that they were the Lead Dog in the Hispanic community, dictating how things would be and what the priorities were. Now, they're diluted, a much smaller fraction of the American Hispanic community, and their wishes aren't front-n-center anymore.

I just don't see any money to be made the way things are--the Cuban nation is broke, they have a major cash flow problem, they have interfered in the affairs of a sovereign nation (VZ) to an unseemly degree because they need the charity that nation provides in order to survive day-to-day, to the point where they export their own health care staff in an effort to maintain some semblance of quid pro quo for the massive oil resources they receive; their entire business model is just not sustainable, and even the Castro brothers will say that when pressed. The truth of the matter is, 'players' in USA and Cuban entrepreneurs would all do much better if Cuba and USA became friendly. How well the Cuban population does will depend on how "normalization" is implemented. There is much money to be made--curious tourists, willing and educated workers who will work for a song, natural resources just waiting to be exploited -- about the only people who will 'really have something to cry about' will be the Puerto Ricans, who for a variety of reasons, some of them competitive, (tourism, the entire pharmaceutical industry, e.g.) don't want Cuba opened up.

In 2018, the "new guy" --Raul's protege--will take over. Then perhaps the "Libertad" (Helms-Burton) Act will be trashed and relations can be normalized.

Or maybe not--something's gotta give.