BREAKING from Little Havana (via a Ven. blogger): Fidel Castro DEAD or about to be.

[flamingdem]

14. I think the risk for over a century is that Cuba would be absorbed into the USA

and we can see what that's like in Puerto Rico. I was not impressed by PR. It was too US dependent with food stamps and people working at crappy US owned factories, buying US made goods. There is less of the culture left there, they even have to import Cuban music (which they like to claim as their own but let's not go there) and Cuban religion .. many practice Santeria - and even that they sometimes claim as their own.

I don't know about DR to say, never been there, but I've been to Colombia and that's not a valid comparison since they are not 90 miles away. However it does look like the USA has been working to dominate there as well via trade and war on drugs.

I'm open minded enough to consider that Cuba would have been better off annexed - in financial terms - but I have learned after multiple trips there that it's been about a struggle to retain their very unique identity. They've really had to pay dearly for that but long run it will benefit them.