<
https://theconversation.com/why-is-the-us-so-obsessed-with-controlling-cuba-280729>
"For months, US President Donald Trump has been fixated on Cuba. He’s issued
threats and imposed additional sanctions on the island. The US military has
conducted dozens of intelligence-gathering flights off the coast in recent
weeks, suggesting a prelude to an invasion.
The Cuban government has indicated a readiness to negotiate with the Trump
administration on some issues, such as migration, drug trafficking and
investment openings for Cuban-Americans. But Cuba’s sovereignty is not
negotiable.
After interviewing Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel last month, US journalist
Kristen Welker seemed to catch on:
Nothing gets under [Cubans’] skin more than the notion that the United
States can tell the Cuban government who should lead it or what it should be
doing, how it should be governing, because that challenges the very idea of
the sovereignty of the country.
This US obsession with controlling, influencing and coercing Cuba long predates
Trump and even the Cold War. This is how President Theodore Roosevelt described
the island in 1906:
I am so angry with that infernal little Cuban republic that I would like to
wipe its people off the face of the earth. All we have wanted from them was
that they would behave themselves and be prosperous and happy so that we
would not have to interfere. And now, lo and behold, they have started an
utterly unjustifiable and pointless revolution.
Understanding the current impasse between the two adversarial neighbours
requires looking at this full arc of history. While the 1823 Monroe Doctrine
sought to establish US predominance in the entire American continent, Cuba has
always been a particular focus of Washington’s attention."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
