Castro calls it quits

[Kulaf]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/ ... index.html

I figured only death would pry control of that country from him. Should be interesting to how this all shakes out. For the sake of the Cuban people I hope the US and Cuba can make nice.

[rodric]

It will be interesting to see whether brother Raul will be willing to be a little more moderate in his policies. But it's a little early to buy land in Cuba in hope of an economic boom I'd say.

[Garrdor]

FREE THE OPPRESSED NONCAPITALISTS

[Partha]

We'll have to wait until 2009 to see any change on the US side.

[Embar Angylwrath]

I see Cuba as having a lot of underutilized trade. If the US is smart, they'll open up trade with Cuba. There's so much business to be had there.

[Ddrak]

The US is waaay behind in Cuban trade. Virtually every other nation in the world has trade agreements, business outlets and mostly locked up the market share already. It's going to be a tough sell for the US now.

Dd

[Finglefinn]

affordable cuban cigars ftw

[Embar Angylwrath]

What other countries DON'T have is an active Cuban ex-patriate community, with familial ties back on the island. That alone is worth major bank in trade deals.

[Ddrak]

What other countries DON'T have is an active Cuban ex-patriate community, with familial ties back on the island. That alone is worth major bank in trade deals.

What on earth gave you this idea? The only reason it's a big deal in the US is because of the embargo. Every other nation just has Cuban expats that fly home when they want to without having to build an isolated community because of a foreign policy that failed 30 years ago and never got changed.

Dd

[Finglefinn]

The Cuban expatroit population lives entirely in Miami.

[Klast Brell]

So what are they going to do when Dole and Dupont etc start demanding back all the land that was taken from them in the 50's? Kick out all the people who live there now?

[Ddrak]

The Cuban expatroit population lives entirely in Miami.

That's simply not true. Stats show about 10% of emmigration from Cuba goes to the US. The majority goes to Latin America and almost the same number go to Europe as go to Miami.

- Legal emigration: During the last forty years close to 900,000 people migrated legally to different countries. It is estimated that around 130,000 Cubans live in Latin America (in Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Argentina and Chile); approximately 37,000 reside in Europe (mostly Spain, Italy and Germany) and more than 1,000 in the rest of the world, for example, Canada and some of the former socialist Eastern European countries such as Russia.

- Illegal emigration: These flows target mainly the U.S., including the Guantanamo Naval Base, the Great Caiman Islands, the Bahamas, and the Dominican Republic, among other countries. From 1985 to the signing of the 1994 Migration Agreements, the number of illegal emigrants reached 82,500, including both successful and failed emigration attempts. From 1994 up to the mid-2000 a total of 7,500 Cubans arrived in the U.S., including those who were intercepted by the U.S. Coastguard and returned to Cuba under the Migration Agreements. Following 1994 legal Cuban migration flows tend to stabilize, as did restrictions to illegal entries through the coast. However, Cubans continued to enter the U.S. through other routes, including the smuggling of people.

Link

Dd

[Finglefinn]

I'm kidding Dd. It's just the rich ex-generals and ex-politicians from Cuba that own huge plantations on the Florida coastal cities.

[Ddrak]

I'm kidding Dd. It's just the rich ex-generals and ex-politicians from Cuba that own huge plantations on the Florida coastal cities.

I'd believe that. Sorry - internet not good at detecting kidding. I'd also say there is probably a much larger population that identifies themselves as "Cuban" in Miami than actually are.

Dd

[Finglefinn]

I'd also say there is probably a much larger population that identifies themselves as "Cuban" in Miami than actually are.

I'd believe that. There certainly is a huge Caribbean immigrant population in Miami. But it is difficult to tell them apart, unless you are from those areas.