U.S.-Cuba relations up in the air as Trump threatens to reintroduce sanctions

[inanna]

Source: The Globe & Mail

Published Sunday, Nov. 27, 2016 9:06PM EST

Fidel Castro is gone, but the economic thaw between the United States and Cuba remains tenuous amid threats by Donald Trump to roll back Barack Obama’s efforts to normalize relations with the Communist regime.

The president-elect is warning he may reimpose some sanctions and reverse last year’s historic reopening of the U.S. embassy in Havana after 54 years unless Cuba agrees to major political and economic reforms.

“We’re not going to have a unilateral deal coming from Cuba back to the United States without some changes in their government – [on] repression, open markets, freedom of religion, political prisoners. These things need to change in order to have open and free relationships,” Reince Priebus, Mr. Trump’s chief of staff, told Fox News on Sunday. “And that’s what president-elect Trump believes and that’s where he is going to head.”

Many Republicans in Congress have long opposed the détente with Cuba without a full dismantling of the regime. Florida Senator Marco Rubio vowed on Sunday to try to reverse much of Mr. Obama’s legacy on Cuba. “We want to take a look at all the changes that were made,” he told NBC.


Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/us-cuba-relations-up-in-the-air-as-trump-threatens-to-reintroduce-sanctions/article33065633/

[elleng]

1. The whole world is watching,

and likely will be getting pissed off at many things to come.

[pbmus]

2. I thought he just said he would try to help the Cuban people..

[fantase56]

3. He'll withdraw the threat....

once they let him build a hotel and golf course.

[TomCADem]

4. THIS

The MSM went crazy about foreign interests donating to the Clinton Foundation even though the Clinton Foundation was (1) a charity; (2) conducted audits, which were reviewed by third parties; and (3) the Clinton's themselves provided their tax returns. Yet, the MSM still pretty much gives Trump a free pass on actions far worse them what Republicans have claimed would have disqualified Hillary Clinton. In the case of Trump, the money changing hands goes directly toward his business interests.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/21/a-running-list-of-how-donald-trumps-new-position-is-helping-his-business-interests/

Foreign diplomats see the Trump Hotel as an opportunity to curry favor with the president-elect. Earlier this year, Trump triumphantly opened a new Trump-branded hotel down the street from the White House. As The Post reported over the weekend, foreign diplomats have been courted as likely clientele for the project.

* * *

One Asian diplomat put the issue bluntly to our Jonathan O'Connell and Mary Jordan: “Why wouldn’t I stay at his hotel blocks from the White House, so I can tell the new president, 'I love your new hotel!' Isn’t it rude to come to his city and say, 'I am staying at your competitor?'”

The only sure way to guarantee that Trump isn't confronted with conflicts of interest as president, experts suggest, is to liquidate his properties and reinvest the money in ways that Trump isn't aware of. That's trickier than it might seem, given how much of Trump's stated net worth is tied up in projects that leverage his name (as opposed to his owning properties, for example). Many of Trump's projects are licensing deals in which he allows the use of his name to a developer in exchange for a fee or part of the profits. Deals based on his name would be harder to extricate his interests from; his business partners seem to have gotten very lucky thanks to the American electoral college system.

It's already clear, though, that — even without detailed information about Trump's business interests — there are significant reasons to be concerned about how and where Trump's personal interests overlap with the power that he'll inherit on Jan. 20.

[lordsummerisle]

5. viva la revolucion

Remember 11/8/2016. It marks the beginning...

[NYC Liberal]

6. He was already illegally doing business there.

Why wouldn't he want to open the floodgates and make it legal there? More money for him. And the corrupt asshole could even use his influence as president to get deals for his companies.

I agree. He'll back down. Especially now that Castro is gone.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. That would mean competition against his interests there

I can see him blocking everyone else so that he can (illegally and illicitly) have the monopoly there. That's how mafiosos operate.

[harun]

13. 1

[Kablooie]

7. If Trump said he was going to do it you don't have to worry.

The only constant is that if he says he will do it that means he won't do it.

[DFW]

9. I'm glad my two daughters got to go there this month

Although--Trump wouldn't have been able to stop them anyway. They are dual citizens (Germany/USA) and could have easily traveled on their German passports.

[RobinA]

10. Wait, Didn't He Say

he was against nation-building? Oh wait, I'm assuming he knew what it meant when he said it. My mistake.

[still_one]

11. and Cuba will politely tell us to go f**k ourselves. They don't need us, but it sure would be

interesting if we tried to pull that one in China

[bucolic_frolic]

12. Perverse Narcissistic Disorder

Gaslights by saying "No!" to everything and then forces everyone to
agree with him

I've known a few people like that, very difficult to deal with. You
wind up agreeing to and doing things that make no sense to you,
it's like they control your mind