Cuban has a Boeing made plane crashing on a domestic flight

[NorseThing]

Crashes of aging aircraft with a shortage of parts may be a good reason to begin lifting the trade sanctions that still remain on Cuba. http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/05...tcmp=obnetwork

https://www.state.gov/e/eb/tfs/spi/cuba/ -- You see the history with this link.

Raul is still first secretary of the party but the Castro power grip is now pretty much a past tense item. Maybe we should put the sanctions in the past now as well.

[antaeus]

As a general rule, I'm pretty sure that if sanctions don't work after more than half a century, that country's economy has learned to live with them and they never will work.

In the case of Cuba, even Trump has broken the sanctions in his business dealings in the past. It really is comical, if people's lives weren't at stake. I think the US Vietnamese relationship should probably be a good role model for ways forward, and an example of how normalisation of the relationship can be immensely beneficial both financially and from a geopolitical perspective.

[NorseThing]

From a bit ago, but probably important is the full discussion at:

(b)(2)(v) Items necessary to ensure the safety of civil aviation and the safe operation of commercial aircraft engaged in international air transportation, including the export or re-export of such aircraft leased to state-owned enterprises.

excerpted from link -- read full article at the link:https://www.morganlewis.com/pubs/avi...-iran-and-cuba

Among the problems, there is also the risk as discussed in the above link of Cuban state owned planes landing on USA soil and being seized for compensation regarding the revolution. This all needs to be settled. The problem is that the Cuban economy may have adjusted to the sanctions, but that does not mean prospering despite the sanctions. If we can normalize with Vietnam, why is Cuba such a tough problem to mutually correct? Think of how better Puerto Rico post hurricane would be if we had already normalized our trade with Cuba? So this is not just about helping Cuba. It is also about making USA citizens better off and making disaster responses in the Caribbean more effective.

[Prodromos]

Is Cuba's new dictator less dictator-y than the old dictator? Otherwise I don't see the need to re-evaluate US policy, especially since, unlike in Vietnam's case, normalizing relations with Cuba doesn't really further the US' geopolitical interests. In general I don't believe dictatorial regimes should receive favorable treatment except in exceptional, e.g. national security, situations.

[NorseThing]

I do not think settling old problems is giving favorable treatment. I have not a clue whether the new regime is an improvement over the Castro family and that is not important for USA interests. Pres. Obama made some attempts to resolve the issues and so has Pres. Trump. In the end, other than posting embassies rather than interest sections in another country's embassy, not much has been really accomplished out side of some wiggling on specific one time narrow interest trade issues. Doing this as special pleading by individual corporations wantign to make a buck is not good government policy and serves to degrade the concept of 'rule of law'.

Another link that may interest some (unless you simply hate the Council on Foreign Relations): https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/us-cuba-relations