Rosenfeld Realty Advisors: CUBA!

Let’s talk Cuba!

It is strange, this came up during one of Rick Scott’s many publicity tours seeking reelection. He was at a car dealership, touting some tax cuts in the fees for auto registration (which would be excellent by the way), and for some reason saw this as a good time to bash competitor Charlie Christ for his views on Cuba. This might have been in response to Christ appearing on Real Time With Bill Maher on Friday. There Christ said he thought that the Cuba embargo should be lifted, a very different view than he had in 2010 as a Republican. He thinks it will help the Florida economy, increase jobs and trade. Scott took the opposite view, that the embargo is the right thing to do since it is not free or democratic. Specifically the embargo “is part of standing up for the Cuban individuals, Cuban families’ freedom” The funny thing about all this, regardless of which side you are on, is that the Governor of Florida has absolutely no power or authority on this issue. It is something that is decided by Congress and can be tweaked slightly by the President. Just political nonsense really, but let’s talk about it anyway for a minute. Living in South Florida, we all have friends or acquaintances who are Cuban and from other South American countries. It is a very painful situation for many of the Cubans living here as they are cutoff from their families and cannot get them out of there. Tales of people who were tortured by the Cuban Gov’t. and or who had friends or family members disappear are rampant. Thousands of Cubans have died trying to get to the US by boat, and this has been going on for 50 years. I think that after all that time the embargo has not succeeded in making the government of Cuba change. So clearly it is time to try something different here. Lifting the embargo will make the lives of normal Cubans better, giving them more opportunities and certainly creating jobs. The tourism industry would immediately take off, and families could be reunited (assuming that Cuba responded in kind to some extent. People cannot leave there freely now of course but people would be able to come back). They are so close to us, only 90 miles, and yet so far away. I really would love to visit there and see something good happen here with this situation. Nothing is on the table for Cuban policy to change at this point but you can visit on a cultural mission, and I might just do that.

The Cuban embargo emerges as a political issue in Florida

http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/02/10/3926318/the-cuban-embargo-emerges-as-a.html