The Editor, Sir:

The Jamaican Government must be complimented on its principled stand with regard to its position on the American trade embargo with Cuba. There can be no doubt that at this time, the embargo has proven to be totally fruitless and has not accomplished what it was originally intended to, that is, to effect regime change in that country. In addition, it has also contributed to the economic hardship of Cuba and its people.

A proper analysis of the Cuban situation, however, would confirm that the embargo only represented a small portion of the ills that have bedevilled Cuba over the years. During that time, it did become fashionable to blame the embargo for all the failures of the regime as it was politically very expedient to do so.

Socialist revolution

In the early days of his revolution, Fidel Castro had open to him the opportunity to embrace any form of government that he chose. His choice of totalitarian governance over free-market economics was indeed what has impoverished his country most over that period.

The reason Cuba is today among the four poorest nations in the hemisphere was not caused by the embargo. The reason Cuba still rations food 50 years after his revolution is not the fault of the embargo.

President Castro chose socialist revolution over a free-enterprise economy and, as we know, it is an incontrovertible fact that socialism impoverishes nations. This is not in dispute. There is empirical evidence to prove it.

Greatest resource

Cuba today has the greatest resource of any nation in the region sitting dormant within its own borders and totally unexploited: that is the 11 million disciplined, educated and hard-working of its own citizens.

If Raoul Castro would, instead of exchanging oxen for tractors in his fields, extract the entrepreneurial force locked up in his people through a free-market mechanism, the result would be an explosion of economic activity unparalleled in Cuban history and rivalling the Chinese. Power, however, is heady stuff and that transition would have to wait until the passing of the Castro brothers.

I am, etc.,

LANCE ROBINSON

lrobinson22@gmail.com