Trump needs to free the Cuban people

With friends like Fidel Castro and his political successors, ordinary Canadians and Cubans need no enemies;

Hymie Rubenstein ——Bio and Archives--February 21, 2026

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The many critics of America’s treatment of Cuba since the successful 1959 revolution led by Fidel Castro turned that country into a Soviet-style Marxist “paradise” have chronically failed to address the horrific conditions under which ordinary Cubans have had to live for the past 67 years.

Rarely mentioned, for example, is that this revolution has forced at least one million Cubans, one-tenth of the island’s population, to flee their beloved homeland because of economic strangulation and political oppression.

Those left behind have always suffered from food shortages and rationing, poverty level incomes, the arbitrary confiscation of their property, the inability to form opposition political parties, poor medical treatment, constant surveillance, and many other adversities, none of which have anything to do with the long-standing American trade embargo for the simple reason that Cuba has always had trade and diplomatic access to most countries of the world, including Canada. Many of these countries, especially Russia, have provided substantial aid to the country during periods of extreme, but self-imposed, economic deprivation.

Currently, all Donald Trump wants is to give freedom and dignity to ordinary Cubans, a desire shared by most exiles and their descendants living in the diaspora.

Caribbean and other supporters of the current Cuban regime care not a twit about the desire of most Cubans at home and abroad for social, economic, and political emancipation. Instead, they constantly focus mainly on the military and humanitarian aid Cuba has given to other countries over the decades, ignoring the fact that this support has come on the back of the hard-working efforts of the Cuban people themselves.

These efforts even include the rock bottom wages paid to those physicians forcibly dispatched to Third World countries across the globe, most of their gross earnings repatriated to the Cuban regime, which uses these “profits” to exploit their very own people further.

Yes, many pundits are correct when they assert that the world has changed and is changing for the worse, but they unthinkingly and zealously ignore the worst change for Cuba came in 1959 when an arguably corrupt Batista government was replaced by an even more corrupt one, a communist reign of terror that the Cuban people continue to suffer under.

Despite contrary evidence, many commentators across the globe, including politicians, community activists, and the general public, continue to blame Cuba’s past and present economic adversities, such as low wages, constant hunger, and poor housing, on the United States economic embargo, often called “el bloqueo” (the blockade) by Cubans.

Though this trade blockade consists of a comprehensive set of economic, commercial, and financial sanctions first established in the early 1960s, this has not prevented Cuba from trading with other countries, as already mentioned.

The only current constraints are the loss of most aid and other concessions from its traditional patron, Russia, and the fact that post-revolutionary Cuba has always been on the brink of economic collapse because of destructive collectivistic economic policies, incompetent political administration, and the migration of its best, brightest, and most productive citizens.

Still, it is the longest-standing trade embargo in modern history, so continues to draw much international attention, even though most of its causes are rarely mentioned or downplayed by its detractors.

The initial trigger for the blockade was the illegal nationalization of U.S. property in 1960, featuring the Cuban government’s seizure of American-owned assets. After the 1959 revolution, Fidel Castro nationalized oil refineries, sugar mills, and utilities — most without a cent of compensation to their mainly American owners.

Only time will tell whether this pressure will prompt the people of Cuba to rise up and take back their country from its oppressive and corrupt Marxist leaders

This seizure remains a legal hurdle to this day: the U.S. Department of........

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