The $8 million in food aid Canada is sending to Cuba is a nice gesture, but it won’t go far to prevent the besieged country’s collapse. The island nation is being crushed by a US oil embargo that is causing prolonged power outages, food shortages, garbage buildup, transportation delays and the virtual collapse of its crucial tourism industry.

Life is becoming untenable for ordinary people and that’s exactly what the US wants, hoping internal discontent will force regime change. The Wall Street Journal reported in January that US President Donald Trump’s government is actively cultivating government insiders willing to “cut a deal” with the US and push out the ruling communist regime.

Starving a country into submission to force a change in its political system is not even remotely democratic. But with the US rapidly jettisoning its own democratic tradition, it’s not surprising it would use this strong-arm tactic to finally vanquish one of its last remaining Cold War enemies.

Cuba has never pretended to be a democracy. Fidel Castro took control of the country after the revolution in 1959 and ruled until 2008, when he passed the torch to his brother Raul. It would be remiss not to mention that horrific human rights abuses have been rife the entire time, as is so often the way with totalitarian........

© National Observer