Take a look at the headline on the linked news item from Reuters:
U.S. food exports to Cuba dwindle under Bush
Huh?
In 2001 Cuba began buying food and other agricultural products from the United States on a cash-up-front basis. Since that time, the United States has become Cuba’s largest food supplier.
The fact is that under Bush this specific type of trade has boomed.
But take a look at what else the article says:
HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuba will close deals for Canadian wheat and Vietnamese rice at the annual trade fair in Havana that opened on Monday, while U.S. food sales dwindle.
American vendors and Cuban officials blamed the tightening of U.S. financial sanctions against Communist Cuba, a policy U.S. President George W. Bush reaffirmed two weeks ago.
“Vietnam gives them credit, we don’t,” said Marvin Lehrer, the USA Rice Federation’s director for Latin America, as he handed out hot samples of chicken-flavored long-grain rice.
Sales of U.S. rice to Cuba dropped to 80,000 tones last year from 175,000 tonnes in 2005 and prospects are not good for this year, Lehrer said.
A few notes. The pullback on purchases of American agriculture is nothing more than another attempt to create a groundswell against the embargo. American farmers who see their Cuban trade deals go up in smoke when Cuba buys from another country are more likely to agitate their congressmen.
That passage also exposes the argument that Cubans suffer because of the embargo as a canard. Cuba can buy anything from any country in the world. And many countries are dumb enough to give Cuba credit. Which brings me to another point, if you need Vietnam to give you credit, you’re economy is screwed. This despite all those glowing reports about Cuba’s growing economy (http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2007/enero07/lun8/1asamblea.html)
Nothing the president announced last week did anything to change the terms under which the U.S. became Cuba’s largest food supplier. Which is something that the article’s author, Anthony Boadle, could have refuted if he were interested in reporting the truth, rather than parroting the regime and American business interests that want to see the embargo removed.
But what can you expect from the news service that has a correspondent in Cuba, Marc Frank, who penned more than 1,000 articles for the official newspaper of Communist Party U.S.A.?
UPDATE: Child of the Revolution tips us to a contradictory report from the equally disreputable Associated Press:
HAVANA (AP) – Cuba pledged to sign nearly $450 million in contracts with firms from the United States and dozens of other countries today as it opened its top annual trade event.
Cuba inked deals worth $432 million at the 2006 fair.
Compare that to the aforementioned account from Reuters:
Sales of U.S. food — which Cuba must pay for in cash — have totaled $1.8 billion, but business peaked in 2004 when the Bush administration made transactions harder by requiring payment before shipment. Sales peaked at $392 million in 2004 and declined to $340 million last year.
I can only surmise that the AP didn’t get the talking points memo. U.S. food sales to Cuba are supposed to be going “down” not up!
According to these two articles, the Cuban regime’s superior negotiating skills has rendered the US embargo impotent. The media, who gleefuly reports this alleged triumph by the revolution, would also like us to believe that the only thing stopping democratic reform in Cuba is the US embargo.
Since it is apparent from these articles that the embargo has been made irrelevant, shall we be seeing democracy coming any moment now in Cuba?
I don’t think so. But, you will see the castro monarchy continue to rack up billions of dollars into their personal accounts and continue their half-century long reign of terror on the Cuban people.
Once again, the MSM fails to see the duplicity and the contradictions they get themselves into every day in regards to Cuba.
On the contrary, Alberto. The MSM knows perfectly well what it’s doing and what it’s about; it simply feels it can act with impunity and that, in effect, it doesn’t need to give a shit.
You know Asombra, I sometimes just can’t be that sure that the MSM is that smart.
You may be right, however.