[Cincinatus' Wife]

It will take action. If nothing changes it will be as you said. We act nice, he acts bad. We act "bad"
he acts bad. There is no dealing with someone who likes his slave island, thank you very much, and will never allow anyone to call his revolution, his life, what it is, a brutal, wasted, murderous one.

[daviddennis]

What if we surprise Castro and simply dump the tourism embargo?

That way he can't blame the lack of tourists on the big, bad US.

My personal experience with tourism in Cuba says that most people will hate it and not come back. Everything is horribly overpriced and the regime tries to confine you to excruciatingly dull tour bus tourism. And food in Cuban restaurants is perhaps Communism's most horrible experience because you have to endure it every day.

I loved my trip to Cuba because I hooked up with a delightful Cuban girl and stayed (inexpensively) in a Cuban's home with good food. But if you do the corporate route, you'll be desperately unhappy. I could tell because I met someone who did in the airport on the way back and you could see he hated his vacation. And I never saw anyone in a tour bus smile.

For me, Castro's crossed the line by imprisoning those dissidents. I felt my trip to Cuba was relatively harmless since Castro had a reputation as a defanged dictator, but with the arrests and the involvement with Hugo Chavez I no longer feel that way.

I miss Cuba - I really loved the Cuban people - but unfortunately I just can't support that government with another trip. So I guess in a sense I support the embargo now, but I do wonder what would happen if we stopped giving Castro excuses for his disasterous regime.

D