Do Trump's aggressive measures hurt or benefit Cuba?

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Editor's Note: Jorge Dávila Miguel has a degree in Journalism since 1973 and has maintained a continuing career in his profession to date. He has postgraduate degrees in Social Information Sciences and Social Media, as well as postgraduate studies in International Relations, Political Economy and Latin American History. He is of Cuban nationality and has traveled almost all levels and tasks of his profession, from reporter to foreign correspondent in flat and radio press, as well as executive producer in television media. As a columnist, Dávila Miguel has been awarded by the Association of Hispanic-American Journalists and the Inter-American Press Association. Dávila Miguel is currently a columnist for the Nuevo Herald, on the McClatchy chain and political analyst and columnist for CNN in Spanish. The comments expressed in this column belong exclusively to the author.

(CNN Spanish) - The obvious answer would be “hurt”, but the final answer depends on the Cuban State.

Trump hardens the embargo against Cuba, which obviously hurts the economy of the island. Although it may not be as main as the Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez, says in a recent tweet: “The blockade is the main obstacle to the development of all our economic potential. It negatively affects the daily lives of all Cubans. ”

It is true that it negatively affects all Cubans day by day, but it would be healthy to finish proclaiming once and for all - if necessary to hype and saucer - that such hardships are also a result of errors and economic dislates of the Cuban State committed to over 60 years. Like when it was wanted in the 70s to reach communism by abolishing by decree the socialist stage. Don't you remember? And some are still committed. Although from the surgical reforms led by former President Raúl Castro, the Cuban economy and society have liberalized and taken a course more in line with today's world, much remains to be done within Cuba. Without looking so constantly and terrified to the north. Because if it is taken as an ideological foundation that the US trade embargo is the only deadly cause for progress and the Cuban economy, then one would have to admit that Cuba cannot live without the United States. A kind of talk * to the revolutionary.

But not with him either. When Raúl Castro and Barack Obama restarted diplomatic relations in 2015 and the thaw began to drip, from Cuban official sectors the version was encouraged that "imperialism wanted to strain us through the kitchen." And that with the end of the embargo (Hillary Clinton was going to win) what imperialism would want was to give Cuba a "mortal hug".

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And it is in that same bipolar attitude towards the neighborhood with the United States and that paraplegic condition before the paralyzing power of the embargo on Cuba, that the excuse for economic barbarities resides, as well as the pernicious mentality that the solution of the economic affairs of Cuba is resolved based on foreign factors. That is why it is understandable that the Cuban political idiosyncrasy feels so intimidated and determined by what is decided in Washington. Because the problem is that Cuba lacks a solid national economy.

And maybe that brings us to the initial question. Cuban reality needs economic realism. It is understood that, within its interest, the socialist state seeks to maintain "production relations" that do not lead to wild capitalism. But also, behind the defense of the "conquests of socialism", there is a lively and kicking economic political bureaucracy that does not want to lose its privileges in the chain of command and productive process. And he doesn't want the competition.

Cuba lived economically dependent on the USSR for decades and that is why, when communism fell, it suffered the "special period" of the 1990s. Then it revived its economy depending on Venezuela. And when Obama was already opening a door for new "short mangoes" with tourism, Hollywood movies, Chanel models parading through the Prado, all American artists and their sycophants smoking a cigar in Central Park. In June 2016, Cuba declared to the world that the damages caused by the embargo amounted to more than US $ 753,000 million. The United States owed him money.

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Now Trump is squeezing and the Cuban state must avoid a new "special period" at all costs. It was precisely in this period of the 90s when Fidel Castro opened the economy to the national productive forces, although discreetly and later, by the blessed and damaging Venezuelan help, he closed them. There are indications that the Cuban State walks this time decidedly for the strengthening of national productive forces, both state and private. It is imperative to produce in a indebted and decapitalized country that imports US $ 2 billion in food per year that can be produced in Cuba. Cuban reality needs economic realism. If the Cuban state looks inward forced by Trump's aggressive measures and nullifies the Soviet influence on the economy, Trump's aggressive measures will definitely be beneficial for Cuba. That may be the answer to the question. And the Cuban state has the word and the power, not the American.

* Plattism, from the Platt Amendment, which in 1902 made Cuba a dependent country of the United States. Derogatory term used to denounce Cubans who long for dependence on the United States.

Embargo to Cuba