cubaninsider: Batistianos Hurt Louisiana

11.10.16

Batistianos Hurt Louisiana

With Control of Congress!!

This AP/Gerald Herbert photo shows John Bel Edwards, the Governor of Louisiana, holding a news conference at the airport in New Orleans. His plane had just touched down after a 5-day trip to Cuba that also included other top state officials, especially in the agricultural sector. Governor Edwards is desperately trying to position Louisiana in "the best possible position to expand trade with Cuba" if the U. S. government ends the embargo against Cuba. That won't happen because the U. S. government's Cuban policy is rigidly dictated by a U. S. Congress under the yoke of revengeful remnants of the Batista dictatorship that the Cuban Revolution overthrew on January 1, 1959. All these decades later, millions of Americans -- including Governor John Bel Edwards of Louisiana -- are still forced to suffer because of a grossly undemocratic Cuban policy designed to benefit a few extremists at the expense of everyone else.

This Ismael Francesco/AP photo shows Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards and Cuba's National Port Administrator Manuel Perez signing tentative agreements potentially important to both Louisiana and Cuba. But the operative word regarding Cuban issues, of course, is tentative. After signing a plethora of "Memorandums of Understanding" with Cuba, Governor Edwards lamented the fact that the U. S. embargo of the island, in place since 1962, will continue to stifle trade agreements that would benefit his state. Louisiana wants badly to boost rice and soybean sales to Cuba while creating shipping traffic from Louisiana ports to Cuban ports. Governor Edwards said, "We are best positioned because of our geographic proximity to the island, and because of our deep-water ports, to really ship an awful lot of goods to Cuba."

At cordial meetings like the one depicted above, Governor Edwards of Louisiana and his team of executives found the Cubans "very receptive and friendly." Cuba currently buys rice and soybeans from faraway Vietnam but admits that it would save "money and time" if the products and shipping came from the more convenient New Orleans ports. Louisiana, skirting around the embargo, already exports more to Cuba than any other U. S. state and prior to the embargo in 1962 was also America's largest Cuban trading partner. But Governor Edward's trip to Cuba again reveals that, decade after decade, the U. S. Cuban policy is designed to revengefully, economically and politically benefit a few while harming everyone else.