A bit of truth to Chronodamus.

Chronodamus is some dude that landed on my substack notes because he was miffed about one of the memes/X post I shared:

I added that the reply was accurate and Chronodamus seemed to take offense by it. After a short exchange, he posted this which made me laugh in its innocent misinformation:

Dear Chronodamus, let me start with a bit of myself so you know where I am coming from, why I know what I know and not just some rando dude talking out of his ass like yourself.

In case you are Spanish Impaired, the one at the bottom is my first passport issued in Cuba and the one above the last one issued to me in Venezuela before I came to live in the U.S. and eventually became a citizen. Am I triple-citizen? Nope, actually I qualify for four nationalities¹ if I choose to, but I am proudly staying with my American citizenship, thank you.

Let us begin:

“I understand you get your world view from Fox News. Very clear.”

I watch Fox, yes, and in the same amounts with NBC News and CNN mostly because the only time I do is when I am in the gym doing my treadmill. Other than that? X is my main source of news.

“Cuba has biotech and medical exports, including vaccines and cancer treatments, which are a growing source of revenue.”

I have been hearing this line of mierda for four decades if not more. But I will make fun short and sweet of the Cuban biotech and medical exports with a sign you will find in many pharmacies in Miami.

It says that they ship medication to Cuba. About the only thing they manage to manufacture is aspirin and some basic antibiotics when they can lay their hands on some currency because nobody trust the Cuban government to give them credit.

Speaking of cancer treatments: they suck the big one. In case you fail to remember, they lost the most important patient they ever had who was supposedly being treated by the best and brightest Cuban medicine in Cuban hospitals could offer and he was guaranteed to be brough back to perfect health, one Hugo Chavez, “president” of Venezuela. He died a bloated and hopefully painful death.

While the tourism and sugar were once dominant, Cuba has diversified into pharmaceuticals and medical diplomacy sending doctors abroad in exchange for resources.

Aspirin and a few antibiotics and assorted free generics do not make for a huge source of income. As for the medical diplomacy, I have a little story to tell you on that. First, it ain’t diplomacy and never was as there is some sort of trade. In the case of Venezuela, they were trading “doctors” and “nurses” for oil. And Cuba indeed sent a bunch of medical personnel to Venezuela but they forgot that the country is not an island and when they were not paying attention, most of the “doctors” and “nurses” made a beeline to Colombia and a hop to Miami. Yup, mass desertions, effing hilarious. The subsequent batches of “doctors” and “nurses” were kept under strict vigilance by members of the Cuban (G2) and Venezuelan (SEBIN) secret police and herd back and forth from secure residences to hospital and back.

But the real metric is the amount of people they treated and cured. Suffice to say that within 6 months, the word was out that the “doctors” and “nurses” were less than efficient and in some cases deadly. Threats were issued to them by families of people that died of simple shit curable even in the worst of Venezuelan public hospitals. The program pretty much is dead and only a facade is maintained for the sake of the now dead oil trade between the two countries.

With Spain and Canada, most all disputes stem from U.S. sanctions (Helms-Burton Act) allowing lawsuits over 1960s nationalizations, not modern expropriations. Foreign investments today operate under joint ventures, and deals like Iberostar’s lease of a Varadero hotel shows the renewed trust.

With Spain and Canada, most all disputes stem from U.S. sanctions (Helms-Burton Act) allowing lawsuits over 1960s nationalizations, not modern expropriations. Foreign investments today operate under joint ventures, and deals like Iberostar’s lease of a Varadero hotel shows the renewed trust.

There were not nationalizations my dear misguided individual. Nationalizations have compensations agreements and payments. Castro never paid either companies or individuals and families who had their properties expropriated. So Helms-Burton addressed that if you were going to make money out of stolen properties, you should be penalized for it. The equivalent of possession of stolen merchandise in more colloquial terms.

It’s true Cuba relied heavily on Soviet subsidies like averaging $4.3 billion/year in the 1980s and later Venezuelan oil with up to 105,000 bpd which helped prop up the economy.

In the 60s, 70s, 80s and till the fall of the Berlin wall. But wait, I thought Cuba had a biotech and medical exports. They don’t get a piece of the trillion and a half dollars a year of the global biotech industry?

Your idea that communism never worked oversimplifies despite inefficiencies, Cuba still maintains universal healthcare and education,

“El papel aguanta lo que le pongas” loosely translated means that just because they say it and print it, does not mean it works. There is one thing Cubans do pretty good and is how to make do with the shitty life they have. From smuggling to keeping cars from the 1950s running or makeshift boats to escape “universal healthcare and education” and head to Miami, you can tell they are frigging magicians.

“and recent market reforms like the leasing state assets to foreign firms show adaptation amid crisis.”

And the new foreign firms will also be shafted. The scorpion and the frog should be a warning they decided not to heed. But wait, I thought they could not work in Cuba because of Helms-Burton…. bit of a contradiction on your part there.

“The real issue is decades of external dependency, U.S. sanctions, and delayed reforms and the external dependency and related reforms are heavily tied to the sanctions.”

Cuba’s government want US currency and US goods, the filthy dollar and the consumer goods of Capitalism, the cause of the problems of the world. Rather ironic, isn’t.

“Cuba’s problem was that it was fully dependent on the U.S. when U.S. companies controlled most of its economy. When they tried to become independent, the U.S. slapped on the sanctions. This made them even more externally dependent but then on The Soviet Union. Problems for Cuba wasn’t your political delusions and ego about communism, it was about being reliant on the U.S. economically.”

They have been at this crap for 66 years! How many years does it take to come up with a work-around when they can trade with the rest of the world! From 1959 till 1990 they had the economical and military support of a superpower and after that they had basically what amounts to free oil and still cannot fucking provide the basic necessities to their citizens. But they are extremely good at blaming the Gringos for their maladies and inefficiencies and almost criminal misuse of the resources they were give for free.

“Cuba was a major supplier of agricultural products to the United States before the sanctions.”

Sugar was about the only thing they had worth exporting. But you know those “nationalizations” they are so proud about (you too probably) one of those was to the Fanjul family who were the top sugar producers in Cuba since 1850. They had to leave Cuba, relocated to South Florida and not only they managed to recover from the communist theft but became a giant in the sugar business. Yes, the ban on Cuban sugar in 1962 helped, but don’t forget that the Soviets were buying/trading the Cuban sugar after that. If you taste or eat something sugar in the U.S. (and likely a lot of the world) you owe it to the Fanjuls.

OK, this was fun. I had not fisked anybody in a long while, but I am old, feeble and in need of my elderly sleep.

And to my dear Chronodamus, a question: the distance between Cuba and Haiti is 50 miles over water, a relative short hop for free healthcare and the goodness of Communism. Yet Haitians choose to brave 1,475 miles of Caribbean sea to reach the evil corrupt United States of Capitalism. How come?

Second: You must be living in Cuba or at least Venezuela, right?

1. The fourth one would be Spanish via mom, dad and grandparents. Some sort of adjustment law from Spain covering the descendant of immigrants.