TA, Dudster, excellent points. I personally believe that our current embargo on Cuba is in its last decade of life and that shortly after Cubas transformation will be swift and dramatic. This is precisely the reason I want to see Cuba now.

As for Human Rights in Cuba, yes there are clearly problems that I have a conflict of interests with when I choose to support a government financially, albeit indirectly. I am a vegetarian because I choose not to economically support the cattle & ranching industries warehouse farmed chicken, et cetera. I clearly understand that I do vote with my dollars and I don’t except that responsibility lightly.

I know more of U.S. interventions in Latin America then most and not one of them has been carried out for Human Rights, though our government chooses to market their actions this way. In Cuba we supported Batista who was as tyrannical as they get, he makes Fidel look like a saint. But the Cuban hero Ernesto “Che” Guevara? Personally I feel he was a lot like the CIA in his covert operations (always a foreigner) and I fail to see how outside of Cuba he could be admired in the way he is. He is simply more fashionable now.

But as for Cuba, I would love to see it before any major changes, for all of it’s glories and catastrophes. I just won’t be the on yelling “ˇViva la revolucion!”