When the communists took over Cuba by armed revolution in 1959, thousands of Cubans - mostly middle and upper-class people facing nationalization of their property and wealth - fled to the US. Since then there have been several other waves of immigration. Today the Cuban-American population stands at over 2.4 million, 85% of whom identify as 'white' and 70% living in Florida. Many are active in politics and have influence over US policy towards Cuba.
Yes, many Cuban expatriates and their descendants are active in and have influence over U.S. politics towards Cuba. Marco Rubio has been mentioned a couple of times in this thread as one of the most eager proponents of the idea that the Cuban crickets constituted an actual microwave attack on the brains of U.S. diplomats and CIA agents. There are also politically and otherwise active Cubans in other parts of the USA, for instance a senator in New Jersey:
Menendez’s Amazing Defense for All Those Envelopes of Cash: I’m Cuban (NewRepublic, Sep 24, 2023)
Notice that
Miami Herald is doing its utmost to compartmentalize Menendez's corruption and anti-Cuban stance:
Sen. Bob Menendez can be both — corrupt and right about Cuba's brutality.
Sen. Menendez bribery charges no reflection on Cuba stance (MiamiHerald, Sep 29, 2023)
From an exiled Cuban kingpin's obituary:
Death spared him from watching the continued erosion of his power, possibly even from the indignity of an indictment on corruption charges. His greatest legislative triumph was the Helms-Burton bill.
Death Probably Saved Mas From Forces Threatening To Undo Him (LATimes, Nov 30, 1997)
A couple of Mas Canosa's friends and allies:
United States and state-sponsored terrorisim: Orlando Bosch (Wiki)
United States and state-sponsored terrorisim: Luis Posada Carriles (Wiki)
One can understand why those people might hate the communist regime in Cuba. Are they morally bankrupt? That's a tricky question. While Cuba was very corrupt and wealthy people benefited from it, the communists stripped everyone of what they had regardless, even though most were probably hard working honest citizens. The Castro government was as repressive as any communist regime. This did not endear it to the US or anybody who believes in freedom and democracy.
I am not sure what you are talking about when you claim that the Cuban
"communists stripped everyone
of what they had." I seriously doubt that the Cuban revolution would have had the popular support it had and has if that had been the case.
As for
repression and endearing 'regimes'
"to the US or anybody who believes in freedom and democracy," I think you should have left it out. People who believe in
"freedom and democracy," the US in particular, love repressive regimes - in particular, if they are the kind of genocidal regimes that are strictly anti-communist. I am surprised that you believe in the ideology. May I recommend the documentary
The Act of Killing? (Wiki)
You are old enough to remember the repressive Apartheid regime. The USA supported it till the very end. And how about Pinotchet's coup in Chile? And Pinochet's freedom-and-democracy-loving friends
Thatcher and
Reagan. And Allende wasn't even a communist!
USA hates communists. It's as simple as that. If it's a choice between repression and communism, the USA will side with repression every time.
And, no, Cuba isn't and wasn't repressive.
(Arcade22 has never forgiven me for
agreeing with him!
)
In the minds of many it is Cuba itself which is guilty of 'moral bankruptcy', and they may have a point. Aligning itself with the USSR and allowing Russian nuclear missiles to be put on its soil (a stone's throw from mainland US) only made it worse. In this environment it's hardly surprising that people would entertain the possibility of Cuba launching 'health attacks' against US citizens. And we all know about the shenanigans Russian spies get up to (or at least we think we do) which made it all the more plausible.
No, they don't have a point. Back then as well as now, Cuba would 'align itself' with countries willing to cooperate and trade with the country. And you get it totally wrong when you think that Cuba merely
allowed (!) "Russian nuclear missiles to be put on its soil." Cuba
asked for those missiles to protect itself against an extremely powerful regime armed with nuclear missiles. That regime had already attempted to invade Cuba, which is no big secret, but people tend to forget that side of the story because they always watch history from the point of view of the USA:
Bay of Pigs Invasion (Wiki).
And not only that:
The aircraft carrier group of the USS Essex had been at sea for nearly a month before the invasion; its crew was well aware of the impending battle.
En route, Essex had made a night time stop at a Navy arms depot in Charleston, South Carolina, to load tactical nuclear weapons to be held ready during the cruise.Bay of Pigs Invasion: Prelude to invasion: Fleet sets sail (Wikipedia)
Cuba
wanted and
needed those missiles to protect itself from the aggressive regime. Fidel Castro was seriously pissed off when Khruschchev removed them and sailed them back to the USSR:
Over the coming days, Fidel was consumed with bitter recriminations against Khruschchev, and the hapless Mikoyan was dispatched to Havana to patch things up. Mikoyan did what he could, but Fidel and Che were convinced that Khruschchev had sold them out for his own strategic interests.
Che calmly removed his Makarov pistol from its holster, handed it to the interpreter, and said: "If I were in your place, the only thing left to do ..." According to Alexandr Alexiev, everyone laughed, including Mikoyan. Che's dark humor had cleared the air.
In public, relations between Moscow and Havana remained "fraternal," but under the surface the situation was extremely tense, and it stayed that way for some time. In the streets of Havana, indignant Cubans chanted:
"Nikita, mariquita, lo que se da no se quita!" (Nikita, you little queer, what you give, you don't take away!)
Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life (Goodreads)
(Fidel Castro later apologized for the homophobia of the early years of the revolution.)
But the attacks on the Cuban embassy are not relevant to this discussion. There are loonies everywhere who occasionally seek attention by committing acts of terrorism. All it shows is that there is anti-Cuba sentiment in the US - but we knew that already.
They
are relevant! Your 'loonies everywhere' is the standard excuse from MAGA Republicans whenever they manage to rile up those loonies enough for one of them to threaten or actually attack politicians, judges, election officials or health-care workers.
Your argument is ridiculous and childish. The most recent attacker was masked, so it doesn't seem to have been about seeking attention. You are deliberately trivializing something that is very serious, indeed.
But, yes, we already knew that there were anti-Cuba sentiment in the US. But we also know where it comes from. You probably remember the fairly recent campaign accusing Cuba of using zap guns to damage the brains of U.S. diplomats stationed in Cuba. I have mentioned it a couple of times in this thread. The previous attack in 2020 took place when the paranoia was at its very worst, and yet that attack was treated as if it had absolutely nothing to do with anti-Cuban propaganda:
“
Our city has experienced far too many tragic outcomes when someone fires a weapon indiscriminately in our community,” said Metropolitan Police Department Chief Peter Newsham. “With this indictment, it is our hope that the criminal justice system holds this individual accountable.”
Man Indicted on Charges Related to Shooting of the Embassy of Cuba (United States Department of Justice, July 22, 2020)
The hypocrisy is palpable! The case is treated as if Washington is the victim and as if the target is random. As if the perpetrator, a man riled up by
"anti-Cuba sentiment," might have shot at just
any building in Washington
"indiscriminately".
Yes, he was crazy, too, but not any more so than all the other crazies riled up by U.S. politicians and media.
I don't put the blame on Cuban-Americans, the CIA or the diplomats involved. I blame Trump and the Deplorables who voted for him. It was Trump's moral bankruptcy that caused him to rip apart everything Obama did, including thawing US-Cuban relations. Finally some progress was being made, and that prick pissed all over it. I hope he gets prosecuted and sent to prison. Lock him up!
Feel free to blame Trump, but you may not have noticed that Biden has done nothing whatsoever to undo the damage done by Trump. In this respect, it has been very much like Biden's promises to take global warming seriously. Biden has actually
intensified the blockade and refused to remove Cuba from the U.S. list of terrorist states. Biden! Not Trump!
And you want to pretend that the anti-Cuban terrorists haven't noticed this official U.S. attitude, that they aren't aware that Cuba is considered to be the enemy.
I felt seen, heard, and supported 
