Julian Colby’s column on lifting the Cuban embargo (Herald, June 3) was quite impressive for a seventh-grade student. It was very well written, but ultimately flawed.
While I agree that the U.S. embargo is a brain-dead policy, Cuba has been able to trade with the entire rest of the world aside from the U.S. for 55 years now. Yet the Cuban people’s suffering and lack of basic civil rights remain the same.
What Colby fails to mention is that the real reason the Cuban people are suffering is completely due to Fidel Castro’s draconian implementation of socialism (communism), an ideology that has failed everywhere it’s been tried. One need only look at Venezuela’s current crises (food rationing with a member of OPEC?) to see living proof of that fact.
What concerns me about this lack of basic knowledge is that this may be the type of one-sided history that is being taught in our schools. I sincerely hope that I’m wrong and that young Mr. Colby will take the time to learn the truth about a country that he enjoys visiting.
John Mumaw
Cortez
