Cuba Sí, Haiti Non

With Fidel Castro dead and Raul Castro retired, the Cuban revolution doesn't seem as noble or as glamorous as it once did.

Cubans took to the streets this week to demonstrate against shortages, power outages, and economic conditions worsened by COVID, many demanding freedom and the resignation of President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who blamed the crisis on six decades of American sanctions.  White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan expressed support for the Cuban people, and - as soon as Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) bitched about the lack of response from the Oval Office itself - so did President Biden. 

I know I'm going to lose a lot of friends among the progressive movement who regard U.S. policy toward Cuba as imperialist and paternalistic, but I'll be happy to see the Cuban Communist government go.  Yeah, yeah, I know that Castro was for the people and overthrew a corrupt dictator supported by the Mafia and all that, but if Communist Cuba was so wonderful, why did so many Cubans escape to Miami?  I don't agree with sanctions and tourist bans - they've only hurt the people and strengthened the Communist government's hand - but I can easily agree that communism is a failed economic system.  Capitalism - real capitalism, regulated capitalism, not the racketeering system we have now - is the best way to allocate and manage goods.  If you want to see how capitalism is supposed to work, look at any country - like Canada - that doesn't impose sanctions against Cuba. 

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Windward Passage, Haiti is dissolving into chaos yet again, but I don't think it's ever been this bad.  President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated last week, and the whole country has gone into a state of anarchy that makes previous eras of Haitian political instability look like mere trifles.  A Haitian doctor in Florida is rumored to have orchestrated the assassination, as Moïse was killed by mercenaries; seems he wanted to make himself president.  

Meanwhile, demonstrations run rampant in the streets of Port-au-Prince, gangs are more trusted to maintain order than the police, and there's practically no government - except for two guys both claiming to be prime minister.  I think it's time for the United Nations to send peacekeeping troops and set up a new system of government.  The United States can't do it.  No one country can.  Heck, the Americans had the Marines there to set things straight, from 1915 to 1934, and that didn't work.

It's hard to believe that Haiti is the second oldest independent country in the Western Hemisphere, after the United States.