[hezralig]

I also am fairly confused by that point. Cuba is effectively maintaining itself under an international embargo and somehow trains medical professionals from even the United States. Cuba also designed and produced multiple COVID vaccines that have held up compared to the vaccines rolled out globally.

I am fairly impressed by what Cuba has accomplished under these conditions and resent how difficult the US has made it to vacation there (buying +1 hop of a plane ticket through Mexico). I go to Cuba from time to time for free health checks ups and cheap healthcare.

[The_Colonel]

Cuba has some highlights which it can use to get some international prestige, but otherwise ...

In comparison to today's Cuba, the 1990s Eastern Europe was a fun and prosperous place. (got to enjoy both)

[meepmorp]

Cuba isn't under international embargo, it's basically just the US. And the UN has voted on this resolution with the exact same result for 30 years.

[iamjake648]

Yea, but this point is a bit disingenuous because ships that make port in Cuba can't then also then make port in the US.

https://ofac.treasury.gov/faqs/779

The US has a huge amount of influence on all global trade, regardless of it's with the US or not.

[pkaye]

Europe and Asia do have trade with Cuba. In fact Cuba imports more from US than from Canada or Mexico.

https://oec.world/en/profile/country/cub?yearlyTradeFlowSele...

[meepmorp]

That sounds like a minor inconvenience, at worst.

[joshuahaglund]

Do you know much about shipping and logistics? It's all about finding efficiencies. If a ship visits Cuba, it can't visit any American port for 180 days. Considering how close they are and how much smaller a market Cuba is, I imagine shippers would charge more for freight to/from Cuba because now that ship can't be used for trade with the US. That ship is limited to/from places farther than Cuba (which are also smaller and poorer than the US).

[meepmorp]

Cuba has trade with all of the rest of Latin America. A ship just needs to deliver goods to any other country in the region - which they'd presumably do in the normal course of international trade - then someone takes whatever to Cuba.

It's a minor inconvenience that's trivially worked around.

[Jensson]

There are regular routes from Cuba to Europe and China. It maybe costs slightly more, but shipping isn't that expensive in the first place.

The biggest problem selling to Cuba is that you would sell to the Cuban state. That problem is much smaller today since Cuba opened up for capitalist a couple of years ago, so now private companies are importing goods to Cuba.

Can read about Cuban imports here, the problem wasn't the embargo the problem was communist and now that problem starts to get solved even if the embargo isn't lifted:

"But what has caught the attention of experts tracking the numbers is that, unlike in previous years when Alimport, a Cuban government company, did most of the importing of chicken, soybean or corn, the list of exports now includes unexpected products: organic coffee, cheese, coffee creamers, ice cream, chocolate, cookies, pastries, potato and corn chips, spices, popcorn, peanut butter, maple syrup and many others that are going to the private sector."

The Cuban government didn't think the people needed spices or chocolate or cookies, so they didn't import any of that. you can see how this hurts the ability to trade more than an embargo from a single country.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas...

[riku_iki]

> maintaining itself

this is not the best success metric in the modern world.

> that have held up compared to the vaccines rolled out globally.

probably according to Cuban government.