I certainly think it’s risky (it goes without saying that it is also wrong). With Venezuela, it seemed you had a regime and populace that, fundamentally, were maybe mildly disapproving of US, but the regime was, in their hearts, pretty comfortable with corrupt arrangements and the Trump administration fits right in with those arrangements. Even an interview with one of the folks the regime unjustly imprisoned seemed at peace with the regime being intact, with a fairly “this sort of corruption is just the way the world works” attitude toward the whole thing.
The Cuban people have endured decades of the US working to actively screw them over, and may be less ‘pragmatic’ about the best way forward even if it means accepting wrong being done and may be more ideologically engaged to recipricate, even if it is likely not going to be a ‘win’, but at least make the US hurt for what they do.
I certainly think it’s risky (it goes without saying that it is also wrong). With Venezuela, it seemed you had a regime and populace that, fundamentally, were maybe mildly disapproving of US, but the regime was, in their hearts, pretty comfortable with corrupt arrangements and the Trump administration fits right in with those arrangements. Even an interview with one of the folks the regime unjustly imprisoned seemed at peace with the regime being intact, with a fairly “this sort of corruption is just the way the world works” attitude toward the whole thing.
The Cuban people have endured decades of the US working to actively screw them over, and may be less ‘pragmatic’ about the best way forward even if it means accepting wrong being done and may be more ideologically engaged to recipricate, even if it is likely not going to be a ‘win’, but at least make the US hurt for what they do.