It was only a matter of time before the “hate-U.S. crowd” would bring up the embargo as the cause of Cuba’s deadly May 18 air crash.
Well, it’s not true. Cuba is free to purchase spare parts in the world markets. How difficult would it be for Cuba to purchase parts for a Boeing 737? Not very difficult at all.
So what happened? Why did Cuba allow such an aircraft to operate?
This is a great summary via my good Cuban friends at Babalu:
When the details of the poor technical condition of the Boeing 737 that crashed in Havana and caused 112 deaths came to light, Cuba’s Minister of Transportation Adel Yzquierdo, instead of presenting his resignation, blamed the US “blockade” for the tragedy.Those were his precise instructions, handed down “from the top.”But when telling lies, or eating fish, you have to be very careful.Shortly thereafter the British magazine The Economist clarified that the US embargo actually allows Cuba to buy aircraft and parts in the US for their maintenance.Thus, if the Cuban state does not do so, it is due to a lack of funds.The newspaper Granma, meanwhile, reported that the investigation carried out by the regime on the air disaster is not to seek guilty parties, but rather to detect the causes and prevent them from repeating.For those who know how to read between the lines of Castro’s normally truculent rhetoric, that official note constituted an admission of guilt.If the dictatorship is not seeking to assign guilt, it is because it knows that it itself was to blame, though it will never admit that.The Cuban dynasty has never accepted any responsibility for its actions. It blames others. It is ingrained in the very DNA of Castroism.Beyond the deplorable technical conditions that precipitated the plane crash, the causes were political, combined with criminal as well as political negligence.
Yes, this is the kind of negligence that would have forced the head of any air safety agency to resign. Or it could have resulted in criminal charges against the owner of the aircraft.
Of course, air crashes happen. In this case, innocent people were put in an aircraft that should have never been in operation.
I understand that there were a few foreigners on that flight. Why don’t their families file a lawsuit?
Keep all of the garbage about the embargo out of this. The plane was leased from a Mexican company, so obviously the embargo did not come into play.
Another reason to keep corrupt communist Cuba out of your future travel plans.
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