can someone please tell me why the people of the USA give 2 cents about a Cuban embargo? The cold war ended!?

http://www.pollingreport.com/cuba.htm

Most Americans don't even KNOW there's an embargo on Cuba, until one of them goes on a Caribbean cruise and finds out they can't bring certain cigars back thru US Customs. There is a very strong and very anti-Castro Cuban-American community in Florida, which is a swing state in presidential elections, which any presidential candidate ignores at his peril. Now, most of the anti-Castro feeling is among people over 40, but people over 40 vote.

Eventually this will change. First, younger Cuban-Americans aren't nearly as vehement on the issue as older ones. Second, though they are the only Hispanic ethnic group to vote majority Republican, the Republicans have done a wonderful job of pssing off Latinos in general, and no matter how they try to parade Marco Rubio around it's hard to say the GOP base isn't anti-Hispanic when you hear some of their rhetoric. (Put yourself in their shoes: let's say you're German-American. You hear a non-white person saying "I think those lazy Polish people are ruining the country. But Germans are OK." Really? How long will you buy someone making that distinction?) So there will be other issues beside Castro that will break that voting bloc up. Third, Cuba itself will change. Once the Castro brothers are gone, there's a good chance their brand of Communism will go away too.

As long as it remains Communist though, the only way an American president will recognize Cuba is in his second term, when he isn't up for re-election, when his party doesn't have a shot at carrying Florida or its Senate seats, and preferably when he is a Republican, since he'd have that cover (Republicans get away with more when it comes to dealing with "hostile" powers)

Until then, you can visit, but you have to go thru Mexico or Canada, and be prepared to answer some tough questions at Customs (and maybe later) when you get home.

The embargo is in place not because of the Cold War, but because of the lack of democracy in Cuba. It was put in place during the Cold War, but the current Cuban Democracy Act was not passed until several years after the end of it.

Per the wiki article:

The Cuban regime ... violates the standard and internationally accepted freedom of speech, assembly, and press.

The military dominated country provides financial aid to narcotic traffickers at the expense of its own people.

... no signs of reforming the political system in a democratic direction as any political opposition is silenced through exile and imprisonment.

The U.S. desires to see a transition towards democracy... so that economic growth can occur in a manner that is helpful for the Cuban people.

To make sure that no military or technical aid comes from countries from the former Soviet Union

To be prepared to reduce sanctions in Cuba in order to help create positive change that would help the country's citizens

The donation of food will not be restricted to individuals or organizations not associated with the government

Medical supplies and medicine will also be freely traded as long as the intention of the supplies is to help the Cuban people

Once a democratic election is held under the watchful eye of the international community sanctions may be canceled

Opposition parties must be given a chance to organize and prepare for elections prior to the voting

Cuba must make the effort to move towards a free market economy

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Democracy_Act

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"President Barack Obama has outlined a series of steps that Cuba could take to demonstrate a willingness to open its closed society, including releasing political prisoners, allowing United States telecommunications companies to operate on the island and ending government fees on U.S. dollars sent by relatives in the United States

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The process toward larger diplomatic and commercial openings with Cuba was derailed when Cuban authorities arrested USAID contractor Alan Gross in December 2009, sentencing him to 15 years in prison in 2011. While maintaining limited economic exchanges with Cuba, President Obama stated that, without improved human rights and freedoms by Cuba, the embargo remains "in the national interest of the United States.

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Beyond Cuba's human rights violations and its state sponsored terrorism designation, the United States holds $6 billion worth of financial claims against the Cuban government.

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At present, the embargo, which limits American businesses from conducting business with Cuban interests, is still in effect and is the most enduring trade embargo in modern history. Despite the existence of the embargo, the United States is the fifth largest exporter to Cuba (6.6% of Cuba's imports are from the US)."

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_embargo_against_Cu...

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"Castro's DEAD"

Unless you know something everyone else doesn't ... then he isn't.

"Some silly non existent BS"

That a repressive military regime is still in power is not still silly nor is it non existent.

"Get over it! Lift the embargo!"

Yes, a state should lift its embargo, let go of its principles, and remove fifty years of work attempting to do something to liberalize the country because you want to go on holiday.

Maybe you should research a subject before ranting about it?

Fidel Castro is not dead although it is his younger brother Raul who now runs Cuba. The USA cares in part because having an avowedly Communist country practically on its borders is something of a Red Flag to the American bull, especially since it lends encouragement to all the other left-wing political forces in South America and the Caribbean, as the recent close links with Chavez of Venezuela demonstrated. There are still many on the Right in the USA who see the over-throw of Castro as unfinished Cold War business.

It is also important domestically because of all the anti-Castro Cuban migrants and their descendents who are active in US politics particularly in Florida. With Jeb Bush a former Governor of Florida, and a continuing political force there he brings this into national politics, particularly given his major in Latin American studies and his Mexican born wife.

The Cuban embargo is ridiculous, and it's surprisingly porous--tons of US goods get into Cuba through other countries. You're right; most Americans don't really care about it and wouldn't be upset if it were lifted. However, there's a bloc of voters who *do* care vehemently about it, and they'd be terribly upset if we did lift it. My understanding is that it's mostly them--that group of Cuban exiles--who are preventing lifting the blockade. They're still sore about the loss of their ill-gotten gains and privileges they had under Batista.

Edit: The embargo has nothing to do with Cuba's being a brutal military dictatorship. It is, but that's got nothing to do with it. We let brutal dictatorships get away with worse because they're friendly to us. No, we punished Cuba because it thumbed its nose at us at a time when we were feeling vulnerable during the Cold War.