>>Cuba - you're kidding, right?
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>No. As Tom already pointed out, we "owned" Cuba after the Spanish-America war. And it was a Colony for a while. And for all intents and purposes it remained a colony (not politically anymore but certainly economically) up until 1959. I am not implying anything about the change of regime (Castro et al) as I am not a friend of Castro and I don't want to start a diatribe on that particular case 9at least not in this thread), but Batista's (and previous governments) had a lot of unsavory ties to the US government up until the end. In some ways like Noriega was "friendly" for a long time, as you mentioned Panama in your message.

Alex;

Fulgencio Batista Zaldívar had ties throughout the United States. The mafia (mafia boss Lansky and others) loved him! Imagine the U.S. government and mafia on the same island? He also "befriended" (for a price) American construction firms for massive projects.

Some how it is hard to say who was or is worse – Batista or Castro. It is like comparing the devil with the devil.

Tom