Cuba isn't flourishing, they're entering the first stages of food deprivation right now. They've required large state sponsorship, previously by the USSR, and more recently by Venezuela, to keep from system collapse. The average income in Cuba is still close to $20 per month.
May 2019 "Cuba launches widespread rationing in face of crisis"
Cuba's history of colonization included deforestation and overuse of its agricultural
land. Before the crisis, Cuba used more pesticides than the U.S. Lack of fertiliser
and agricultural machinery caused a shift towards organic farming and urban farming.
Cuba still has food rationing for basic staples. Approximately 69% of these rationed
basic staples (wheat, vegetable oils, rice, etc.) are imported.[18] Overall,
however, approximately 16% of food is imported from abroad.[18]
and
Diaz said importing food from U.S. producers had become more complicated under
Trump, forcing Cuba to search for products that were more expensive and difficult to
import.
it is pretty obvious that the US allowing Cuba to trade with the rest of the world would more or less 'solve' those problems.
As of 2018, the embargo, which limits American
businesses from conducting trade with Cuban interests,
remains in effect and is the most enduring trade embargo
in modern history
and
The UN General Assembly has, since 1992, passed a
resolution every year condemning the ongoing impact of
the embargo and declaring it in violation of the Charter
of the United Nations and of international law. In 2014,
out of the 193-nation assembly, 188 countries voted for
the nonbinding resolution, the United States and Israel
voted against and the Pacific Island nations Palau,
Marshall Islands and Micronesia abstained. Human-rights
groups including Amnesty International, Human Rights
Watch, and the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights have also been critical of the embargo.
Critics of the embargo say that the embargo laws are too
harsh, citing the fact that violations can result in up
to 10 years in prison.
and
In a 2005 interview, George P. Shultz, who served as
Secretary of State under Reagan, called the embargo
"insane". Daniel Griswold, director of the Cato
Institute's Center for Trade Policy Studies, criticized
the embargo in a June 2009 article:
The embargo has been a failure by every measure. It has
not changed the course or nature of the Cuban
government. It has not liberated a single Cuban citizen.
In fact, the embargo has made the Cuban people a bit
more impoverished, without making them one bit more
free. At the same time, it has deprived Americans of
their freedom to travel and has cost US farmers and
other producers billions of dollars of potential exports.
>it is pretty obvious that the US allowing Cuba to trade with the rest of the world would more or less 'solve' those problems.
As you pointed out the US embargo prevents Americans from trading with Cuba. It affects no one else. Virtually the entire world apart from the US is against the embargo. They are all free to trade with Cuba. At the margins, the US embargo hurts Cubans, but the bulk of their economic woes are self inflicted.
May 2019 "Cuba launches widespread rationing in face of crisis"
https://www.apnews.com/42b62f24be9b4e0d9f764f1a3fa9647a
This near starvation problem isn't anything new. The same thing happened when Cuba's last sponsor, the USSR, went under.
1994 "Millions of Cubans facing starvation: Hunger is fuelling an exodus of desperate refugees, writes Phil Davison from Havana"
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/millions-of-cubans-...