Tournament: Little Lex | Round: 2 | Opponent: Lexington LM | Judge: Liang, Michael
Plan
Plan: The United States federal government should repeal its trade embargo on the Republic of Cuba.
Contention 1: Inherency
The embargo causes unnecessary suffering and is the single greatest barrier to Cuban economic development.
Khunteta 12 (Shreyans Khunteta, Staff Writer, October 19, 2012 "Cuban embargo ineffective, should be repealed," http://thesunsetscroll.com/opinion/politics/2012/10/19/cuban-embargo-ineffective-should-be-repealed/-http://thesunsetscroll.com/opinion/politics/2012/10/19/cuban-embargo-ineffective-should-be-repealed/)
The Cuban embargo has been in place since Fidel Castro took over Cuba in 1960
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harsh. This is especially shocking considering how easily the problem be fixed.
====Recent reform in Cuba sets a precedent for repealing the embargo. Keeping it despite these changes is inconsistent with how we treat other embargoed countries and counterproductive due to international hostility and economic harm caused.====
Hanson et al 13-Daniel Hanson, Dayne Batten, Harrison Ealey- Daniel Hanson is an economics researcher at the American Enterprise Institute. Dayne Batten is affiliated with the University of North Carolina Department of Public Policy. Harrison Ealey is a financial analyst-1/16/2013, "It’s Time For The U.S. To End Its Senseless Embargo Of Cuba", Forbes, http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2013/01/16/its-time-for-the-u-s-to-end-its-senseless-embargo-of-cuba/
For the first time in more than fifty years, Cuban citizens can travel abroad
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makes no economic sense. It is time for the embargo to go.
Contention 2: Latin American Relations
Shifter ’12 (President of Inter-American Dialogue: think tank hosting 100 leaders and experts from the US and Latin America ~Michael Shifter, "Remaking the Relationship: The United States and Latin America," April, IAD Policy Report, http://www.thedialogue.org/PublicationFiles/IAD2012PolicyReportFINAL.pdf~~)
Simply addressing an unfinished agenda is not enough. Both the United States and Latin
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wellbeing. It is time to seize the moment and overhaul hemispheric relations.
Due to shared concerns and goals cooperation between the US and Latin America will be crucial to address multiple existential threats which spill over to global cooperation.
Shifter ’12 (President of Inter-American Dialogue: think tank hosting 100 leaders and experts from the US and Latin America ~Michael Shifter, "Remaking the Relationship: The United States and Latin America," April, IAD Policy Report, http://www.thedialogue.org/PublicationFiles/IAD2012PolicyReportFINAL.pdf~~)
Cuba, too, poses a significant challenge for relations between the United States and
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flux, and there is growing need for decisions about priorities and objectives.
Absent policies which restrict capabilities for regional proliferation it will be inevitable in Latin America, sparking a deadly arms race and destroying any possibility for global disarmament
ACA 2013 ~ACA – Arms Control Association; "Latin America Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty (Treaty of Tlatelolco)"; http://www.armscontrol.org/documents/tlatelolco~~ RahulNambiar
That the incalculable destructive power of nuclear weapons has made it imperative that the legal
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energy in order to expedite the economic and social development of their peoples,
Contention 3: Science Cooperation
LaGesse ’12
David LaGesse¶ reporter, with recent articles that have appeared in National Geographic, Money, and most frequently in U.S. News 26 World Report – National Geographic News – November 19, 2012 – internally quoting Jorge Piñon, a former president of Amoco Oil Latin America (now part of BP) and an expert on Cuba’s energy sector who is now a research fellow at the University of Texas at Austin.– http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2012/11/121119-cuba-oil-quest/
But an energy-poor Cuba also has its risks. One of the chief
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a major find. But that doesn’t mean Cuba will give up trying.
The Embargo prevents cooperation on oil spills– Cuba needs U.S. equipment.
Stephens ’11 (Executive director of the Center for Democracy in the Americas focused on U.S.-Cuba relations, 11
(Sarah, 3/14/11, Los Angeles Times, "Like Oil and Water in the Gulf," http://articles.latimes.com/2011/mar/14/opinion/la-oe-stephens-cuba-oil-20110314, 6/26/13, N.D.).
Thanks to the U.S. embargo against Cuba — a remnant of the
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benefits of Cuba finding meaningful amounts of oil in the Gulf of Mexico.
Offshore oil development threatens surrounding environment; oil spills could destroy the ecosystem, including coral reefs and fisheries.
Conell ’13 (Research associate at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, 9
(Christina, "The U.S. and Cuba: Destined to be an Environmental Duo?", http://www.coha.org/the-us-and-cuba-an-environmental-duo/-http://www.coha.org/the-us-and-cuba-an-environmental-duo/, 6/25/13, A.Z.).
The recent discovery of oil and natural gas reserves in the Florida straits in Cuban
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a cooperative relationship that will foster tourism and growth in a sustainable manner.
The Caribbean is a biodiversity hotspot—contains high number of species and is significantly threatened
CEPF ’10
(quoting Mittermeier — the same author that establishes the "hotspot" thesis and writes our impact ev. , Dr. Russell Alan Mittermeier is a primatologist, herpetologist and biological anthropologist. He holds Ph.D. from Harvard in Biological Anthropology and serves as an Adjunct Professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. CEPF is the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund – "Ecosystem Profile: THE CARIBBEAN ISLANDS BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOT" – Prepared by: BirdLife International¶ in collaboration with:¶ Durrell Wildlife Conservation¶ Trust / Bath University¶ The New York Botanical Garden¶ and with the technical support of:¶ Conservation International-Center¶ for Applied Biodiversity Science; assistance for this report was offered by 100 international and non-profit organizations. Jan 15th – http://www.cepf.net/Documents/Final_Caribbean_EP.pdf)
The Caribbean Islands Hotspot is one of the world’s greatest centers of biodiversity and¶
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species amounting to at least 2 percent of the world’s total¶ species.
Biodiversity in specific hotspots checks extinction. Key to ag, medicine, and ecosystems
Mittermeier ’11
(et al, Dr. Russell Alan Mittermeier is a primatologist, herpetologist and biological anthropologist. He holds Ph.D. from Harvard in Biological Anthropology and serves as an Adjunct Professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He has conducted fieldwork for over 30 years on three continents and in more than 20 countries in mainly tropical locations. He is the President of Conservation International and he is considered an expert on biological diversity. Mittermeier has formally discovered several monkey species. From Chapter One of the book Biodiversity Hotspots – F.E. Zachos and J.C. Habel (eds.), DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-20992-5_1, ~23 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011. This evidence also internally references Norman Myers, a very famous British environmentalist specialising in biodiversity. available at: http://www.academia.edu/1536096/Global_biodiversity_conservation_the_critical_role_of_hotspots)
Extinction is the gravest consequence of the biodiversity crisis, since it is¶ irreversible
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than 30 of original vegetation remaining" criterion to a genuine hotspot.