Cuba, the Low-Hanging Fruit for Obama, Braces for Change

I must admit, after 15 years of providing humanitarian aid to Cuba and going hat in hand to Washington, D.C. to apply for annual Department of the Treasury and bi-annual Department of Commerce licenses to "Trade With The Enemy" by sending free medical supplies to pediatric hospitals, I am feeling almost optimistic that things may be approaching denouement.

On April 8th, the Cuban-American National Foundation, for decades an implacable foe of any positive contact with Cuba's government and from whose former ranks a number of despicable policies and politicians arose, released a 14-page report advocating positive interaction with Cuba. While the report's focus was the Cuban people and not the government of Raul Castro, the Foundation now recognizes clearly that the US Trade Embargo of Cuba, set up in 1961, has failed to dislodge the Cuban Government nor change its policies. While claiming its new position is people-centered, the National Foundation would be the first to know that no contacts with the Cuban people are likely to occur without at least tacit approval of the Cuban Government.

The second reason to celebrate April 8th as a signal moment in US-Cuba relations was the 11-count federal indictment of Luis Posada Carriles, who with his partner, the as-yet unindicted Dr. Orlando Bosch, embodies the word "terrorist". Posada Carriles was indicted for orchestrating a sometimes lethal bombing campaign against civilian targets in Havana in the vain hope that havoc caused by such violent acts would lead to civil unrest and regime change in Cuba. He was also indicted for lying to US officials about his background.

An earlier indictment and incarceration of Posada Carriles in Panama for his roles in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner causing the deaths of over 100 people as well as planning the assassination of Fidel Castro while he was attending a regional summit conference led to his escape to the US as supporters in Miami alledgedly bribed outgoing Panamanian president Miriam Moscoso to surreptitiously release him on her last day in office. She, too, escaped to Miami, to avoid her own justice system for arranging Posada Carriles' escape in return for a generous bribe.

That Posada Carriles was not indicted by the Bush Administration after his escape from Panama can be directly traced to the Cuban-American congressional delegation from Florida and its powerful contributors who have given generously to generations of American politicians from both parties. While under indictment in Venezuela and Cuba, prior US administrations have repeatedly refused extradition requests from those governments. Hopefully, the Obama Justice Department will throw the book at Posada Carriles and revisit the role of Dr. Bosch, who freely and publicly admits to hundreds of terrorist acts against Cuba. [see the excellent documentary, "Tell Me Cuba", which features a long and startling interview with Dr. Bosch].

Following the arrival in Washington, D.C. on April 6th of a 6-member delegation from the Congressional Black Caucus which visited the Castro brothers in Havana and reported on their openness to engage the U.S. without preconditions, it's time to move ahead.

Changing U.S. policy towards Cuba is the low-hanging fruit on President Obama's foreign policy agenda. The likelihood of dramatic change in the decades-long impasses in Israel/Palestine, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, India/Pakistan, nuclear disarmament and global warming is very low--but changing our Cuba policy can be accomplished, even unilaterally, at the stroke of a pen...or, bilaterally, with Cuban government involvement. The Win-Win for the U.S. is not just in removing a shameful policy which has grievously harmed many Cubans over a half-century, but in winning the hearts and minds of hundreds of millions of people in Latin America who expect that the Obama Administration will put forth a clear-eyed vision of the world without the petty intra-ethnic or tribal disputes that have driven US policy towards Cuba for so long.

Comments

[Richard Walden]

Fast forward a week from this post and voila! Obama is clearly doing what I suggested--being clear eyed and abandoning the policy of the past in US-Cuba and US-Latin America relations. The fact that his openness has produced a remarkable statement from Raul castro about putting every issue on the table for discussion; that Hugo Chavez has gushed about Obama and wants to "be his friend"; that Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega is positively impressed...all this is not chopped liver. You may be an unreconstructed Fidel hater or left hater but do please understand the US national interest is in producing harmony not discord in our own hemisphere. It's far cheaper!

I think Obama's humble approach and openness to dialog is a terrific improvement--even getting Hillary to be open to talking to Cuba is a huge change from what the 8 years of Clinton wrought let alone the Bush years.

Obama is also way ahead of his own staff and advisors who have rushed to muddy up his statements by putting all sorts of "but ifs" on them--especial Jeffrey Davidof and Press flack Robt Gibbs. They need to reread what their boss said and shut themselves down.

[GuillermoGodinez]

The politics will take care of itself, the anti-Casto interests groups are not big and strong enough to overshadow the economic interests of doing business. However, there are many policy issues to be dealt with. What happens to the non-citizen Cubans who have asylum status now? Will Cubans now need visas to come to the US? Will the US be neutral (as it was in Nicaragua after Sandinistas first left office) about property rights of those who had fled or been exiled? Can Cubans be dual citizens? What will the economic impact be on Miami and South Florida?

[vesaversa1]

I am very please to see the truth be told about the injustice that this country have shown against this tiny little island .It's time that our two countries put all this behind us now because Cuba is not a threat to this country and never have been for years .

[RickCadena]

One very big factor missing from public view is the history of US relations with Cuba throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

After purchasing Florida from Spain in 1819, the US chased after Spain throughout the 19th century trying to buy Cuba and Spain kept saying NO. In 1853, the US offered 133 million dollars, but Spain still said NO.

Many people, including me, think that the sinking of the USS Maine in the Havana harbor in 1898 was a trumped up affair, just like the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964, or the Nueces River and Rio Grande river caper in Texas in 1845 that the US used to start the war of 1846-48 and steal half of Mexico's territory on behalf of Manifest Destiny.

The US enacted the Platt Amendment of 1902 to unilaterally give itself the right to interfere in Cuban internal affairs, without taking Cuba or the Cuban people into consideration. The US imposed right-wing dictators at will from 1902 up to 1959. There never was democracy in Cuba in the first place, and any attempt made by the Cuban people, mistaken or not, to govern their country in their terms was blocked by the US itself. The embargo imposed on the Castro regime is just another hypocritical chapter in the lousy track record that the US has had with Cuba and Latin America in general.

Eliminate the embargo now and change US policy toward Cuba, Mexico, and Latin America in general.

[JohnTy]

Amazing how few other countries follow the US Government's policy towards Cuba - can't think of any significant country that does except Israel - and as the main recipient of US overseas aid it hardly counts.

It is becoming a big issue in Latin America where there is probably more opposition to US hegemony than at any time since the end of the Cold War.

Even the Brazilian President has called for the lifting of the blockade.

The question of the readmission of Cuba to the OAS is also likely to arise at the meeting of the OAS in Trinidad and Tobago next week.

Most people I have spoken to in Cuba do not expect Obama will make any real change to US foreign policy; so far the signs suggest they are right.

[WilmotProviso]

Has the writer considered that the Castro brothers' "openness to engage the U.S. without preconditions" may be based on their financial, moral and spiritual bankruptcy? What possible preconditions could these murderous thugs impose on the United States? This "low-hanging fruit" is rotten to the core. Cuba is not a gold star on a bulletin board or an item on a checklist. It is a real place full of real people who have suffered miserably under the despotic rule of these gangsters. Cuba does not need more medical supplies. It needs liberty.

[IntellectuallyHonest]

Hurry up and end that Cuba embargo now!

[Raysand]

Mr. Walden says that changing US policy towards Cuba will be a win-win situation for us and for the Cuban people whom he says have been suffering for a half-century because of the "embargo." What Mr. Walden doesn't say is that the USA is already Cuba's 5th biggest trading partner. What lifting the so-called "embargo" would do is give the regime loans and lines of credit guaranteed by the U.S. Treasury Department, since it doesn’t have hard currency to pay the interests on the lines of credit for the importation of merchandise. Presently, everything Cuba purchases from us, must be paid with hard currency. Once this is changed, it is you and I--THE TAX PAYER-- that will be left footing the bill when Cuba defaults on its credit and loans. And what type of message will we be giving Latin America? It doesn't matter how repressive you are, we will do business with you! This is dangerous in a region that gave us the likes of Batista, Somoza, Pinochet, Stroessner the Argentine Military Juntas, etc.. How is this a win-win for us?

Regarding the Cuban masses, the US embargo is not what has been hurting the Cubans for 50 years, it's the regime's totalitarian nature that snuffs out all forms of freedom and its imposition of a Marxist economy where the rules of supply and demand do not exist.

[ezeflyer]

Denial is not a river in Egypt.

[LMPE]

It would be great to reestablish goodwill with Cuba just to see how much we can anger the Limbaugh-H­annity-O'R­eilly-Coul­ter-ocracy­.

[luckybear]

Yeah we should restart relations with Cuba. Not that the total lack of freedom isn't a an issue it is but the poor treatment of Cuba's people is primarily a domestic problem. They don't export revolution anymore. Fidel is almost dead. As for the angry people in Florida, I'll I can say is wouldn't you like to stick it to Fidel? If that old delusional communist can hang on maybe Cuba can hold elections before he dies (that should enrage him). Maybe Raul isn't much better but they can buy cell phones and pressure cookers now. A failed ideology like socialism won't work over the long term even if we drop the embargo. Capitalism will come or they'll limp along with no growth and extreme poverty (which is what they are doing now anyway).

Normal relations with Cuba should help move them toward Democracy and free markets (like China). It would also destroy that clown in Venezuela and that populist in Bolivia. So end the embargo and move forward.

[obamagal]

I like your reasoning.

[who38]

Let's pick that fruit now.