Don't Let Hurricane Relief for Cuba Drown in Politics

Our Cuba policy is inhumane, and the Bush administration should be singled out for its short-sighted and politicized response to the tragedy taking place on the island.

In recent days, three hurricanes -- Hanna, Gustav, and Ike -- have laid waste to the island. Thanks to ferocious winds and rain, Cuba lost 700,000 tons of food products in ten days. One quarter-million homes and structures were damaged or destroyed. Water, telephone, and electrical services are disrupted. Care International predicts that tens of thousands of Cubans will be left homeless and that Cuba is facing the real possibility of food shortages in the days to come. Thanks to Cuba's remarkable civil defense, only seven lives have been lost, but my Cuban friends tell us in simple terms, this is a crisis, a catastrophe.

Other governments have responded decisively. Russia, which cut off financial aid to the island after the Cold War, has started making good on its promise to deliver 200 tons of supplies. Spain is sending 15 tons of aid by air. Venezuela, China, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and the EU are all pitching in.

But where is the United States? We're busy baiting the Cuban government under the guise of hurricane relief.

The administration won't aid Cuba directly and won't change policy. Instead, it is giving special licenses to anti-Castro groups in Miami who will selectively provide aid to Cubans on the island. It is sending $100,000 to the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana to dispense assistance, just months after our diplomats were found giving cash to Cuban dissidents provided by hard-liners who have worked for years to overthrow the Castro government. It is demanding that Cuba accept a visit from a USAID assessment team, the same agency that is spending $45 million this year to mobilize Cubans and foreign governments to fight for regime change in Cuba. When Cuba rejects these offers, the administration accuses them of playing politics. That is a shameful joke.

But now there is a growing chorus of voices -- in the faith community, on editorial boards, and increasingly in Miami -- urging our nation's leaders to act decisively and in good conscience to help the Cuban people.

We know what could be done.

In 2004, the Bush administration adopted stiff rules to crack down on travel and family support by Cuban-Americans to keep U.S. dollars out of Cuban coffers. Now that humanitarian aid is needed, there can be no surge in private assistance to provide direct aid to Cubans in distress, family-to-family.

These restrictions should be repealed.

Cuban-Americans, with relatives on the island, should be able to jump on a plane to help their families recover and rebuild. They should have the right to send unlimited financial support. These actions would put cash in the pockets of Cubans who need support for repair their homes and put food on the table.

But we should be doing much, much more. Cuba's government is requesting U.S. credits that would allow them to purchase food for their people from our farmers. They want restrictions eased so that they can purchase electrical supplies and other building materials to help Cubans rebuild their homes. These requests should be granted. We could also make significant donations to the United Nations to help get more food and relief to Cuba. None of this amounts to repealing the embargo, or normalizing relations, but they are actions that start to respond with aid that is scaled to the size of the tragedy itself.

These steps may be more than our political system can bear, but they are the right things to do. They would put our country on the side of feeding hungry and homeless Cubans. They would stimulate sales of food grown in the United States. They would guard against the possibility that an economic crisis on Cuba could produce a boatlift that provokes a humanitarian crisis here. They would honor the wishes of the majority in Miami who want nothing more than to help and comfort their families in Cuba.

We need to stand up to the Cold War warriors and the cynics and do what is right. We know why they oppose these humanitarian steps. They hope these hurricanes will accomplish in 2008 what fifty years of embargo have failed to achieve -- they want Cuba to collapse.

In the short-term, this policy is nothing but sadistic. In the long-term, it is against our national interest. If the last fifty years tell us anything, Cuba will gut this out, whether we help or not. But here's the risk. Generations of Cubans building a new future will never forget that when hurricanes nearly cost them their existence, Russia and Venezuela and China were present, but America was missing. That doesn't help them, and it surely hurts us.

Sarah Stephens is the Director of The Center for Democracy in the Americas.

Comments

[RepublicanBrain]

The problem with giving aid to Cuba is that there is really nothing to benefit from doing this. Please ask yourself: What do we stand to gain from giving aid to Cuba?

Not much. We could, potentially, improve relations with the island. That's not bad, but Cuba doesn't really have anything we need, at least, nothing exclusive to Cuba. The only thing that is of importance in regards to Cuba is proximity, which doesn't amount for a whole lot when we are economically and militarily superior to them.

As a humanitarian, your ideas are infallible. However, as a politician, they are not. Politics is a game of edge and victory, and we stand to lose more then we gain from doing this.

[pmag88]

"Politics is a game" yep.. RepublicanBrain

[RepublicanBrain]

Is there a point to this? Politics is indeed a game of edge and victory.

[Retrofuturistic]

As I recall, Cuba offered aid to us after Katrina....

[matthew 270808]

Funny how the same hurricanes rip through Cuba as a "5" and kill more people in the US as a "2".

Wait... no what's the word I was thinking of not "funny".
Pathetic.

Now as for aid to Cuba why would you think America would do that when for 50 years its run a criminal embargo denounced by almost every other country in the world every year at the UN? (what is it? every country but Israel and sometimes the Marshal Islands or something like that)

The whole point of US foreign policy is to kill foreigners. Don't worry. The rest of the world loves Cuba. It might be all those doctors they send out.

[Norge]

When 9/11 happened it was the country of Cuba which offered to send as many doctors and nurses to help with the suffering.

America declined the help. So classic for a country as cruel as America has been to Cuba through the years. Those who do not do America's bidding, can suffer the consequences of starvation and destitution.
Oh, that land of the free and home of the brave. Died on the American Indian battlefields.

Rolf Krogsæther

[batguano]

HEAR! HEAR! Thanks Sarah, for your voice of conscience in this time of political insanity. The contempt for human life shown by the Bush/Neocon regime is astonishing.......& the failure of most people or politicians to demand change in our self-defeating Cuba policy, is equally astonishing & sad. It doesn't matter if the people abandoned by Bush&Co are miners in West Virginia, our own No'rleans a& Gulf Coast hurricane victims, Iraqi civilians, or the people of Cuba, who have been suffering under our inhumane embargo policy 44 years.

It should be remembered that when Fidel set out to depose the dictator Batista, they came to us, the United States, the home of the free, for help & support. After they won they came to us again for aid & support. They were rebuffed again & history was changed. We backed the mob & Batista, & let political influence dictate policy (as usual) instead of good judgment & the best interests of both Cuba & the US, as history has clearly shown.

We should be helping people as the best foreign policy, not killing them or making their lives worse in favor of the rich. This tragedy of three hurricanes in three weeks is a perfect opportunity to reverse a failed policy history & come to the Cuban peoples aid. I doubt that there is either the integrity, vision or morality available to the Bush regime or it's backers to take this path.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-stephens/time-to-retire-americas-_b_87344.html?page=2

[rwe]

cuba has repeatedly turned down relief efforts from the evil gringo

[TODrummer]

America's Cuba policy is idiotic. Did you know that for the rest of the world, Cuba is a vacation destination much like the DR, Jamaica, and Mexico?

The worst part of the US policy towards Cuba is that it has the opposite effect from its intended one. All it does is rally the Cuban people against what they perceive to be an imperialist US government threat. Interestingly, though, they actually are quite fond of Americans themselves. They just quite justifiably hate the US government.

Kind of like how the Bush and the neocons build up the threat of terrorism vastly out of proportion and the American citizenry rallies around their policies simply because it gives them something to rally against. Except in the case of Cuba, the Imperialist American threat isn't exaggerated. But it does rally the people to their government. And that's not a surprise - it's human nature. Nothing brings a populace together like a common enemy.

You want to topple the Cuban government? Open up trade and start sending them iPods and laptops. The communist government would get toppled in months. I'd put money on that bet.

[Dap]

Dear Ms. Stephens,

An excellent and eloquently expressed essay/post, seems You and I are in the same stream of consciousness on this one. Well said indeed. Agape, dapper

PS do ya remember your first post on HuffPost when I balled ya out? Then I readyour bio and had to appoligise after finding out what you do. You do it well, keep up the good works.

[SEQUOIABISON]

Great article but this is a silly request Sarah, asking religious people to actually help their fellow human beings?

That would be too Christian and out of character for republican congregations associated with organized religion.

Have you been observing the Bush administration and his religious followers these last 8 years?

They appear to me as greedy and selfish and pro-life occasionally but mostly pro-death when it comes to shocking and awing our fellow humans on the other side of the planet.

George W Bush and the hypocritical religious fanatics that helped put him in office care only about stealing from the poor to giving to the rich.

Sorry but the poor folks living in Cuba do not qualify for aide from America, they have no Oil and they are socialists with universal healthcare therefore this makes them worthless and definitely not among gods children, like W and friends.

Obama/ Biden

[GayGrandpa]

Darnit I used to have some but I have looked all over the house this morning and I can no longer find any...I've lost it, I've lost hope.

[kennyinvirginia]

Thank you, Ms. Stephens, for this article. My comment is this: And this from devout Christians. It is these types that give Christianity a horrible name. We are talking about humans who are in real need and are asking for assistance. Fellow Humans. I am so ashamed of our country right now. I am not a Christian, but I grew up with them all around me, and I've seen the good and the bad--this is an example of the bad. Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, fellow humans of Cuban background who are anti-Castro, don't you see what you're doing?--your policies are so anti-human, disgraceful, against our own goals of change. Please, please take off your blinders when it comes to humans in need--don't ever offer life-giving assistance with 'strings attached'.

[dadw5boys]

CHAVES WILL HELP CUBA !!!!!!!!!!!!

[sethrp]

Excuse me? Our New Orleans policy is inhumane. There still aren't sufficient levees to guard against a Category 5 story, and international oil conglomerates are allowed to ravage the wetlands of the Gulf Coast without taking any steps to restore them!

[MarkEbner59]

Bill Clinton could have easily lifted the embargo before he left office. He didn't. He was too busy granting important pardons.

[Mildmannered]

I truly don't understand why we have not changed our relationship with Cuba, our neighbor. Afterall, we changed our relationship with China. And helping the Cuban people now, after these terrible hurricanes, is the only humane thing to do.

[ofbbg]

Because Cuba doesn't have 1.3 BILLION people!! DUH!!

[andvoodoo2]

After the levees failed in New Orleans, when people were still trapped on their roofs and in their attics waiting to be rescued from their flooded homes, Cuba offered boats, money and personnel to help New Orleans and Bush told them "NO"! I used to be proud to be an American.

[mezz1962]

Cuba offered boats probably filled with more refugees. Please Cuba played a game on you. If the USA said Sure send boats guess what nothing would have shown up.

Proud to be an American your a loser Bush has done more than every President combined to help fight the AIDS epidemic in Africa

You sound like Michelle Obama with your statements.

So Katrina was what 3 years ago in that time we help a dozen countries recover from natural and manmade disasters

[JimR]

I've been to Cuba, earlier this year. Have you? You don't know what the hell you are talking about.

But go ahead, believe everything your government tells you. Thinking for yourself can be hard.

[Mildmannered]

I will admit that Bush has done a lot to help the fight against AIDS in Africa. But I am having difficulty identifying anything else he has done which was positive/successful in the past 8 years.

[guajiro]

"Proud to be an American"

Dear Proud, that and 50 cents will get you a cup of coffee anywhere. Based on the level of gullibility you display, you'd drown in three feet of water.