Published Friday, December 8, 2000, in the
Miami Herald
Crowd evenly divided over emotional issue at Lauderdale event
By Elena Cabral. ecabral@herald.com
A spirited debate between two Cuban American activists Thursday riveted a
group of Broward businesspeople and civic leaders on an issue that inflames
South Florida passions: the U.S. economic embargo of Cuba.
Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation,
and Alfredo Durán, past president of the Cuban Committee for Democracy,
faced off before a crowd in Fort Lauderdale in a debate organized by the Tower
Forum.
Durán, a Bay of Pigs veteran, emphatically described the embargo as a
failed policy that punishes the Cuban people instead of Fidel Castro's
government.
He said the embargo has worked like a "Berlin Wall'' around the island.
"It keeps it from being contaminated with new political ideas, with new
ideas about human rights, with new ideas about economics and from opening up its
society,'' Durán said.
The embargo, Durán added, also allows Cuba to project itself as a
David vs. Goliath on the world's political stage. "Everybody believes that
Cuba is being picked on,'' he said.
Garcia countered by citing the former Soviet Union as an example of a change
toward Democracy that came about through persistence.
"What we cannot do is blame the hunger of the Cuban people on us,'' he
said. "It's like to blame ourselves for the failure of Communism in Russia.
The system doesn't work and we shouldn't use American tax dollars to keep it
afloat.''
Garcia described Castro's government as a "dictatorship which has no
limits'' and said he advocated criminalizing Castro's regime.
"It is a regime about power, intimidation and abuse,'' he said. "It
is a regime that if we allow it to grow, if we give [it] strength, what we do is
imperil ourselves.''
The event drew about 80 people.
"I'm interested in both pros and cons,'' said Blake Campbell of Davie,
an insurance sales representative. "It's a growing concern and I want to
understand the true politics and implications behind the politics.''
A vote of raised hands after the debate showed that the crowd was fairly
evenly divided on the issue.
For Annette Barreau of Fort Lauderdale, a Cuban-American, the interest in
the debate was somewhat personal. "This has always been a topic of
conversation at the dinner table,'' said Barreau, an attorney. Afterward, she
said she was impressed by some of Garcia's points.
"Any investments that have taken place, if it makes too much money,
Castro puts an end to it,'' she said.
Another spectator, Joe Goldberg of Fort Lauderdale, pointed out that while
both men represented the same goal, a free Cuba, they differed in one important
way.
"[Garcia] never expressed an exit strategy for his position,'' Goldberg
said. "Does that mean he intends to have an embargo till Castro dies?''
Jodi Laurence, another Fort Lauderdale attorney, said both men presented
valuable points.
"They gave good information for people to make up their own minds,''
she said.
Copyright 2000 Miami Herald | 