Frank Calzon. Posted on Wed, Aug. 21, 2002 in
The
Miami Herald.
The U.S. House of Representatives recently voted to end restrictions on
travel, and to lift restrictions on financing exports, to Cuba. The Senate will
consider the legislation soon.
While the White House has threatened to veto any legislation that would
''bolster the Cuban dictatorship,'' the anti-embargo lobby is arguing that U.S.
tourism will benefit Cubans without strengthening Fidel Castro and that trade
with Havana will mean substantial U.S. profits.
Cuban Americans boast about their political power, but they have been out
maneuvered and outspent. South Florida Republican Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and
Lincoln Díaz Balart, New Jersey Democrat Rep. Robert Menén- dez,
and Florida's Democratic Sens. Bob Graham and Bill Nelson tried valiantly to
thwart the legislation, but the coalition to lift the embargo is now calling the
shots. If the Senate votes as the House did, President Bush will have to accept
a weaker policy on Cuba or veto important anti-terrorist legislation.
The coalition to lift sanctions includes some well-meaning people who
believe that the embargo is obsolete and that the United States ought to try
something new. The trouble is that ''something new'' is the failed policy of
engagement tried for years by Canada, Spain and other countries.
Cuba's communist dictator not only spurns foreign leaders' pleas to reform;
he also has backtracked on some of the measures he was forced to implement when
he lost Soviet assistance. Castro shows ''economic flexibility'' only under
severe pressure.
WITH AN IRON HAND
When Castro received millions of Soviet subsidies, he ran Cuba with an iron
hand. An influx of American tourist dollars will only strengthen his repressive
regime.
Who is working to save Castro's regime? Admirers of the former Soviet Union
and communist Nicaragua are. So are several large, grain corporations who also
want U.S. government credits ''to sell'' to Castro. Credits mean that U.S.
taxpayers pick up the tab if Castro doesn't pay. This is to which Bush alluded
when he said that U.S. financing for Cuba's purchases of U.S. agricultural goods
"would just be a foreign-aid program in disguise.''
In a July 11 letter to Congress, Secretary of State Colin Powell warned that
several countries have "suspended official credits, because Cuba has failed
to make payments on its debt -- including debt incurred while making
agricultural purchases from these countries. Two governments have approached the
United States to complain that Cuba's payment of cash for U.S. agricultural
products have meant that they are not getting paid at all.''
The inability of the Castro government to pay its debts has sent foreign
investment in Cuba plummeting to $39.9 million in 2001 from $448 million in
2000. Associated Press reports that "the European Union excluded Cuba from
a multibillion dollar pool of aid because of its poor human-rights record.''
Remittances from exiles are down, and when Russia closed its spy facility,
the Castro government lost $200 million in revenues annually.
But assuming that the Castro government could pay for what it bought, who is
going to make millions in profit? Not U.S. factory workers, who would have to
compete with the Cubans whom the Castro government pays $15 a month. Also, how
many U.S. companies will relocate to exploit a cheap, educated, submissive labor
force in a country that bans independent labor unions and has no environmental
constraints?
What about some of those ''moderate'' Cuban-American groups subsidized by
''progressive'' foundations and U.S. business interests pushing to lift the
embargo? Some mistakenly believe that ending the embargo will bring democracy to
Cuba. Some have business aspirations (they don't want to miss Castro's fire
sales). Some are made up of aspiring politicians who think that dallying with
Castro will turn them into electable celebrities.
Others, no doubt, work for Havana's security services. While Miami sleeps,
many are working to ensure that the misery and repression in Cuba not only
continues but is supported by American dollars.
Frank Calzón is executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba in
Washington, D.C.
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