Miguel A. Faria Jr., M.D.
NewsMax.com. Thursday, May 16, 2002.
Ex-president Jimmy Carter's visit to communist Cuba has renewed the calls
for normalization of relations with the workers' paradise from many quarters
from statist politicians who have admired Fidel Castro for decades to exporting
firms like Archer Daniels Midland, which salivates at the prospect of taking its
agribusiness to Cuba all of them placing potential profits above freedom.
Much of the discussion from that crowd has centered on lifting the U.S.
embargo against the communist island, while forgetting that Castro is a
Stalinist dictator, who has devastated and desolated a once beautiful and
prosperous island.
Under Fidel Castro's dictatorship, trading with Cuba's totalitarian,
communist system is like prospecting for fool's gold. Sure, under the communist
system Cuba's labor is cheap, basically slave labor, but this is not the
American way.
Is it right for foreign companies to pay Fidel Castro $800-$1,000 per month
per worker in the tourism industry, and then for the fascist tyrant to turn
around and pay the Cuban worker only $10-$20 per month and keep the rest for
himself? Isn't this really a form of indentured servitude or worse,
slavery?
Supranational firms based in the U.S. and headed by Americans should
remember Alexis de Tocqueville's admonition that "America is great because
America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be
great."
But are there really any profits to be made in Cuba under the present
system? Or is it "fool's gold" that is being prospected?
Cuba has defaulted payment on all of its international loans and the
communist nation is bankrupt. Yet as far back as 1997, Forbes magazine
discovered that Fidel has amassed a fortune of $1.4 billion. Castro owes the
Paris Club of European bankers $12 billion; Spain, $9 billion; and another $10
billion is owed to Argentina, Great Britain, Japan, Canada and other nations
foolish enough to place their citizens' monies in the iron grip of the tyrant.
Ditto for Mexico, Venezuela and Russia and other friends of Castro Cuba
has not paid them either for oil and other commodities received over the years.
If you travel to Cuba, you will see every item and luxury commodity
available in the diplotiendas (dollar stores) for foreign tourists. How did
these items get there? Because Castro is able to trade and has been trading with
anyone he wants to in the world, except for the U.S. And yes, the U.S. embargo
is porous.
Last year Congress eased the embargo, and the U.S. now allows American firms
to send food and medicine to Cuba. The communist dictatorship, which has been
turning more and more fascist in recent years to survive, has, in fact, already
received shipments of food from the U.S.
All that is left standing of any substance, as far as the U.S. embargo is
concerned, is that Congress wisely has not allowed U.S. taxpayers to finance the
loans that would be made to the dictator. Were we to completely lift the
embargo, U.S. taxpayers will be subsidizing the necessary loans made to the
communist nation.
When the dictator defaults, as he has done on all other loans, then American
taxpayers will be left holding the bag, paying Castro's debts, just like the
Spaniards, the Argentineans, the British, and every other nation whose leaders
were foolish enough to lend money to the communist tyrant.
As far as an investment risk, Cuba is 183rd on a list of 187 places (just
above Somalia) in a European investment survey for investment opportunity.
And Cuba correctly remains listed by the U.S. State Department as one of
seven states that sponsor terrorism, along with Syria, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan
and North Korea. Cuba and those other rogue nations are among 17 countries that
the U.S. asserts have the potential for making chemical and biological weapons
and possess the ability to launch a biological war and bioterrorism against the
U.S., according to another government agency.
Suffice to say, as long as the communist Castro brothers remain in power,
there's no chance of opening up the Stalinist dictatorship to free trade or to
political or economic freedom, as many Cuban apologists claim.
The U.S. embargo has not been a failure. Not only has it been a moral
statement, but it has also been a tool, the only tool America has had, or that
it has been willing to use consistently against Castro. The U.S. embargo has
forced the dictator time and again to divert funds away from his repressive
policies at home and from subversive activities in Latin America.
Because Castro has been cash strapped since the collapse of the USSR, he has
been unable to wreak the havoc he would like to. Yes, the embargo has limited
the damage that the dictator has done to the Cuban people at home and to U.S.
interests abroad - and to freedom everywhere.
The embargo, for example, has forced Castro to legalize the dollar, allow
Cubans to use their old jalopies as private taxicabs, allow small family
restaurants to open, and permit campesinos to sell small amounts of their
surplus produce. Even some diplotiendas are now allowing ordinary Cubans with
dollars to purchase goods in their stores.
What lifting of the embargo will do is:
Saddle the U.S. taxpayers with more debt that will soon follow the defaulted
loans made to the Cuban dictator;
Permit the dictator to resume his repressive tactics in Cuba and his
subversion elsewhere in Latin America totally unimpeded; and
Allow the entrenched communists, including Raúl Castro, to remain in
power once the Maximum Leader dies of old age or excesses.
Fidel Castro, the evil genius, has been able to weather every political and
economic storm that has befallen him for 43 years, but his underlings possess
neither the popularity, cunning or intellect to survive and continue the
oppression of the Cuban people without American assistance.
When should the U.S. end the embargo and restore normal relations with Cuba?
It would be appropriate to do so when the Castro brothers step down and permit
free and fair elections to take place, restoring constitutional governance in
the Caribbean island; allow free speech and a free press; restore individual
liberty, freedom of worship, and private property rights; and free all political
prisoners.
Miguel A. Faria Jr., M.D., is Editor-in-Chief of the Medical Sentinel of
the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) and author of cCuba
in Revolution Escape From a Lost Paradise" (2002;
www.haciendapub.com).
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