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Bush
administration is acting prudently
By Frank Calzon, www.cubacenter.org.
Posted on Mon, May. 24, 2004 in The
Miami Herald.
President Bush is acting prudently to keep
U.S. dollars out of the hands of Cuba's
dictator Fidel Castro. In quick response
to recommendations by the Commission for
Assistance to a Free Cuba to improve enforcement
of U.S. law, Bush ordered tighter controls
over ''educational'' travel and ''family''
visits to Cuba that had become guises for
vacation tourism. Equally important, he
also directed the purchase of the long-sought
''airborne platform'' that will allow TV
Martí broadcasts to be regularly
seen and heard in Cuba.
What Bush didn't do is also important:
He did not cut remittances, leaving in place
approvals for Cuban Americans to send $100
a month directly to relatives on the island.
As foreign-policy initiatives go, Bush's
actions were logical, compassionate and
consistent with current law to deny Castro
the dollars he needs to finance his anti-American
mischief around the world and to maintain
his oppressive control over the Cuban people.
Bush also made clear that the United States
disapproves Castro's maneuvering to ensure
that his brother, Gen. Raúl Castro,
succeeds him as Cuba's next tyrant.
Before the commission's report had been
printed or the White House responded, however,
Castro apologists and administration critics
began piling on. The Economist alleged that
remittances from Cuban Americans would be
cut ''by half.'' The Lexington Institute
denounced the alleged new $50-per-month
limit.
Yet the report recommended no such cuts,
and Bush made no change. Most of the people
discussing the report simply have not read
it. Worse, copies in Spanish have yet to
be made available.
Predictably Castro is lashing out at the
United States and the ''Miami Mafia.'' Recently,
he trucked tens of thousands of the people
to another anti-American rally. Once again,
the president-for-life is raising the specter
of a U.S. invasion. Given Castro's total
control over Cuba's media and its unrelenting
anti-American propaganda, many Cubans --
even some who dislike Castro's regime --
believe that this invasion is nonsense.
Yet Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo, who last
August returned from exile in the United
States but has not been bothered by the
Cuban authorities, echoes Castro. According
to Menoyo, Bush's initiative could result
in "a massive exodus and conflict with
the consequent loss of lives of U.S. soldiers
and destabilization of the Caribbean basin
region.''
If Castro's response was predictable, Bush's
response does not have to be. Bush could
turn the tables on Castro. He could order
the immediate deployment of U.S. aircraft
to the Florida Straits to televise assurances
that no invasion is under consideration
and that Washington poses no obstacle to
Cubans' deciding their own destiny. In fact,
the obstacle is found in Havana -- Castro
and his undisguised effort to impose a Castro-family
dynasty.
For more than 40 years, Castro has been
misrepresenting U.S. policies. Even if most
of the Cubans who are forced to march in
his rallies do not believe everything he
says, the event itself serves an important
purpose: It reminds Cubans that Castro is
still in charge.
When TV Martí went on the air in
1990 challenging Castro's information monopoly,
Castro called it ''electronic warfare''
and immediately began blocking the signal.
A year ago, however, an American aircraft
successfully beamed TV Martí into
Cuba. Having proved that it can be done,
Bush is now ordering it to be done. That
will give Cubans the option of changing
the channel.
Castro fears the day when all Cubans --
including the military, the bureaucracy
and even Communist Party cadres -- might
watch programs that point out that the answer
to Cuba's suffering could be a plebiscite
like the one Augusto Pinochet permitted
in Chile or a national roundtable like the
one in Poland when Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski
brought together the bishops, army, government
and opposition.
Castro's hysterics deserve a response.
Bush should order U.S. aircraft into international
airspace to get TV Martí broadcasts
into Cuba -- now.
Frank Calzón is executive director
of the Center for a Free Cuba.
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