By Laurie Goering. Tribune Foreign Correspondent.
Chicago Tribune, February 8, 2001.
HAVANA -- First, Cuba's leaders accused the Czech Republic of being "a
docile instrument of North American imperialism." Then Cuban President
Fidel Castro insinuated that the United States' new president was "stupid"
and a "mafioso."
Now the island's leader has accused Argentina of "licking the Yankee's
boots" in its effort to win U.S. financial aid, prompting the South
American power to recall its ambassador.
Cuba's always outspoken leadership is in a pugnacious mood so far this year,
and for diplomats in Havana--particularly those with close ties to the United
States--that adds up to rancorous times ahead.
"This could be a pre-emptive strike because they've decided the new
U.S. administration is going to take a harder line," noted one Western
diplomat in Havana. But at the heart of the criticism, the diplomat speculated,
is a deep uneasiness within Cuba's leadership about future U.S. relations, an
anxiety that arises with each new U.S. administration.
"The principal barometer of things [in Havana] is U.S.-Cuban relations,"
said Lisandro Perez, director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida
International University in Miami. "When there are uncertainties, [Cuba's
leaders] feel vulnerable.
"There's a certain hypersensitivity to things, there's a tendency to
lash out and really be, in many ways, very undiplomatic," Perez said. The
fact that old allies such as the Czech Republic have become new democratic
opponents has added salt to Cuban wounds, he said.
Two prominent Czechs, including a former pro-democracy student leader, were
freed this week after being jailed in Cuba on subversion charges. The pair
admitted they had met with political dissidents and provided materials from a
partially U.S.-funded pro-democracy organization.
The spat with Argentina began when Castro taunted the nation late last week
about its privatization program and other free-market reforms, including pegging
its currency to the dollar, a stabilization effort that began in the mid-1990s.
Argentina's deep recession, in part the result of trade imbalances with
Brazil, shows "what a brilliant future" is ahead for those who use the
dollar as a currency standard, Castro suggested. He did not mention that a
growing percentage of Cuba's own economy is dollarized, something Cuban
officials call a temporary measure.
Castro also complained about Argentina's vote last year in the United
Nations to condemn Cuba for human-rights violations and suggested that Argentina
may trade another anti-Cuba vote at the UN Human Rights Commission this April
for U.S. bailout money.
Argentina will head the commission's meeting this year and while it has made
no public statement of its voting intent, it is expected to vote against Cuba
when the human-rights issue comes up again.
What infuriated famously proud Argentines, however, was Castro's comment
that by seeking U.S. economic aid the South American nation was "licking
the Yankee's boots."
Argentina's ambassador to Cuba promptly flew home, and the country canceled
a planned trade visit to Havana.
In Washington, Argentina's visiting foreign minister, Adalberto Rodriguez,
dismissed Castro's comments as "frankly offensive," and said his
nation was rethinking its ties with Cuba.
"Such irrational statements by President Castro, which are so hurtful
to the Argentine people and to the government for what they mean in terms of
international relations, are being closely analyzed," he said.
A columnist in La Nacion, one of Buenos Aires' leading papers, however,
dismissed the insults as the typical handiwork of Castro, saying no one should
be too surprised or bother to get too angry.
"That's how things are," the columnist noted.
Cuban attacks on enemies and even allies are nothing particularly new.
Mexico--Cuba's staunchest friend--was blasted by Havana after Mexican diplomats
met with political dissidents in 1999. Mexico also has been criticized for its
growing economic ties with the United States. El Salvador was accused last year
of harboring a would-be Castro assassin.
Still, analysts say the stream of derision from Havana so far this year is
in part an indication that Cuba is undergoing a realignment of international
alliances.
Old allies, including the Czech Republic, have turned democratic since the
fall of the Soviet Union and have fallen out of Cuba's favor. China, on the
other hand, is seeing its trade and relations with Cuba strengthen.
Castro also has made good friends with Venezuela's strongman President Hugo
Chavez, who besides playing baseball with Castro and singing radio duets with
him is committed to providing more amount of oil to the island.
Similarly, Castro holds out hope that the growing strength of leftist
guerrillas in Colombia could lead to stronger relations with that nation.
Analysts suggest that Castro is purposely picking diplomatic fights to
inflame nationalist passions and rally Cubans against his government's old
enemy, the United States.
"There's been a post-Elian [Gonzalez] mobilization they want to keep
going," Perez said. "They need to get people excited about threats
from outside." | 