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Cuba after Castro
By Deroy Murdock, August
15, 2006. The
Washington Times.
At this writing, Fidel Castro still breathes.
Cuba's supposedly world-class health system
may sustain the dictator a while longer.
Or he may succumb within a medical establishment
in which a Havana hospital I once visited
grew anesthetic herbs to replace modern
surgical painkillers that had vanished,
thanks to the magic of scientific socialism.
Whenever Mr. Castro moves on to that great
collective farm in the sky, America should
take several concrete measures to rescue
Cuba and its wonderful people from 47 years
of communist tyranny and mismanagement.
First, America should lift the economic
embargo President John F. Kennedy imposed
in 1962. The embargo, or "The Blockade"
as Mr. Castro calls it, has backfired badly
and should have been abandoned decades ago.
Mr. Castro has used America's ban on trade
with Cuba as a catchall excuse for his island-prison's
every shortcoming. Food shortages? Blame
"El Bloqueo." Clothes rationing?
Absent the embargo, Castroites would say,
dressmakers and haberdashers would fill
every corner. Collapsing buildings on Havana's
Caribbean waterfront? The blockade itself
dissolves the mortar that holds bricks together.
Seaside structures naturally tumble onto
sidewalks. 'Thanks a million, Yanquis.'
Mr. Castro never explains how the U.S.
embargo spawns his country's woes when Cuba
may import whatever it wants from Asia,
Canada, Europe and Latin America. The trouble
is the Cuban economy wheezes like an asthmatic
during a smog alert. Nonetheless, the embargo
gives Mr. Castro a handy whipping boy for
his multifarious failings. If Washington
will not end this counterproductive policy
today, it certainly should do so as soon
as Mr. Castro kicks the bucket.
Second, Washington should transform Cuba
into a giant free-trade zone. The fastest
way to bring Cuba out of the 1950s and into
the 2000s is to let Cubans produce whatever
they wish and export it to America without
tariffs, quotas and other obstructions.
In exchange, Americans should be free to
sell Cubans whatever they care to purchase
without worrying about Havana imposing trade
barriers.
During a 1993 fact-finding mission to
Cuba, I was impressed with the Cubans' energy
and ingenuity. Cars built during the Eisenhower
era still ran because Cubans simply invented
auto parts out of tin cans and rubber tubing
to substitute for those manufactured while
Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz appeared in
brand-new episodes of "I Love Lucy."
Given unfettered access to America's market,
Cubans would develop a lifeline that soon
would nurture them to financial well-being.
Third, as part of this economic aperture,
the U.S. should terminate the absurd and
destructive federal sugar program. Government-fixed
prices and restrictions on foreign sugar
supplies hit Americans in their wallets.
As Timothy P. Carney explains in his new
Wiley book, "The Big Ripoff: How Big
Business and Big Government Steal Your Money,"
"From 1998 until 2004, American consumers
have paid an average of about $1.8 billion
more for food annually because of these
import quotas." Such restrictions also
export poverty to tropical nations that
could benefit by selling sugar to American
buyers.
Given its sultry climate and proximity
to the U.S., Cuba could resume the sugar
shipments Eisenhower halted in 1960. Becoming
America's sugar bowl would provide Cuba
a steady stream of cash while obviating
the federal subsidies that encourage sugar
farming in Florida. Absent such outrageous
payments, the Everglades and its wildlife
would stop choking on pesticides and other
chemicals that flow in from taxpayer-supported
sugar plantations.
Finally, Uncle Sam should smile on greater
travel to and from Cuba by both Americans
and Cubans. Family ties broken since as
far back as Jan. 1, 1959 -- when Mr. Castro
seized power from strongman Fulgencio Batista
-- could be restored, and new relationships
developed. Integrating the American and
Cuban populations would make it likelier
Cuba will prosper and graduate from nearby
menace into close ally.
Such active steps toward a Cuban renaissance
could serve the U.S. well throughout Latin
America. Seeing the Gringos nurture Cuba
back to prosperity would provide a strong
counterexample to the anti-American populism
of Venezuelan despot Hugo Chavez and his
leftist pals in Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador.
Now, all Comandante Castro needs to do
to set these wheels in motion is drop dead.
Deroy Murdock is a columnist with the
Scripps Howard News Service and a senior
fellow with the Atlas Economic Research
Foundation in Arlington, Va.
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