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FROM
CUBA
So near, yet so far
Luis Cino
Havana, Cuba. (CubaNet) - I admit it, I
shudder every time the U. S. government
announces new measures designed to hasten
the arrival of democracy in Cuba.
Said measures are generally neither practical
nor viable, and usually turn out to be counterproductive.
Their only results are a harvest of the
votes of Cuban-American voters, and another
excuse for the regime in Havana to squeeze
the noose tighter.
That's the way it's been for half a century.
The U. S. blockade, as the Cuban government
calls the trade embargo, still provides
the blanket justification for any excess
of repression.
The latest report of the Commission for
Assistance to a Free Cuba is more of the
same. The 80 million dollars destined to
bolster internal dissidents, and a classified
annex to the report, have again exacerbated
the dictatorship's paranoia.
But maybe not, and it's all part of the
game. The new measures benefit the regime
more than they worry it; they provide new
arguments to once again classify anyone
in the opposition as "mercenaries in
the service of Yankee imperialism."
The dictatorship feels threatened, or wants
us to believe it does. It's all the same.
In a compulsively repressive regime, the
new measures are harbingers of bad news.
I fear this time there may be something
more under the horizon. Just a little, but
enough to trigger a new wave of repression.
For the time being, National Assembly president
Ricardo Alarcón made it very clear:
this will put some people in prison for
years.
The new repressive wave could be brewing
now. This time it would come in Summer,
and not be as spectacular as that of the
Black Spring of 2003. The regime must have
learned something about political costs
from that mistake.
Again, the U. S. government's avowed intention
of helping bring about a democratic change
in Cuba could result in more damage than
benefits.
The whole affair did not look good from
the beginning. The very idea of creating,
in Washington, and under an American coordinator,
a commission to implement a transition to
democracy in Cuba, is cause enough for concern.
The dictatorship has used the specter of
implicit foreign interference to rattle
the nationalist, patriotic scarecrow. It
kindled among the population the fear of
change, employing all means at its disposal,
from speeches to TV animations. To make
matters worse, it used the limitations in
travel and remittances to Cuba to portray
itself as the defender of the Cuban family.
The question of funds to aid dissidents
has been exploited by the regime. It has
also fostered arguments among the dissidents.
Economic help is necessary, no matter where
it comes from. The problem is its cost.
Many opposition leaders have warned that
it must come with no strings attached.
Economic aid should not be the gist of
the matter. First of all, because it really
isn't. With or without money, opposition
to the government will not disappear, nor
will the regime quit trying to label them
"mercenaries."
Both the government and its opponents know
most of that money will never find its way
to Cuba. It will become mired in impractical
projects and enmeshed in the legal intricacies
of the embargo. The dissidents will remain
hostages of Fidel Castro and TV Martí
will continue being invisible in the island.
Plan coordinator Caleb McCarry did not
allay the suspicions of many when he explained
that the Plan would not be imposed on Cubans,
but rather would be implemented if a future
transitional government were to request
U. S. help. In reply to a persistent journalist,
McCarry did not discount the possibility
that this help might include sending U.
S. troops.
U. S. aid, if it comes without an agenda
or strings attached, will be very necessary.
Nobody doubts that. My only question is,
the way things are going, who will make
up the transitional government who will
request U. S. help.
If Washington continues so generously providing
excuses to the Cuban regime for the annihilation
of the internal dissidence, by the time
the transition comes around perhaps the
dialogue will be with whichever olive green
faction prevails in an eventual civil war.
Fidel Castro is approaching 80, and the
powers that be are erecting the gallows
to be used on the dissidents. As the designated
heirs choose the sloppiest, most illegitimate
model of succession they can think of, the
U. S. awaits its chance to claim its place
at the table. You choose which nightmare
you prefer.
Cuba, even more so than Mexico, remains
far from God and too close to the United
States for comfort.
Versión
original en español
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