Among the many things to come out of President Obama’s recent visit to the Summit Of The Americas is the issue of whether or not we should expand ties to the nation of Cuba. Needless to say this has raised the hackles of the hard liners in the Cuban American community and has also served as a point of attack from the right.
As my readers will know I have not always supported the President and have sometimes been quite critical of him and his policies. But when it comes to the Cuban embargo and the expansion of diplomatic relations I think he is right on the money, and indeed we should go further than he has already proposed.
Before discussing what we need to do it might be helpful to review what we have done in the past. Official diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba were severed in 1961 after Fidel Castro allied himself with the Soviet Union and made Cuba a Marxist state. Starting in 1962 the United States has, at least officially, imposed a trade embargo on the nation of Cuba which has remained more or less intact ever since.
At the time this embargo was a major blow to Cuba because they were almost totally dependent on the US for almost all of their supplies. The Soviet Union worked to fill the gap but the nation still suffered from widespread shortages and rationing.
However the embargo is not nearly as solid as the supporters would like you to think. Many other nations do not impose trade restrictions so US products can get into Cuba simply by moving through a third country. Of course this multi stage process does increase the cost of the products which means that the leadership we are seeking to punish has access to the items while the people we are trying to help do not.
Another provision of the ban is the Helms-Burton act (passed by two of the more idiotic people ever to serve in Congress) which seeks to ban companies who do business in Cuba from doing business in the United States. Aside from being a fairly arrogant law (imposing our laws on companies from outside the country) it is only partly enforced because there are humanitarian exceptions and most companies are able to work through this loophole.
Perhaps the worst part of the current law is the ban on travel which has kept families divided for decades. In many cases children have seen their parents die without ever being able to see them again. It is perhaps because this law is so cruel to the people we are trying to help that lifting it is one of the first steps by President Obama.
In addition, the law is also one that is enforced in a hit and miss manner. According to the law it is illegal for me to fly from Los Angeles to Havana but there is nothing to stop me from flying from LA to Mexico City to Havana. In theory my passport would show the travel and I am required to file paperwork telling the government that I have made the trip. But in practical application those with the means to do so can simply sidestep these requirements and are not punished.
So in looking at the current laws we find that there are a number of flaws. It is of debatable effectiveness, it often harms the people it seeks to help while having no impact on the leaders we seek to punish and it is to a large degree unfair and arbitrary.
But this doesn’t neccessarily mean that the laws should be lifted, they could be improved. So why should the laws be lifted ?
I fully understand those who find the government of Cuba to be evil, oppressive, criminal, etc. I join them in my deep lack of respect for the Castro regime. But I am also not a big fan of the government in China. I am not a fan of the governments of the Middle East. I was not a fan of the governments of Eastern Europe or the Soviet Union. All of these places were just as repressive as Cuba and yet we had, and indeed still have, ties with many of them.
One could of course argue that some of these places (the Middle East for example) are tolerated because they have resources we need while others (China/Soviets) were tolerated because of their power. But there has been another reason for maintaining ties.
In the case of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union we had these ties partly because we knew by exposing the people to the realities of democracy and capitalism that they would begin to question their own governments and that in time this would help to liberate them. As it turns out, we were right. While it has not always succeeded this is a good reason for opening ties.
Indeed it is my view that we need to move to full diplomatic and trade relations with Cuba and we need to move as quickly as possible. Of course we should use the carrot of the benefits of open trade to impose the stick of requiring improvements in human rights and the opening of the jails, the free press, etc.
The simple truth is that Cuba is there and is going to remain there. Forty plus years of sanctions, trade and travel bans, etc have done nothing to accomplish our goals and it is time for a change.