U.S. should not do business with Castro

Frank Calzon
Executive Director, The Center for a Free Cuba
South Florida Sun-Sentinel, November 26 2001

After his 42 years in power, Americans have no illusions about Fidel Castro. He brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster, sent thousands of Cubans to kill and get killed in Africa, criminals and mental patients to Florida and spies to monitor Florida military bases. In Tehran a few months ago, Castro said that Iran and Cuba would bring the United States to its knees.

The discussion is not about Castro, who rejected U.S. offers of assistance, but about helping the Cubans after a terrible hurricane, about selling him food and medicine and about the alleged profits to be made.

The devil, however, is in the details. According to the law, Havana can now make those purchases in the U.S. But will that food help the Cubans devastated by the hurricane? If the past is any indication, food and medicine will go first to tourist facilities where Cubans are not allowed, to the regime's security forces, to the Communist Party and to government dollar stores at inflated prices.

According to Pax Christi Netherlands, the Catholic human rights organization, "Donation of goods directly to the Cuban state without sufficient external monitoring [has generated] serious complaints regarding the reliability of the state channels. Several examples of appropriation of public funds and illegitimate distribution of humanitarian aid were reported. For example, a French NGO donated a large quantity of dental paste to be distributed among poor Cubans. It eventually ended up in the state-run `shoppings' that charge high dollar prices."

The Pax Christi report distributed earlier this year indicated that "the shelves in state-run pesos shops are often empty and the products in the dollar shops are beyond the reach of the average Cuban"

Cuba's media are government-controlled, and there are no independent unions or civic institutions. What external monitoring can we expect on Castro's distribution of his purchases?

The situation is so bad that the Humanitarian Aid Office of the European Union that has channeled millions to the island "will slowly withdraw from Cuba [because] aid could no longer be characterized as complementary to the basic social and medical services, but merely tended to replace these services."

Havana has yet to allow the shipment of tons of food by Miami's Catholic churches.

The record is not encouraging. After Hurricane Lili, years ago, Castro rejected tons of food because donors had written on the packages, "With love from Cuban exiles." Around that time, an American cardinal told me that a substantial part of shipments to Cuba were being "diverted" to the military.

The Pax Christi report says that a German organization promised funds for a project to repair rundown houses in Havana, but "in the end the ministry rejected the proposal.

"The regime regards the work of "non-state organizations as a form of competition that has to be restricted." This January the Ministry of Health in two provinces forbade doctors to prescribe medicine not available in government pharmacies, but available in Catholic churches "under penalty of severe sanctions."

Little help will get to the most needy, unless the U.S. insists on distributing humanitarian assistance directly to the Cubans by American institutions such as the Red Cross.

Be that as it may, what about the American agribusiness and pharmaceutical companies that welcome the sales?

Castro says he wants to buy U.S. medicine from its hated enemy, when medicine is available cheaper in Canada.

For Castro buying and paying are not the same thing. France, due to Cuba's non-payment, cancelled a grain shipment of more than $100 million last year. South Africa and Thailand no longer provide credits or export insurance. Eastern European governments have tried for years to obtain payment on their Cuban debt. Havana will not pay the Russians for a debt incurred to the Soviet Union, "a nation that no longer exists." European banks continue to attempt to "reschedule" their Cuban debt and Havana has one of the worst credit ratings in the world.

If businessmen believe they can make a buck profiting with the misery of the Cuban people, there is no legal way to prevent it. But let them take their chances. Current law prohibits U.S. government loans or export insurance.

This is as it should be. The U.S. taxpayer should not subsidize the last remaining anti-American communist regime in the world.

The road to hell is not the only one paved with good intentions.

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