A Weaker Policy on Cuba, A Stronger Castro

Frank Calzon
The Miami Herald, Aug. 21, 2002

The U.S. House of Representatives recently voted to end restrictions on travel, and to lift restrictions on financing exports, to Cuba. The Senate will consider the legislation soon.

While the White House has threatened to veto any legislation that would ''bolster the Cuban dictatorship,'' the anti-embargo lobby is arguing that U.S. tourism will benefit Cubans without strengthening Fidel Castro and that trade with Havana will mean substantial U.S. profits.

Cuban Americans boast about their political power, but they have been out maneuvered and outspent. South Florida Republican Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Díaz Balart, New Jersey Democrat Rep. Robert Menén- dez, and Florida's Democratic Sens. Bob Graham and Bill Nelson tried valiantly to thwart the legislation, but the coalition to lift the embargo is now calling the shots. If the Senate votes as the House did, President Bush will have to accept a weaker policy on Cuba or veto important anti-terrorist legislation.

The coalition to lift sanctions includes some well-meaning people who believe that the embargo is obsolete and that the United States ought to try something new. The trouble is that ''something new'' is the failed policy of engagement tried for years by Canada, Spain and other countries.

Cuba's communist dictator not only spurns foreign leaders' pleas to reform; he also has backtracked on some of the measures he was forced to implement when he lost Soviet assistance. Castro shows ''economic flexibility'' only under severe pressure.

WITH AN IRON HAND

When Castro received millions of Soviet subsidies, he ran Cuba with an iron hand. An influx of American tourist dollars will only strengthen his repressive regime.

Who is working to save Castro's regime? Admirers of the former Soviet Union and communist Nicaragua are. So are several large, grain corporations who also want U.S. government credits ''to sell'' to Castro. Credits mean that U.S. taxpayers pick up the tab if Castro doesn't pay. This is to which Bush alluded when he said that U.S. financing for Cuba's purchases of U.S. agricultural goods "would just be a foreign-aid program in disguise.''

In a July 11 letter to Congress, Secretary of State Colin Powell warned that several countries have "suspended official credits, because Cuba has failed to make payments on its debt -- including debt incurred while making agricultural purchases from these countries. Two governments have approached the United States to complain that Cuba's payment of cash for U.S. agricultural products have meant that they are not getting paid at all.''

The inability of the Castro government to pay its debts has sent foreign investment in Cuba plummeting to $39.9 million in 2001 from $448 million in 2000. Associated Press reports that "the European Union excluded Cuba from a multibillion dollar pool of aid because of its poor human-rights record.''

Remittances from exiles are down, and when Russia closed its spy facility, the Castro government lost $200 million in revenues annually.

But assuming that the Castro government could pay for what it bought, who is going to make millions in profit? Not U.S. factory workers, who would have to compete with the Cubans whom the Castro government pays $15 a month. Also, how many U.S. companies will relocate to exploit a cheap, educated, submissive labor force in a country that bans independent labor unions and has no environmental constraints?

What about some of those ''moderate'' Cuban-American groups subsidized by ''progressive'' foundations and U.S. business interests pushing to lift the embargo? Some mistakenly believe that ending the embargo will bring democracy to Cuba. Some have business aspirations (they don't want to miss Castro's fire sales). Some are made up of aspiring politicians who think that dallying with Castro will turn them into electable celebrities. Others, no doubt, work for Havana's security services. While Miami sleeps, many are working to ensure that the misery and repression in Cuba not only continues but is supported by American dollars.

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