COMMENTARY: Time to Reconnect with Cuba Again
By Joseph J. Honick
An announcement in the Sept. 14, 2010 Wall Street Journal read as if it
originated out of our own business-oriented media: it noted that
Cuba proudly asserted it is cutting more than a half million state
workers in a “tilt toward a free market.”
The mass layoffs will take place between now and the end of next March, according to official statements.
Given our own culpability in helping the dictatorship of the late Fulgencio Batista that encouraged Fidel Castro to take a second step at revolution, it would seem feasible to encourage any move toward a private marketplace on that island.
The charade that began with the Castro-led overthrow of another corrupt government in Cuba has done no one any good, certainly not the United States.
We all know Castro established a Soviet-style Marxist-Leninist operation on that glorious Virginia-sized island and dared anyone and everyone among the people to challenge his rule. So we passed a thing called the Helms-Burton Act in some moralistic belief we would show those folks.
Trouble is they did not cave despite the new level of poverty and debt Castro brought that was not much different for ordinary Cubans than what was imposed by the dictator he knocked off, Fulgencio Batista. Batista hardly treated people very well, accommodated Mafiosi and other international gangsters and, guess what? He had full support from the United States and others as he developed a major rival to Las Vegas and a great place to visit, but only to live there if you had the right kind of money and connections.
But Batista’s operation was ripe for some kind of rebellion. Castro tried it once in 1953 and failed, got arrested and escaped to Mexico. Meanwhile, our friend Batista’s army tracked down those who helped Fidel and murdered a considerable number of them. We helped by sending in planes, ships and tanks and other supplies to help stem any more attacks. Batista pulled in many innocent people he called “suspects”, including children and conducted public executions, all to discourage anyone from joining a future Castro effort.
Despite efforts by President Eisenhower to insist on elections, Cubans responded by failing to vote almost completely. This encouraged Castro, who later led his July 26 movement not only to victory but with many of Batista’s military having surrendered to the rebels.
That’s a short course in how Castro got to power, embracing the Soviet idea of economics and rule. It also prompted us to produce the Helms-Burton Act which President Clinton signed in 1996.
Officially called the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, the law followed the downing of two civilian aircraft by Cuba, aircraft that violated that country’s national sovereignty by entering its airspace. Our folks asserted the intent of the Act was to bring Western style democracy to Cuba by so restricting commerce and other things as to make living conditions so awful that the people would revolt against Castro.
Not only has the law drawn major international criticism, it has been largely unsuccessful, making the United States look like a bully to many, especially because of our earlier cooperation with the corrupt Batista operation.
We have looked still more foolish given our massive commercial trading with China and other state- run economies.
Thousands of tourists and business people as well have skirted the law by using indirect means to get to and enjoy the Island, part of which we actually occupy on Guantanamo Bay with our notorious detention camp.
As it is, we are denying tens of thousands of Americans the same rights we grant to travel elsewhere and American businesses the opportunity to trade with willing markets.
According to Arlington, VA, Lexington Institute’s boss Philip Peters, private sector employees in Cuba earn three times government employees.
“If they carry this thing out fully, it will vastly improve the welfare of thousands of families,” he said.
Such economic improvement creates new business opportunities for all concerned.
If we can make nice to places like North Vietnam, China and other places with whom we have had some difficulties, no reason we cannot do the same at minimal risk with a lush island only minutes away from our own country by air.
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Joseph J. Honick is an international consultant to business and government, based on Bainbridge Island, WA, who writes for many publications, including huntingtonnews.net.