Inside Cuba- final thoughts on U.S. policy

Wendy and I spent a week in Cuba earlier this month as part of a group of Inland Press Association editors and publishers. Previously, I gave an account of some of our impressions, a bit of history and a recap of our itinerary. In this final installment, I'll discuss U.S. policy toward Cuba.

Ninety miles south of Florida lies Cuba, the island that has been embargoed by the United States -- for good reason -- for over 42 years. It is the closest communistic government to us and possibly the most communistic regime left in the world.

The embargo hasn't worked. Is it time for a change? The answer is not clear.

The current U.S. policy is to limit commercial, political and civilian relations between the United States and Cuba. The purpose is to curtail economic support for the Castro government and to help "provide a peaceful transition to a stable, democratic form of government and respect for human rights in Cuba."

Why change the policy?

The embargo is costing the U.S. economy an estimated $1.2 billion a year in agriculture exports alone, and the Cubans need the food. An additional $3 billion to $4 billion a year in energy and related product sales would occur if we would let the Cubans buy on credit at the seller's (not our government's) risk of being paid. These sales would help our balance of trade and provide jobs.

The current U.S. policy has failed. Forty years after the U.S. policy was implemented to bring democratic reform and open elections to the Cuban people, the same regime of Fidel Castro rules Cuba and continues to deprive the Cuban people of their human and civil rights.

Polls show an increasing number of Americans believe lifting the embargo would be the most effective way to bring democracy to Cuba.

With the U.S. war on terrorism, the drug trade in Afghanistan will seek to move elsewhere, including Latin America. Cuba has this week arrested a drug dealer and asked the United States to join the effort to prevent drugs and terrorism from traveling that short 90 miles to the United States.

You might be throwing a lifeline to Castro, but it would be an oxygen line to the Cuban people.

Why continue the policy?

Food and medical sales would merely provide dollars to Castro to help him continue and pass along (he's 75 years old) his dictatorship and oppression of the people.

With the Communist-controlled radio, television and newspaper media, the average Cuban would never know the United States had changed its policy. There have been 40 years of propaganda to Cubans -- 70 percent who have been born and schooled under Communist rule. They know little of private property, free elections, free enterprise and capitalism.

Castro proposed a nuclear first strike by Russia during the Cuban missile crisis. He even sent in 18,000 Cuban soldiers to support the Communist revolution in Angola. Cuban soldiers were placed in Granada and were helping to build a Russian bomber base before being attacked by the United States when Reagan was president.

Castro and Che Guevara sent troops, food and financial aid to other Latin American countries.

Castro confiscated billions of dollars of Cuban exile properties, buildings and equipment and froze bank money of major U.S. corporations in the late 1950s and has not indicated reimbursement.

Cuba is one of seven governments that the United States has designated as a state sponsor of international terrorism. I don't expect Castro to change.

When talking with the U.S. media and international groups, the following rhetoric was used by Castro in a March 8 speech to a staged Cuban rally as reported March 11 in the Cuban media and international Communist newspaper:

www.granma.cu/ingles/martz"The U.S. government must ask Cuba's forgiveness for the thousands of acts of aggression, sabotage and terrorism committed against our country for the last 43 years. The U.S. government must ask Cuba's forgiveness for over three decades of economic war and the total blockade of food and medicine. These are genocidal acts which even in times of war are sanctioned by 1948 and 1949 international treaties signed by both nations. The U.S. government must compensate our country for crimes that have caused enormous suffering and the loss of tens of thousands of lives. The U.S. government must break with the Miami terrorist mafia, which organized and financed brutal acts of terror such as the explosion of a Cuban airplane in full flight with 73 passengers on board, all of whom perished, and the innumerable bomb attacks on Cuban buildings and hotels, hundreds of assassination attempts on leaders of the Cuban Revolution, biological warfare ... ."

"The U.S. government must discuss with Cuba the illegal and arbitrary occupation of a piece of our territory, to come to an agreement about when it will be returned to our country. The U.S. government must respect the Cuban people's right to self-determination, as well as the economic and political system it has decided to follow."

"The U.S. government will never have the moral authority to fight terrorism as long as it continues to use such practices against countries like Cuba and continues to support massive, repugnant and brutal massacres such as those being perpetrated by its ally, the state of Israel, against the Palestinian people. It must renounce its policy of world domination, stop intervening in other countries, respect the authority of the United Nations and honor the treaties it has signed. These are indispensable requisites for achieving a climate of peace in the world and eradicating that odious scourge of terrorism."

"Our heroes must be freed. The whole world will learn of the enormous injustice committed against them. Millions of books will tell the truth and send out Cuba's message."

Tourism apartheid

The tourist industry is set up in a way that allows tourists to enjoy their vacation without ever leaving their isolated areas. As a result, tourists often have no idea of the internal structure of society and conclude that Cubans are poor but generally happy. Some even find Cuba to be a paradise. When they ask the almost exclusively white personnel of their hotel for good local places to eat or drink, they are directed to state-owned venues and are driven in state-owned taxis. If they ask to visit local private establishments, they are told that these places are not up to international standards. Cubans are not allowed to enjoy the new tourist industry because it has become de facto the sole purview of foreigners. Through a series of physical restrictions imposed on Cubans, the government is able to maintain what is known as "tourism apartheid."

What Castro really wants is not to just buy food and medicine for the Cuban people, but to have the dollars gained on resale and, more importantly, to open up the island to tourists from the United States and the dollars he needs to spend as he sees fit.

Recent U.S. actions

An amendment passed by the Senate Committee on Agriculture last fall would strike restrictions on private financing of agriculture sales to Cuba that were set forth in the Trade Sanction Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000. This would let Cuba buy on credit.

Most congressmen and farm groups in the Midwest support this amendment, both Republicans and Democrats. The major opposition comes from New Jersey and Florida, both states having large Cuban exile populations.

As the king replied in "The King and I" when asked about his country: "It is a puzzlement."

What our Cuban policy should be now is open for debate, but the United States is not waiting to see how long Castro will live. Many restrictions have already been relaxed in the last five years. I personally would support the amendment permitting food and medicine sales on credit provided by companies such as Cargill, which might want to take the risk. I see more upside potential than downside to this step, but one can mount a solid case on either side of the debate.

Note: For those who want to read more on both sides of the debate, try these Web sites:

www.canfnet.org/issues (American Cuban National Foundation)

www.cuban policy foundation.org

For a real Communist slant on the news as it is being presented to Cubans, try:

www.granma.cu/ingles -- granma international

www.cubaliberal.org