Politics/Opinions

U.S. Cuba Policy

 

 

 

 

 

U.S. Cuba Policy

As there is so much news being made on a daily basis, there is one subject that gets little to no coverage lately, that’s the island nation of Cuba. This is a Communist country roughly 103 miles from the closes-st point to Florida. A distance that is shorter than many Americans drive daily to and from work. To put it into perspective, that is less than half the distance between New York City and Boston. So how is it possible to have a communist nation right at our backdoor all these years? There may be no simple explanation for how this regime has been able to survive all these years but let’s take a look at the role the United States has played by looking at past and current policies and also the role that Cuban immigrants took in deciding US Policy towards Cuba.

The Regime. Fidel Castro was sworn in as Prime Minister of Cuba on February 16, 1959 after the overthrow of the US backed dictator Fulgencio Batista. Castro immediately installed a Marxist/Socialist system of government in Cuba. The point of this article isn’t to give a detailed history of the Cuban Communist regime, but to look at possible reasons that it has survived through twelve (12) U.S administrations, from President Eisenhower to the current president, Donald Trump. Though Castro died on November 25, 2016 at the age of 90, the regime continues on with his brother Raul Castro in control, no longer as president, but as First Secretary of the Communist Party, having ceded the presidency to Miguel Diaz-Canel in April of 2018. Diaz-Canel will succeed Castro as First Secretary of the Communist Party.

Cuban Immigrants. Cuban immigration started coming in waves in the 1960’s as many fled to the US to escape the oppressive communist regime and in search of a better life and opportunities. Those Cubans who were not supportive of the regime were labeled ‘enemies of the revolution’ and were at risk of imprisonment and even execution. In 1965 Fidel Castro announced he was allowing those with family in the United States to leave Cuba and in 1980 there was a large wave of Cuban Immigration known as the “Mariel Boatlift”, where a flotilla of Cubans living in Miami sailed to Cuba to pick up friends and family members, though many were forced to carry back anyone the Cuban government decided, in some cases criminals and mental patients, though these comprised a very small minority. Many would remember ‘Tony Montana’ from the movie ‘Scarface’ played by Al Pacino. The Cuban-American community thrived as more and more Cubans migrated to South Florida, many risking their lives and even perishing at sea as they would use vessels sometimes homemade that often times were not seaworthy to complete the voyage.

Hurt or Help Their Cause. As the Cuban-American community grew, so did it’s political influence. With many thousands of Cubans living in South Florida with the hatred of the Castro regime still alive and strong, they had demands and became a force that presidential candidates had to deal with. The hatred was understandable as many families were broken up. Some Cubans were able to find their way to US shores but often times leaving behind family members that they would never again see. Amazingly and frustratingly for these immigrants, their family and friends they left behind were only a little over a 100 miles away. So with that understandable bitterness and hate, the Cuban-Americans had demands and as Florida’s population grew and the state became more and more important in presidential elections, candidates realized to win the state, they needed to win Miami-Dade County thus win the Hispanic vote comprised of largely Cuban-Americans. The million dollar question is, were their demands helpful or hurtful to their cause?

A Free and Democratic Cuba. The one thing in common with candidates from both parties campaigning in Southern Florida, was the promise of a liberated Cuba. The problem however was a lack of specificity on how to accomplish that goal. It seemed to be the same speeches of an end to the Castro regime which would always garner applause and cheers without details on how that would actually come to be. It seemed to become a routine policy of keeping Cuba isolated in the hopes the regime would collapse. To deny or at least complicate travel to Cuba and interaction with the Cuban population. Many Cuban-Americans demanded this and the candidates heard their demands and fell in line, in reality to win their votes and hopefully win the state of Florida in a general election. Was this the right policy? That is the question, from the end result, perhaps not.

Castros 1959 to Present. As mentioned earlier in this article, the Communist regime in Cuba has now seen it’s 12th US administration. It’s gotten more difficult to believe that the policies implemented and passed from one administration to the next have been successful. What would be the alternative? There is no simple answer to this question but let’s imagine the United States had taken a different approach.

An Abusive Relationship. That could be a way of describing the relationship between the Castro regime and it’s people. In Cuba, if you were to speak against the regime, you put your life at risk. There were also many cases of Cubans turning others in for speaking against the government, sometimes falsely accused. Land owners were stripped of their properties, there are political prisoners and many that simply disappeared. Ruling through fear, a common tactic by any dictatorship left or right wing. So it seems the Cuban people lived in an abusive relationship. They were not allowed to speak their minds, they had limited access to information, they couldn’t come and go and travel as they pleased, they were not permitted to stand up for themselves or interact with whomever they pleased. The signs of an abusive relationship.

Exposure. So what if the United States had taken a different approach? What if Cuban-Americans were interacting more with those back in Cuba? Many believed that the Castro regime would benefit from even more US dollars entering the country funding the regime. Perhaps, but perhaps this would have lifted and motivated the Cuban people to rise up and feel empowered to take down the Castro government. The US policy to isolate his people from the US was probably beneficial to maintain power. It could be that the Cuban people felt they had no support from the US Government, regardless of what party the President belonged to. An abusive husband tends to isolate his battered wife, controls her movements, who she interacts with, what she says and does. Could it be that the US policy was exactly what Castro wanted?

This article is not trying to provide a simple answer to the Cuba situation, because there isn’t one. However, it is 2018 and the Castro brothers have seen (11) US Presidents come and go and the (12th) now in office. To say that perhaps a different approach may have had better results is a reasonable possibility.

By Albie Cooper

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