This New Years Day marks the fiftieth anniversary of Castro’s Cuba. This will be the 46th year of the Cuban embargo, the longest trade embargo in recorded history. A quick glance at the hemisphere will show that every authoritarian government with whom America has trade relations has given way to democracy while Cuba continues. If three years of botched Iraq policy meant we needed to change course, I think it’s well past time to say we need a new policy if we’re going to resolve this festering remnant of the cold war. It’s time for an American consensus to end the embargo in order to take down communism.
Why does the embargo help the Castro’s?
- For the last five decades every time anything has gone wrong in Cuba Fidel Castro has been able to blame American aggression. No medicine? The yankees won’t let anyone us have any.
- It has isolated the Cuban people. I’m not going to rehash the old arguments that a desire for blue jeans brought more to bring down the USSR than Reagan did, we’ve all heard it and it’s at least partially true. While a few Cubans will have Juicy Couture, iPods, and SUVs, it will be apparent to the rest that the regime can’t bring these products into the lives of most Cubans.
- It makes survival a new victory every day. For half a century the Cuban government has been able to say that they have been David to the great imperialist Goliath to the north. Sure, the country doesn’t work well, but at least it remains for Cubans by Cubans.
Unfortunately, Helms-Burton codified the embargo. In 2000, congress tightened the travel ban. The executive branch has very little leeway to completely undo the embargo. So, what are some concrete steps the new President can do if Obama really does want to restore U.S. leadership in this specific trouble spot?
- Make it clear that lifting the embargo is to bring down the regime, not give into it. Tell congress and the American people that the embargo has failed, and that we need a new strategy.
- Robert Muse was quoted earlier this year in Cuban Colada as pointing out that Helms-Burton enables the executive branch to issue licenses to trade with Cuba. By simply licensing just about everyone who asks, the executive can essentially subvert the will of congress (or at least the congress of 1996). If Obama doesn’t want to look soft, the government could charge fees for these licenses, raising tremendous amounts of money that could be provided to dissident groups and NGOs inside of Cuba.
- The travel ban has to go. Cultural exchanges, students, and person to person contact made by everyday people does more to change the opinions of the average Joe than anything else. Regular tourism may not be too helpful, as tourists are sort of kept in limited areas, but student and cultural exchanges are vital if things are going to change on the island.
By taking these steps, the American people can bring new life to resolving one of our oldest conflicts. Obama can immediately strengthen his foreign policy credentials, stop our least-liked policy in Latin America, and hopefully bring rights, prosperity, and freedom to eleven million Cubans.
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Thanks for stopping by and introducing yourself. Your blog is engaging and informative. I’ll be linking you.
Your ideas and advice on a new Cuban policy is extremely logical and intelligent. I’ve been to Cuba and it’s only when you put a face to the island does one realize the human side of the equation. At this point, America needs to take the higher moral ground and fly with it.
I love the stimulating reads I find in The Hegemonist…….and I appreciated the Juicy Couture name dropping…
You’re right in principle but I have to wonder if you have been out of the country a little too long — Cuba policy in this regard has long been hostage to US Electoral College political concerns. Florida is typically the single most key swing state in presidential elections with neither party ever able to count on victory by a wide majority there. Thus, neither side can afford to risk alienating the sizebly significant Cuban-American voting block in South Florida, and so nothing has been done. Only as that voting block might change its historically antipathetical attitude to Castro and the any easing of relations with his regime does any administration have the latitude to make significant changes to the existing policy. The good news seems to be that as the younger generation of the community (the third, now) comes to dominate it demographically there might finally be room to move some on the policy. Stay tuned.