- KEYS TO HELP END THE OPPRESSION
Maintain the embargo until irreversible economic and political reforms leading to democratic capitalism are in place. Tightening the economic screws may lead to more disturbances and riots, as well as increased repression as Castro struggles to remain in power. However, the embargo remains the only effective instrument available to the U.S. government in trying to force the economic and democratic concessions it has been demanding of Castro for over three decades. Maintaining the embargo will help to end the Castro regime more quickly.
Admit no more Cuban refugees into the U.S. beyond the 20,000 per year agreed to during negotiations in September of 1994.14 Allowing the unrestricted entry of Cuban refugees during the Cold War was valid and necessary while Castro’s regime was still powerful and its political control of the island was undisputed. But circumstances have changed in the past years, as the Clinton Administration realized when it changed U.S. policy toward Cuba during the August of 1994 refugee crisis. Continuing to allow Cuban refugees unrestricted entry to the United States serves only to prolong Castro’s rule by providing him a much-needed safety valve to relieve the pressure of growing social discontent.
Canada, stop coddling Castro and start calling for real changes. The Clinton Administration was successful in getting the United Nations to condemn the military regime in Haiti. There is no reason it cannot exert equally persuasive diplomatic pressure to get similar resolutions regarding Cuba through that body. The Administration should strive to convince the international community not to do business with Cuba until the jails are emptied of all political prisoners, until Castro’s repressive security forces are disbanded, all illegally confiscated properties and assets are returned to their rightful owners or appropriate compensation is paid, the constitution and laws of Cuba are reformed to legalize free enterprise and private ownership of property, free-market policies are adopted, and democratic elections are held in a pluralist political context which allows the Cuban people to elect the leaders they choose.
At the same time, Castro’s intransigence has not slowed efforts by many of these countries, including NAFTA partners Mexico and Canada, to expand trade relations with Cuba. The U.S. should use its leverage as the most important trading nation in the hemisphere to correct this. For example, the NAFTA trade relationship carries an implicit agreement with the shared goal of building a trade zone in the Western Hemisphere based on free markets and respect for democracy. Those principles apply to all other countries in the Americas seeking closer trade relations with the U.S. and U.S. investment to help develop their economies. The Clinton Administration should not be timid in pressing its case in this regard.
Prepare for the possibility that Castro’s collapse could unleash a lengthy period of social and political unrest, and perhaps even civil war, in Cuba. U.S. policy toward Castro long has idealized an outcome in which Cuba makes a peaceful transition to a free-market democracy. With Castro’s collapse more likely in the near term than ever before, however, the U.S. government does not appear to have a policy for dealing with the likelihood that it will take place amid bloodshed, armed conflict, and chaos. The U.S. government should seek to develop flexible responses for Castro’s demise, depending on whether it takes place in a climate of violence or peaceful transition. And should prepare now for the transition that could begin without significant warning.
Reinforce the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo in anticipation of attack by pro-Castro forces. The Clinton Administration should consider the possibility that a desperate Castro might attempt to provoke a violent U.S. military response which could galvanize Cuban support for the regime based on old fears, nurtured for decades by Castro’s propaganda machine, of “Yanqui” imperialism and colonialism. The Administration should reinforce the base with tactical aircraft and at least a brigade-sized combat unit capable of holding off a surprise attack.
Provide financial and other support to more than 150 dissident groups within Cuba that are struggling to bring down Castro. Such groups include the Catholic Church, which is dedicated to peaceful change. No support should be provided to dissident groups intent on triggering violent change, for the United States must avoid inflaming anti-American sentiment at all costs. Dissident groups dedicated to peaceful change will be the basis on which a civil society will be created in a post-Castro Cuba, and their growth should be encouraged and supported in much the same way the Reagan Administration clandestinely supported Lech Walesa’s Solidarity labor movement in Poland after martial law was imposed in late 1981. Such support would include financing of publications and income subsidies to permit dissidents to support themselves and their families.
Increase the broadcasting activities of Radio Mart . These broadcasts should urge the Cuban people to bring down Castro peacefully and should specify that under no circumstances will the U.S. interfere militarily in Cuba’s domestic affairs. They should also stress that what the U.S. wants is a stable, friendly relationship with a democratic, free-market Cuba and that the U.S. is willing to negotiate with the Cuban government as long as Castro implements the comprehensive political and economic reforms he needs to revive his stalled economy.
The 32-year-old trade embargo against Cuba may finally be producing its intended results of destabilizing the island’s communist government and weakening Fidel Castro’s control of the Cuban people. Castro has resisted change since losing the Soviet Union’s financial support, but his final collapse may be closer than ever before. Nevertheless, he continues his visceral loathing of democracy and the free market, all the while demanding the embargo be lifted without condition. It seems clear that Castro believes his survival hinges on the embargo’s elimination. Paradoxically, just as Castro’s communist government may be close to falling, a chorus of voices in the U.S. has risen to call for the lifting of the embargo. They cite several reasons: to ease the suffering of the Cuban people, to capitalize on the trade and investment opportunities other countries allegedly are enjoying in Cuba, and to establish the bases of a free-market economy that in time will compel democratic reforms as well. But the greatest beneficiary would be Fidel Castro, whose 35-year-old communist dictatorship would be fortified overnight if he were allowed access to the billions of dollars in financial aid from multilateral agencies, credit guarantees, and investment that would start flowing into Cuba.
The United States must not abandon the Cuban people by relaxing or lifting the trade embargo against the communist regime. Instead, the U.S. government must reject all pressures to ease the embargo until all of the objectives for which it was imposed are achieved. Anything less would constitute an unacceptable breach of faith with the Cuban people, who today are among the very few people left in the world who still suffer the brutality of a communist dictatorship.
322