IN CUBA,US EMBARGO ELICITS A SHRUG

IN CUBA,US EMBARGO ELICITS A SHRUG

Havana's communist leaders make halting changes, but no one expects an

end to the economic blockade

March 24, 2014 7:00AM ET

by Ben Piven @benpiven



HAVANA — The political pretext for gathering scarcely registered, as

100,000 raucous young Cubans — packed densely into a historic square

behind Havana University — clapped and jived to the salsa rhythm of

legendary big band Los Van Van.



Teenage boys, many bused in from outside the capital, showed off facial

piercings, tropical punk hairdos and Lycra muscle shirts as some chugged

from flasks of cheap rum. The band's front man sported a fitted blue

Yankees cap, while girls swayed with the music bellowing from massive

speakers that dwarfed an undersized poster advertising the local

communist youth group.



Officially, the reason for the concert held earlier this month was to

celebrate the return of Fernando Gonzalez, the second of the "Cuban

Five" to be released from prison in the U.S., after serving 15 years for

espionage. Before the show ended, there was a perfunctory call for the

liberation of the remaining three and mild cheers as the emcee denounced

"U.S. imperialism" and "el bloqueo" — the U.S. economic embargo of its

island neighbor, in force for the past 53 years without achieving its

goal of bringing down communist rule.



The failure of the embargo to end the Castro regime — and the fact that

Washington is internationally isolated in applying it — has prompted

periodic debate in the U.S. about its value. Despite hope that Barack

Obama's administration might ease the policy, any move to relax it draws

significant domestic political opposition. Meanwhile, Cuba's regime is

engaged in debates of its own, slowly making small policy changes that

would have been unthinkable at the height of communist rule.



An economy in which the state was once the sole employer now includes a

growing gray zone of private enterprises operating with the consent of

the authorities. That reflects an effort by the communist leadership to

stimulate an economy stunted by low growth, despite its relatively high

human development index and bountiful government benefits. Only a small

number of citizens have seen their living standards improve over the

past two decades.



Some people in Cuba believe that an end to the U.S. embargo — long

blamed by the leadership in Havana for all economic woes — would spur a

much-needed boom. "Five million tourists could come from the U.S. to

Cuba annually if the embargo were lifted," said Felipe Ventura, a

chemical engineer from Havana. Despite the potential offered by its

highly educated population, the Cuban economy's most dynamic sector

remains tourism, which generates $2.6 billion annually. Although the

embargo precludes conventional tourism from the U.S., Cuba welcomes a

steady stream of visitors from Europe, Canada and Latin America.



He said that Cuban society takes good care of ordinary people, keeping

down crime, drug abuse and homelessness, adding that Cuba's education

and health care are "one to two generations ahead" of other Latin

American nations such as Guatemala. Ventura, a Soviet-educated Ph.D.,

saw restrictive local laws on running private businesses as a far

greater drag on economic growth than the U.S. embargo but still wants it

lifted.



He spoke while dining at Rejoneo Asador in the capital's upscale Miramar

neighborhood, an establishment that seems to illustrate his point. The

restaurant, which serves mammoth portions of beef, is subject to a

government rule limiting eateries to 50 chairs. So the owner created

three dining areas — adjacent but technically separate — for a legal

total of 150 seats. The venue includes a cafeteria called Tic-Tac W,

whose symbol is an upside-down McDonald's logo that represents two

interlocking J's, for the co-owners' common first initial.



President Raúl Castro, in office since 2008, has overseen a loosening of

rules to allow mobile phone use, limited Internet connectivity and

unrestricted foreign travel. But according to Freedom House, only about

5 percent of Cubans can access — largely through black-market sale of

other people's connections — slow Internet bandwidth.



The regime has implemented laws aimed at promoting growth in the Cuban

private sector and has even succumbed to that most capitalist of

solutions by undertaking massive layoffs in a bloated public sector.



None of that is likely to have much impact on the five-decade embargo,

although recent polling that found a majority of Americans believe it

should end. That's because its key base of support is in the electoral

swing state of Florida, where conservative Cuban exiles who insist on

tightening the embargo — until the Castro brothers are ousted — exert

exceptional influence.



"The embargo was relevant and useful at an earlier time, but the world

has changed," Ted Piccone, director of the foreign policy program at the

Brookings Institution, told Al Jazeera. "The U.S. has changed, Cuba has

changed, and it's time to update our policy."



"The embargo has been counterproductive, particularly because the

government and its supporters have used it as a scapegoat for decades in

blaming the U.S. for various problems," he added. "But the last five

years under Raúl have been more explicit in saying, 'We also have our

own problems, and we need to improve and protect our model of socialism.'"



Reforms enacted during Obama's first term of office, such as easing

travel rules for Cuban-Americans returning home, raised hopes of more

widespread rapprochement. But those hopes have been largely dashed — the

handshake between Obama and Raúl Castro at the funeral of South African

leader Nelson Mandela notwithstanding.



The embargo was imposed by an act of Congress and would require a

congressional majority to be repealed. But Obama has not recently used

his executive powers to make smaller changes in Cuba policy either,

despite record cooperation on issues such as migration and drug

trafficking. The administration attributes the lack of action to

Havana's human rights record and to the continued imprisonment of USAID

contractor Alan Gross. But given the likelihood that reversal of the

embargo would be blocked in Congress, Cuba does not appear to be a

priority for Obama.



Source: In Cuba, US embargo elicits a shrug | Al Jazeera America -

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/3/24/in-cuba-us-embargoelicitsashrug.html