Myths About U.S. Policy Toward Cuba

Myths About U.S. Policy Toward Cuba

[19-06-2014 08:53:58]

Jaime Suchlicki

Director del Instituto de Estudios Cubanos y Cubano-Americanos de la

Universidad de Miami



(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- Ending the U.S. embargo of Cuba will take

away Castro's excuses against the U.S. and about his own failures:

1) The embargo is not the cause of Cuba's problems. A failed economic

system that does not encourage productivity and creativity is the cause.

Like Eastern European economies under communism, Cuba's economic

disaster has to do with the system, not U.S. policy.



2) If the embargo is ended, the Castro brothers will continue to claim

that the U.S. owes Cuba $40-50 billion for the damages caused by the

embargo. If the U.S. pays Cuba the $40-50 billion, Castro will claim

damages for the U.S. occupation of Cuba (1899-1902) and on and on.



3) Most Cubans do not believe that the embargo is the cause of their

economic problems. Instead of repeating this falsehood, U.S.

policymakers should attempt to convince Cubans otherwise.



Ending the U.S. embargo will improve U.S.-Latin American relations.



1) Cuba is not the main issue dividing U.S.-Latin America. Drugs,

migration, intellectual property, and ideological differences over

Venezuela are higher on the Latin American agenda.



2) Ending the embargo unilaterally will do little to solve the above

problems and will create new ones. A large influx of U.S. tourists to

Cuba will have a dislocating effect on the economies of smaller

Caribbean islands; will contradict U.S. policy in Latin America which

has emphasized democracy and human rights for the past four decades;

will accept in Cuba a military dictatorship and condemn Cubans to many

more years of repression and misery.



3) Ending the embargo unilaterally will do little to change the Castro

brothers' anti-Americanism and their support for Venezuela, Iran,

Russia, and for terrorist groups throughout the world. General Raul

Castro is unwilling to renounce these relationships for an uncertain

relationship with the U.S.





The periodic public statements that General Raul Castro has made about

wanting negotiations with the U.S. are politically motivated and

directed at audiences in the U.S. and Europe. In particular, Raul

believes that the "correlation of forces" are such in the U.S. that

Congress may lift the travel ban and end the embargo unilaterally,

without Cuba having to make any concessions. Serious overtures for

negotiations are usually not issued from the plaza; they are carried out

through normal diplomatic avenues open to the Cubans. These avenues have

never been closed as evidenced by the migration accord and the

anti-hijacking agreement between the U.S. and Cuba. In the past, both

Democratic and Republican administrations have had conversations with

Cuban officials and made serious overtures for normalization, only to be

rebuffed.



The issue is not about negotiations or talking. There has to be a

willingness on the part of the Cuban leadership to offer real

concessions-in the area of human rights and political and economic

openings as well as cooperation on anti-terrorism and drug

interdiction-for the U.S. to change its policies. The U.S., as well as

other countries, does not give away major policies without a substantial

quid pro quo. Only when Raul is willing to offer meaningful concessions

not only to the United States, but more importantly to the Cuban people,

then and only then the U.S. should change its policies.



_________________________________________________



*Jaime Suchlicki is Emilio Bacardi Moreau Distinguished Professor and

Director, Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, University of

Miami. He is the author of Cuba: From Columbus to Castro, now in its

fifth edition; Mexico: From Montezuma to NAFTA, now in its second

edition and the recently published Breve Historia de Cuba.



Source: Myths About U.S. Policy Toward Cuba - Misceláneas de Cuba -

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