NORIEGA - Chamber of crony capitalism sells out Cubans

NORIEGA: Chamber of crony capitalism sells out Cubans

U.S. trade concessions without regard for human rights would betray

principle

By Roger F. Noriega Friday, May 30, 2014



For the past 15 years, the Castro regime has sought to entice foreign

companies to Cuba by offering slave wages and stolen property. The cost

of doing business there is that you pay workers' salaries to the regime,

take the government as your business partner and agree to lobby against

the U.S. embargo.



As astonishing as it sounds, there are American businessmen who look

upon these woeful conditions and ask, "How do I get in on this?" U.S.

policy bars "trading with the enemy." People who have no particular

interest in changing "the enemy" set out to change U.S policy.



For example, U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas J. Donohue, just

wrapped up a visit to Cuba, citing "evidence that we're seeing an

extraordinary expansion of free enterprise." Of course, that is utter

nonsense, demonstrating that Mr. Donohue has learned nothing since he

first hyped Fidel Castro's "reforms" 15 years ago.



According to the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom 2014,

Cuba actually recorded "double-digit declines in business freedom and

investment freedom" in the past year. That is quite a feat, because only

North Korea ranks worse than Cuba among the 178 countries rated in the

annual Heritage study. If Mr. Donohue is interested in touting economic

freedom, almost literally the last people on the planet he should be

courting are cronies of the Castro dictatorship.



In recent weeks, several other groups have appealed for reform on Cuba —

not for reform in Cuba, but reform of U.S. policy. The New York-based

Council of the Americas issued a May 19 "Open Letter to President Obama"

recommending initiatives to support "independent economic activity." The

signers of this message include retired U.S. officials, most of whom, in

my personal experience, never showed the slightest interest in the cause

of freedom in Cuba when they were in a position to do something about

it. Many of the ideas they endorse for encouraging economic freedom have

some merit. However, the fatal flaw is their call for a dialogue that

would legitimize the regime that is an intractable obstacle to political

and economic liberty in Cuba.



"Giving oxygen to the Cuban government would mean that the United States

is turning its back on the Cuban people." That's how dissident leader

Berta Soler sized up the council's proposal. Dissident Manuel Cuesta

Morua assessed that the signers "don't know how things work here," and

questioned their failure to refer to human rights. "Given the reality

and the rules imposed by Castro, it would be impossible" for Cubans to

benefit from the initiatives recommended in the letter, according to

Jose Daniel Ferrer of Cuba's Patriotic Union.



The Chamber of Commerce trip and Council of the Americas letter come on

the heels of a February poll on Cuba policy released by a Washington

website committed to ending the U.S. embargo. For decades, these same

pundits sneered at U.S. policy, saying it was driven merely by crass

politics. Their monumental contribution to this debate is an appeal for

unilateral concessions to the Castro regime because of a poll. You can't

make this stuff up.



Three things these initiatives have in common is that they would benefit

the regime, they could end up hurting average Cubans, and they are being

offered by people who have no real stake in what happens on the island.

These pundits have a hunch that they know better than people with

knowledge, experience and family ties. With very few exceptions, they

don't know anyone on the island who will pay the price if the United

States clumsily helps the gasping regime catch its breath.



Of course, not everyone who cares about the Cuban people thinks the same

about how best to bring about change there. However, most draw the line

at concessions that would clearly benefit the regime without helping 11

million Cubans.



Then there's Charlie Crist — who, as governor of Florida, looked into

the eyes of Cuban exiles, heard their heartbreaking stories and maybe

wiped away a tear or two. In his bid to win his old job back, Mr. Crist

has flip-flopped on Cuba policy, pledging to confer and trade with the

Castro regime — playing the angles on an issue in which he knows lives

are at stake.



President Obama has relaxed some restrictions on family travel and cash

remittances. He has refused to make more concessions, though, unless the

regime makes meaningful changes in how it treats the Cuban people. Let's

hope he sticks to that simple, principled position.



Roger F. Noriega is a former U.S. ambassador to the Organization of

American States and assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere

affairs in the George W. Bush administration.



Source: "NORIEGA: Chamber of crony capitalism sells out Cubans -

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