MEXICO
Hints at renewing ties with Cuba
BY MARIFELI PEREZ-STABLE
mps_opinion@comcast.net
Mexican President Felipe Calderón just passed the hundred-day mark.
Expectations weren't high -- demonstrating the forcefulness that eluded
his predecessor and broadening his reach beyond a bare-bones electoral
win -- but he did all right. Deployment of nearly 30,000 troops against
drug traffickers in six Mexican states quickly showed the president's
mettle and won him high standing in public opinion.
Soon enough, clouds gathered all the same. In mid-January, the rising
cost of tortillas -- the basic staple, whether hugging lobster or
humbler ingredients -- presented Calderón with his first domestic
crisis. Ongoing still, this crisis is emblematic of the Mexican maze,
which neither NAFTA (1994) nor Vicente Fox's administration (2000-2006)
did much to clear, and will be the subject of my next column. Foreign
policy -- specifically, relations with Cuba -- stirred the always
brewing pot of nationalism, which I address today.
The script is familiar. In Latin America, only Mexico defied the United
States and maintained normal relations with Cuba after the revolution
came to power. For many Mexican politicos, noninterference in other
countries' internal affairs was and is a sacrosanct principle. Nothing
political is so pristine, however. For decades, Mexican intelligence
services cooperated with the CIA on Cuban matters. And by denouncing
Augusto Pinochet's human-rights abuses, Mexico blinked the holy writ
aside. The list of instances is long.
Principles aside, Cuba has been a means to burnish Mexico's nationalist
credentials. As in the United States, domestic political considerations
weigh heavily on Mexican policy toward the island. Even before Fox
dislodged the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) from the
presidency, Cuba policy was changing. As the citizenry embraced human
rights and democracy, both played a larger hand in Mexican foreign policy.
Unfortunately, that wasn't all. When President Ernesto Zedillo started
moving away from the traditional policy, Cuba entered the PRI's internal
struggles. Recalcitrant PRI followers -- known as dinosaurs -- resisted
the efforts of those within the party who let the past be, and looked
forward. Bashing Pinochet was one thing; doing the same to Fidel Castro
quite another.
Even if it had been flawlessly implemented, Fox's Cuba policy would
still have been anathema to the old-school PRI and their kin, the Party
of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). The debate has always been more
about Mexico than Cuba. Today's Mexico is a far cry from what it was 25
years ago. Civil liberties, competitive elections and macroeconomic
stability are now part of the landscape. Nonetheless, much is left to be
done regarding citizen empowerment, economic competitiveness and social
justice.
How to get from here to there is the heart of the matter. Mexico's
political class is split between those who fully embrace competition --
economic and political -- and those who fall back on the corporatist
controls of the past. Why shouldn't a Mexico that already has traveled
down the first road craft a new foreign policy, Cuba included?
If Mexico isn't the same, neither is Cuba. Though not yet near a
democratic transition, Cuba is amid a succession that should be followed
closely. For Zedillo's and, especially, Fox's policies to have
succeeded, Havana -- i.e., the Comandante -- would have had to accept
the new rules of engagement, which he refused to do. It really does take
two to tango.
What will Raúl do?
Will Raúl Castro follow suit or break new paths in the island's external
relations? Neither Mexico nor Cuba benefits from the tensions of the
past few years. Two days ago, Patricia Espinosa, Mexico's foreign
minister, announced an acercamiento -- a rapprochement -- toward Cuba.
Without the elder Castro, Mexico and Cuba could well forge ties that
leave the past behind.
Calderón is walking a foreign-policy tightrope (domestic as well, but
that's in two weeks). He is committed to giving Mexico a higher Latin
American profile without diminishing the indispensable relationship with
the United States. Obstacles abound: Brazil, for instance, doesn't want
Mexico in South America. Yet, there are opportunities that should not be
missed such as Cuba's. Through dialogue and diplomacy, Mexico, Brazil
and others in the region could help the island land softly from its long
national nightmare. Along the way, however, Castro's victims over five
decades must -- one way or another -- be given the recognition and
respect long denied them.
Marifeli Pérez-Stable is vice president for democratic governance at the
Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, D.C., and a professor at Florida
International University.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/16701281.htm
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