TODAY'S COLUMNIST
By Vicki Huddleston
February 6, 2007
In the spring of 2002, I picked up a group of young Cubans along
Quinta Avenida headed toward central Havana to hang out and treat
themselves to ice cream and cakes. When they asked me where I got the
beautiful black Crown Victoria sedan I was driving, I told them that I
was the chief of the U.S. Interests Section, our diplomatic mission in
Cuba. Delighted, they exclaimed, "Be our mother and take us to Miami!"
Forty-five years ago on Feb. 3, 1962, 10 months after the Bay of
Pigs and eight months before the Cuban missile crisis, President Kennedy
announced a total embargo on trade with Cuba. President Eisenhower,
fearing Communists were gaining the upper hand, had already put in place
sanctions in retaliation for the seizure of American properties shortly
after Fidel Castro took power on Jan. 1, 1959.
Now, almost a half-century later, the long era of Mr. Castro is
over. The brief era of his brother, Raul, who at 75 cannot rule Cuba for
long, has begun. But very little change will take place in Cuba as long
as the Cuban people are isolated from their loved ones and from the
ideas and influences of the outside world. If we want to give those kids
a chance to build a prosperous and democratic future in Havana -- not
Miami -- we will have to change tactics.
To start the ball rolling, President Bush should reinstitute the
"People-to-People" program and the annual Cuban American family visits
that were in place during the first two years of his administration.
These policies were opening doors in Cuba.
Under the People-to-People program, licensed groups from churches,
universities and theaters throughout the United States were carrying out
their own brand of grass-roots diplomacy by connecting with Cuban
doctors, teachers and religious leaders. They were helping Cubans live
better lives and to begin preparing for a better future. Cuban Americans
were visiting their families in Cuba, bringing much need medicines and
giving their children a chance to hug their grandparents and learn
firsthand about what happened in Cuba.
Cubans from Santiago de Cuba in the East to Pinar del Rio in the
West were beginning to believe that freedom was not a distant dream.
They were learning firsthand about life in our country by listening to
AM-FM shortwave radios and reading books handed out by an intrepid band
of diplomats assigned to the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.
Mr. Bush can make these changes now. No congressional action is
needed and they will make a difference as they did five years ago, when
they helped create a "Cuban Spring."
But more needs to be done, it isn't all up to Mr. Bush. Congress
will have to act if the president is to have the flexibility he needs in
the coming months and years to respond to the challenges and
opportunities Fidel Castro's death and Raul Castro's succession will
bring. Until the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity legislation,
known as Helms-Burton, is revised or abrogated the president cannot lift
the embargo unless both both Castros are out of power and a new Cuban
government is well on its way toward a multiparty democracy.
Congressional action does not end the embargo. The president by
executive action can keep the embargo in place. But if Congress
abrogates or revises Helms-Burton, the president will have the
opportunity to respond should Raul Castro begin to carry out reforms.
For example, should Raul Castro allow Cubans to open their own
businesses, in order to meet the pent up expectations of Cuba's youth
for jobs and better pay, Mr. Bush could remove restrictions that block
the sale of computers, televisions and radios, thereby enhancing the
flow of information and ideas that would prompt more and faster
political as well as economic reform.
Forty-five years later, isn't it time to clear the way for a new
relationship?
Ambassador Vicki Huddleston, a non-resident senior fellow at the
Brookings Institution, served as principal officer of the U.S. Interests
Section in Havana (1999-2002) and as director and deputy director of the
State Department's Office of Cuban Affairs (1989-1993).
No comments:
Post a Comment