Will Havana reduce repression?

Posted on Saturday, 04.25.09
Will Havana reduce repression?
BY FRANK CALZON
frank.calzon@cubacenter.org

President Barack Obama just returned from Trinidad & Tobago where he met
with hemispheric heads of state. The one missing, Cuba was on
everybody's mind. The question most often asked was: ``When will the
United States lift the failed trade embargo and normalize relations with
Cuba?

The media thrive on conflict, and Latin American leaders get a free pass
from their radical left when they criticize Washington and turn a blind
eye to a 50-year-old military dictatorship in Cuba. Before the meeting,
President Obama lifted of restrictions on travel and remittances by
Cuban Americans; which will help Cubans and deliver hundreds of millions
of dollars to the regime that controls every economic activity on the
island.

The dollars influx comes at a critical time for Havana. Reuters reported
this week that Cuba's cash crunch is getting worse. The price of nickel
is down and Cuba is no longer a significant producer of sugar -- indeed,
the country has been forced to import sugar from abroad. Besides,
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez will not be able to continue his level
of subsidies to the Castro dynasty due to the low price of oil.

President Obama is right that the ball is now in Raúl Castro's court.
President Obama insists on maintaining the embargo but lifting some
restrictions opens up the way if, as the president hopes, Havana
responds in kind. It is emblematic of U.S.-Cuban relations that Havana
demands concessions and when they are made, responds by saying they are
not enough.

If Havana reduces its repression, allows the International Committee of
the Red Cross to visit its political prisons and dismantles and extends
to Cubans the same rights and privileges it grants foreigners on the
island, the gesture will not go unnoticed by the United States or by the
Europeans who lifted restrictions almost a year ago, hoping that their
unilateral decision would prod Havana to open up. The Europeans are
scheduled this summer to review a series of benchmarks in regard to
internal reforms in Cuba.

President Obama has pointed out that there are Cuban families who have
foreign visas to travel abroad, but the Cuban government does not permit
them to leave. Cuba is the only country in the region that requires
government authorization for its citizens to travel abroad. Latin
American leaders might want to ask General Castro to let them go.

The United States lifted its restrictions on remittances and packages.
Now it may be Havana's turn to permit the normalization of postal
services between the two countries. Were it to do so, more Cubans could
receive assistance from abroad.

The issue here is that Cuban-Americans are swindled to the tune of
hundreds of millions of dollars by a monopoly developed by Havana in
Miami. Havana licenses companies which profit from the desire of
Cuban-Americans to help their relatives on the island, by overcharging
them for the sending of care packages.

The normalization of postal service is absent from the demands of those
who want to ''normalize'' relations with Cuba, because it not one of the
priorities of the Castro government. In the case of the remittances,
which unlike remittances from Salvadorans, Mexicans and others, do not
have a multiplying effect on the island because almost all economic
activity is prohibited to Cubans. President Obama has suggested General
Raúl Castro reduce the harsh tax it imposes on those transactions.

The United States is also ready to allow American companies to sell TV
satellite dishes, and Internet technology to Cubans.

It remains to be seen whether Raúl Castro will permit satellite dishes
and computers connected to the Internet to be placed in libraries,
churches, and schools -- let alone to be purchased by those Cubans who
which now will have a lot more to spend than the typical $20 monthly salary.

Frank Calzon is the executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba.

Will Havana reduce repression? - Other Views - MiamiHerald.com (1 May 2009)

http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/other-views/story/1016816.html