Drive harder bargain on Cuba

Drive harder bargain on Cuba
By Ana Quintana

President Obama announced Wednesday that the United States and Cuba have
reached an agreement on re-establishing diplomatic relations. As part of
his normalization bid with the Castro regime, the president has granted
the dictatorship another in a series of dangerous concessions.
Throughout the past 18 months of clandestine negotiations and six months
of semi-public talks, the Cuban negotiators consistently have raised
many obstacles to the president's much-wanted embassy. Cuban officials
made it clear the regime will not change its political or economic
system, despite the Obama administration's many overtures. The regime
also demanded an end to the embargo and removal of Cuba from the U.S.
list of state sponsors of terrorism before restoration of diplomatic
relations.
In January, at a summit of Latin American countries, Cuban leader Raul
Castro reiterated these points, conditioning further openings with the
United States on the lifting of the embargo, the return of the
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, and compensation for "human and economic
damage" incurred as a result of the U.S. embargo.
So far, Obama has given Havana three convicted spies accused of killing
Americans, drastically eased sanctions, lobbied Congress to lift the
embargo and removed Cuba from the state sponsors of terrorism list. In
light of that, the Obama administration should answer these questions:
Did the United States receive compensation for the $8 billion in U.S.
assets unlawfully seized by the Cuban government?
According to the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act (LIBERTAD),
which was passed in 1996, re-establishing diplomatic relations cannot
happen until the Cuban government compensates U.S. citizens for
illegally confiscating their property valued at $8 billion, the largest
seizure of U.S. assets in history; and "when the president determines
that there exists a democratically elected government in Cuba." Havana
has met neither requirement.
Has the United States agreed to the Cuban government's demands of
restricted diplomatic travel? If so, this defeats the purpose of an
embassy, as routine diplomatic activities are impossible.
Cuba is a police state, and that extends to Americans as well. U.S.
diplomats in the Interest Section are kept from privately meeting with
human-rights activists and persecuted members of the religious community.
Will the Cuban government continue to search diplomatic pouches?
Cuban officials insist they be able to inspect diplomatic pouches. As
the Cuba policy website Capitol Hill Cubans has stated, this is a clear
violation of diplomatic protocol, against the Vienna Convention on
Diplomatic Relations, and unprecedented in the Western Hemisphere.
Did the United States make any concessions on Guantanamo Bay?
Fidel and Raul Castro long have rallied to shut down the United States'
naval presence in Guantanamo Bay. It is another area where their regime
and Obama see eye to eye: The president, too, has long supported closing
Gitmo. Were any backroom deals made?
Will the United States continue its support for Cuba's democratic
opposition and human-rights activists?
The Cuban government strongly opposes Washington's support for
dissidents and has raised it as an obstacle to the president's
much-wanted embassy in Havana. Cuban officials urged the United States
not only to stop funding of independent groups, but also to mandate the
Cuban government's role in selecting Communist Party-approved
organizations to receive U.S. funding.
It always has been the U.S. position to support a democratic transition
on the island. That seems no longer to be the case.
Obama has made a complete reversal: America now is engaging and
financing the Cuban regime and isolating the Cuban people. The president
cannot allow his self-serving legacy policy to be at the cost of
democracy in Cuba.
- Ana Quintana is a policy analyst for Latin America and the Western
Hemisphere in The Heritage Foundation's Allison Center for Foreign
Policy Studies.
Originally appeared in Republican-American

Source: Drive harder bargain on Cuba -
http://www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2015/7/drive-harder-bargain-on-cuba