Cuba No Libre

Cuba No Libre
The U.S. outreach has changed little about life on the island.
Updated Aug. 14, 2015 8:09 p.m. ET

'Cuba's future is for Cubans to shape," declared Secretary of State John
Kerry in Havana on Friday as he reopened the U.S. Embassy after 54
years. If only this were true. The reality is that Cuba's future is
still reserved for the Castro brothers and their political comrades to
shape, and that hasn't changed a whit since President Obama decided to
recognize the Cuban regime in December.

"Having normal relations makes it easier for us to talk—and talk can
deepen understanding even when we know full well that we will not always
see eye-to-eye on everything," Mr. Kerry said. This sums up the Obama
vision of foreign policy, in which talk typically turns out to be its
own reward.

Certainly there isn't much to show so far for the U.S. outreach to Cuba.
The U.S. has supplied the government run by Fidel and Raúl Castro and
the military with much-wanted new global legitimacy. The U.S. has also
eased travel restrictions to the island, and American business interests
and the Obama Administration are lobbying Congress to end the U.S. trade
embargo.

What hasn't changed is life for average Cubans who aren't connected to
the ruling elite. They are still paid in relatively worthless pesos even
when they work for foreign businesses that give the government hard
currency for their labor. They can still be arrested if they use the
Internet to hear independent news about the world or Cuba. And they will
be arrested if they protest against the government. Only last Sunday the
government detained for four and half hours 90 Cubans who protested
against Mr. Kerry's visit for emboldening the regime's crackdown on dissent.

"The leaders in Havana and the Cuban people should also know that the
United States will remain a champion of democratic principles and
reforms," Mr. Kerry said, and we'd like to think this is true too.

But the U.S. failed to invite Yoani Sanchez, an important Cuban blogger
unloved by the regime, to the Embassy event. Also kept away from the
Embassy were some of the Spanish-speaking media with large audiences in
Miami that are not all enamored of the President's Cuban outreach. But
all the big U.S. media networks were on hand to record the historic day.
They might learn more if they stayed to travel around the island, but
the government restricts where foreign media can go.

The new Embassy replaces a U.S. "interests section," which was a place
where Cubans could go to get some support and occasionally protection.
What a shame it would be if, in the name of opening Cubans to the
outside world, the U.S. Embassy becomes a place where dissidents fear to
tread because America doesn't want to jeopardize better relations with
the Castros.

Source: Cuba No Libre - WSJ -
http://www.wsj.com/articles/cuba-non-libre-1439593695