FOREIGN POLICY
Few nations follow U.S. in condemning Cuba
The Bush administration is campaigning to get more international
condemnation of abuses in Cuba. So far, there have been few takers.
BY PABLO BACHELET
pbachelet@MiamiHerald.com
WASHINGTON - Shortly after an ailing Fidel Castro handed power to his
brother Raúl last summer, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called her
Spanish counterpart, Miguel Angel Moratinos.
With Havana seemingly on the edge of change, Rice hoped the European
Union would issue a statement urging Cuba to adopt democratic reforms.
As the leader on Latin American affairs within the EU, Madrid had the
clout to make such a declaration happen, diplomats familiar with the
outreach say.
The Spaniards declined.
To this day, the EU and most Latin American democracies have been
conspicuously quiet on Cuba despite a stepped-up U.S. effort to garner
those kinds of declarations on Cuba. Diplomats and analysts say the
silence shows that many nations are both unwilling to be associated with
U.S. policies toward Cuba and reluctant to anger Havana by criticizing
its communist government.
''The embargo focus of U.S. policy [toward Cuba] has been ineffective,''
said Kenneth Roth, president of Human Rights Watch, a group critical of
both U.S. sanctions on Cuba and the island's repressive ways. ``It's
driven away natural allies who otherwise might be willing to help
promote human rights.''
A BUSH PRIORITY
Bringing international attention on Cuba was a priority for the Bush
administration even before Castro temporarily handed power to his
brother and six top aides on July 31. A few weeks earlier, a big
interagency policy report on Cuba said that Western democracies ``should
take a leading role in guiding Cuba on a path . . . to representative
democracy.''
U.S. officials with Latin American responsibilities often discuss Cuba
on their trips abroad.
The State Department's Cuba Transition Coordinator, Caleb McCarry has
traveled to Spain, Finland -- which then held the EU's rotating
presidency -- and Germany, which currently holds it.
Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere Thomas Shannon
has traveled widely in Latin America as well as China, Spain and Canada.
And Kirsten Madison, who among other duties oversees the Cuba desk at
the State Department, has been to France, Italy and Belgium.
The State Department says it is not only out to convince others on the
merits of U.S. policy on Cuba.
''This is not us giving them information only,'' spokesman Eric Watnik
said. ``We want to know what they are doing to help the Cuban people and
see if we can work together in supporting a democratic transition.''
So far, the administration has little to show for its efforts. Only a
handful of formerly communist nations in Central Europe and Costa Rican
President Oscar Arias have called for a democratic transition in Cuba.
The Cuban foreign ministry later blasted Arias, a Nobel Peace prize
winner, as a ``vulgar mercenary.''
The reluctance of other nations to speak out is dismaying Cuban Americans.
U.S. ambassador to Spain Eduardo Aguirre last month told a group of
Spanish reporters that he'd ``like the European Union at some time to
make a simple statement, that they'd like to see democracy in Cuba.''
Miami Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the ranking member of the
House Foreign Affairs Committee, said many nations are eager to condemn
alleged U.S. violations in the Guantánamo Bay prison but unwilling to
speak out on the plight of Cuban political prisoners.
''After almost 50 years of this double standard of silence toward Cuba's
lack of freedoms, I am not very surprised by the lack of international
support,'' she said.
DELICATE SUBJECT
European diplomats interviewed by The Miami Herald, many of whom
declined to be identified because Cuba is a delicate subject, say all
its members want democracy in Cuba. But some governments like those in
Spain, France and England feel that condemning Havana at this time would
prompt the communist government to dig its heels rather than embrace change.
The Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the three Baltic
states are pushing for a EU pronouncement, the diplomats say. Hungary's
ambassador to Washington, András Simonyi, said Europe is ''edging''
towards a common position on Cuba, which he said is a ''special case''
because of its history and its ``present situation.''
''Hungary has a clear view that we have been through a democratic change
and, of course, we would like to see as many countries as possible''
take a democratic path.
In Latin America, most big democracies like Argentina and Brazil have
long held that they cannot interfere in the internal affairs of another
country. Mexico's new conservative President Felipe Calderón has said he
will seek to promote democracy in the region, but so far has not
mentioned Cuba.
There's also resentment against the U.S. Helms-Burton Act of 1996, which
punishes foreign companies that invest in Cuban properties seized from
U.S. citizens, as well as the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba.
U.S. officials say they understand that other nations oppose
Washington's ''tactics'' but that the two sides should work together to
achieve democracy in Cuba.
But that's ''not how things work,'' said José Miguel Vivanco, the
Americas director for Human Rights Watch. ``They also need to open the
whole policy agenda for debate.''
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