Push for change, not continuity, in Cuba
Restrictions keep U.S. from assisting Cubans on their path to freedom
DAN RESTREPO
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
With Fidel Castro seemingly teetering on the edge of death for the last
six months, those within his regime seeking continuity have found the
oddest of allies in their endeavor -- the U.S. government.
Consistent with an outmoded policy based on anachronistic laws, the
United States has done exactly nothing to adapt to the evolving new
reality in Cuba. Faced with a leadership group in Cuba that has never
before had to think or act independently, the United States has not
attempted to change the playing field on them in any way.
Unfortunately, true to the counter-productive course of U.S.-Cuba policy
during nearly five decades, more of the same from the United States
helps perpetuate more of the same in Cuba. Such a result should be
unacceptable to anyone who longs for the day when the 11.3 million
people in Cuba enjoy freedom.
Instead of continuing to engage in the parlor game of trying to
determine what exactly ails Fidel Castro and when he will die, the Bush
administration and the Congress should get about the business of
correcting what ails U.S.-Cuba policy.
Without waiting for Congress, the Bush administration should recognize
the folly of its ways and alter its heartless 2004 decision to restrict
Cuban-American family-based travel and remittances to Cuba. The
maneuver, which is opposed by broad swaths of those Cuban-Americans most
likely to have relatives still in Cuba, defies logic and simply adds to
the hardship of those separated from loved ones to no productive end.
End travel restrictions
Congress should take the process of opening up interaction between the
United States and the Cuban people one large step further by bringing to
an end the restriction on the right of U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba.
A greater exchange of people and ideas between the United States and
Cuba would serve as a bulwark for freedom and openness if Raul Castro
and those around him opt for repression in the face of inevitable
change.Changing travel policies, however, is not enough. Fundamental
change requires bold congressional action. The heart of the failed
approach to Cuba lies within the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity
Act of 1996, a.k.a. the Helms-Burton Act. Despite its lofty official
title, Helms-Burton does nothing to promote liberty or democracy in
Cuba. It should be repealed.
Gone should be the Helms-Burton codification of the U.S. embargo against
Cuba. Such an action would not, in itself, lift the embargo; nor should
it. It would, however, hand the president far greater flexibility to
deal with what could be a fluid situation in Cuba after Fidel's ultimate
demise.
A successful transition away from the failed, command economy of the
repressive Castro regime will require an orderly and transparent means
of resolving property disputes. To make that possible, the Helms-Burton
provisions that purport to place Cuban property disputes in the hands of
U.S. federal courts must be relegated to the dust bin.
Resolve property claims
Long-standing property claims by U.S. citizens and companies should be
handled in the usual course through the International Claims Settlement
Act of 1949. Property claims by Cuban-Americans who were not U.S.
citizens at the time their property was confiscated must be resolved
through a process that is of, by, and for the Cuban people, and not
through one that is a creature of the United States.
Although the future of Cuba must be decided by the Cuban people on the
island, the United States should be in a position to assist them along
their path to freedom and democracy. Unfortunately, the current
Helms-Burton restrictions on U.S. assistance require that the United
States wait for the Cuban people at the finish line. In place of those
restrictions, Congress should adopt an approach more akin to that which
marked U.S. assistance to Eastern European countries in the aftermath of
the fall of the Berlin Wall that geared assistance toward fostering and
reinforcing change.
In short, swift action is needed to prevent the United States from
handing Fidel Castro the ironic and tragic ultimate parting gift of a
policy paralysis that does more to perpetuate his decrepit regime than
he could have ever imagined possible.
Dan Restrepo is director of The Americas Project at the Center for
American Progress, 1333 H St. NW, 10th Floor, Washington, DC 20005.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/opinion/16539838.htm
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