AEI Newsletter
Posted: Thursday, March 22, 2007
ARTICLES
April 2007 Newsletter
Publication Date: April 1, 2007
The future of Cuba continues to be uncertain as dictator Fidel Castro's
health remains poor. On February 27, AEI hosted a conference to address
the transition from dictatorship to democracy, the evolving Cuban
society, and Cuba's economic outlook.
Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez delivered a keynote address. A
native of Cuba who left the island as a boy to escape the Castro regime,
he is currently co-chairman of the Commission for Assistance to a Free
Cuba. He remarked that Cubans today "are economic captives and they are
political captives. . . . They have become the workers of this
hemisphere's last plantation."
The United States has spent recent decades "actively working to support
independent civil society on the island, providing funding for education
and exchanges and helping to break the regime's information blockade,"
Secretary Gutierrez said. "The Cuban system amounts to nothing more than
indentured servitude, yet the exploitation and repression of workers on
the island are rarely acknowledged by those who call for lifting the
embargo," he added.
According to Secretary Gutierrez, the George W. Bush administration is
not the greatest threat to the Castro regime. Rather, "the biggest
threat is in the hearts of the Cuban people, and that is their ability
to invent, to dream, to create a society of prosperity, equality, and
hope" for themselves. He emphasized that the United States has no
imperial or military ambitions in Cuba, but that the United States is a
friend of the Cuban people and will support them in their quest for freedom.
Panelists specializing in democratic change addressed several of the
issues facing the hoped-for transition from dictatorship to democracy.
AEI's Roger F. Noriega commented that the debate should not focus on
what U.S. policy should be, but rather what Cubans can do at home to
establish a legitimate post-Castro government. Jose Antonio Font of
American Capital Partners echoed Noriega's sentiments and called for
continued U.S. support of resistance movements on the island through
funding, rhetoric, and communications. Georges Fauriol of the
International Republican Institute argued that democratic institutions
must be built by Cubans themselves, not superimposed by outside actors.
"The end product of a transition is the collective work of Cuban
citizens themselves," he said.
Caleb McCarry, Cuba transition coordinator at the State Department,
commented that Cubans expect a major change after Castro departs and
that the State Department intends to follow through on its many promises
of assistance to the Cuban people. McCarry also spoke about the
institutional and communications structures through which the United
States encourages a democratic transition.
During a panel on Cuban society, Frank Calzon of the Center for a Free
Cuba said that the key to a successful transformation of Cuban society
is to balance the concerns of Cubans with U.S. foreign policy interests.
Orlando Gutierrez Boronat of the Cuban Democracy Directorate spoke about
the repressive actions taken by the Castro regime against dissidents.
John Sanbrailo of the Pan American Development Foundation argued that
underground civil society activity will move Cuba from oppression toward
openness and freedom.
In a discussion of Cuba's economic transition, John Anderson of the U.S.
Commerce Department described federal programs to stimulate growth in
post-Castro Cuba. Juan Belt of the U.S. Agency for International
Development contended that Cuba's nascent oil industry could prove
essential in the transition to a free-market economic system. Ralph
Galliano of the Institute for the Study of U.S.-Cuba Policy said that
the key to transforming the Cuban economy is the establishment of
private property rights.
For a video, transcript, and summary of this event, please visit
http://www.aei.org/publications/filter.all,pubID.25827/pub_detail.asp
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