RELATIONS
Play a part in Cuba's future
BY VICKI HUDDLESTON and CARLOS PASCUAL
www.brookings.edu
Fidel Castro might borrow Mark Twain's line ''The report of my death was
an exaggeration,'' were he inclined to dispel the rumors and exaggerated
pronouncements of his political demise and death. His health improving,
Castro could be back in power by the time he celebrates his 81st
birthday on Aug. 13.
With the campaign for president well under way, Republican candidates --
and the Democrats will not be far behind -- are already adopting the
anti-Castro rhetoric and stiff support for the embargo that has helped
elect U.S. presidents, members of Congress and Florida's governors.
The Bush administration -- by dictating policy and giving little in
return -- has so far stuck to our hundred-year-old vice of treating Cuba
as if it were a wayward 51st state. Neither side of this equation --
dictating or giving little -- has produced positive results for U.S.
foreign policy; it has merely transformed Cuba policy into a domestic
political issue.
Whether it's Fidel or Raúl Castro -- or some combination of the two --
time is running out on U.S. policy on Cuba. During the next five years,
there will be an ongoing political transition in Cuba. Fidel may return
to power, only to be followed once again by Raúl if Fidel's health again
deteriorates. And, Raúl at 75, is unlikely to rule long. As the
inherently unstable situation continues, the United States can sit on
the side lines, allowing the Revolution to regenerate and renew itself,
or we can encourage reform by reducing Cuba's isolation.
Oil reserves
If we continue to stubbornly insist that Cuba must first magically
transform itself into a functioning democracy before we talk, we will be
out of luck. The appeal of our aid, trade and investment will slip away.
We will become irrelevant because Cuban, Venezuelan and other foreign
companies are now developing huge offshore oil reserves. When the oil
begins to flow, the income it generates will reinforce the ruling elite
by creating jobs for Cuba's restless youth and by improving lives.
Cubans will no longer need the investment and jobs that Americans --
especially Cuban Americans -- could provide.
Perhaps it is time for American oil companies to lead the way in opening
up Cuba? After all, the expropriation of these companies led President
Eisenhower to impose the first comprehensive sanctions.
It will take courage and vision to change course, but the alternative is
that neither the United States nor Cuban Americans will play a part in
Cuba's future. In Poland, Hungry, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union
before the fall of the Iron Curtain, our contacts spread the idea that
there was an alternative way of life and helped reinforce internal
discontent with communism's failure. The following actions, although
modest, would allow the administration to seize the initiative after a
half-century siesta:
• Modify our isolationist policies -- allow family and people-to-people
visits -- as their out-reach will reduce social tensions, allowing for
some reforms during the ongoing and uncertain transitional years.
• Renew bilateral cooperation on anti-narcotics, crime, migration and
preservation of the environment. These objectives are as much in our
interest as they are in Cuba's.
• Offer incentives for internal reform, such as permitting direct
telecommunications links and the sale of communications equipment.
• Encourage the Organization of American States to begin a dialogue with
the Cuban government about the political and economic reforms that Cuba
must undertake to again become an active member.
When Ronald Reagan challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to ''tear down that
wall,'' he did so from a position of moral superiority. He believed that
the values of democracy and a market economy would prevail over
authoritarianism and communism when people had a chance to be exposed to
both. If, as a nation, we still believe in these core values, the
implication should be clear -- we should seek contact with the Cuban
people to empower them to take charge of their future.
The price of partisan politics will be to persist in a failed policy
that will continue to give life to Castro's legacy, thereby preventing
the contacts that would empower the Cuban people to take charge of their
future.
Ambassador Vicki Huddleston, a nonresident senior fellow at the
Brookings Institution, served as principal officer of the U.S. Interests
Section in Havana (1999-2002). Carlos Pascual is vice president at the
Brookings Institution and previously served as coordinator for
reconstruction and stabilization at the State Department (2004-2005).
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