Ralph De La Cruz | Columnist
September 9, 2008
Any school kid who's lived the bloody-nose reality of the playground
knows: Want to make friends of an enemy?
Offer a hand when he's down.
Cuba, the perennial foil to the United States, isn't just down these
days. It's in the gutter with a busted lip and a broken nose.
Economy in a shambles. Fidel Castro, the personification of its
nationalism, dying. The country seemingly adrift.
And now, bleeding from Hurricane Ike, a Category 3 storm — the second
major hurricane to hit within a week.
It could offer a remarkable moment in the United States' relationship
with Cuba. An opportunity for goodwill to start nudging aside decades of
failed policies.
Policies such as the embargo have blocked not just dollars, but American
ideas and ideals, from the island for more than four-and-a-half decades.
Now, many of my fellow Cuban-Americans would vehemently dispute my claim
and argue on behalf of the embargo. And have. They've convinced
politicians theirs is a nearly unanimous view.
That's why our Cuba strategy is one of the few failed federal policies
that has been allowed to languish for decades without any truly honest
evaluation.
But beware of political perceptions. Between Cubans who have grown up
away from the political maelstrom that is Miami's Cuban community and a
younger generation that is more emotionally removed from the Cuba
"issue," there are plenty of cracks to that perceived unanimity.
So why not try something different, particularly at this critical
bloody-nose moment? When the island is reeling from back-to-back-to-back
hits: flooding from Tropical Storm Fay, a bashing by Category 4
Hurricane Gustav and now Ike.
"Those are two different issues — the hurricane and the embargo," said
Sandy Acosta Cox, spokeswoman for the influential Cuban American
National Foundation, a player in keeping the embargo going.
The foundation continues to back the embargo but advocates a moratorium
on the Bush administration's 2004 restrictions that make it tougher for
Cuban-Americans to visit the island and send money to family members.
South Florida's three Cuban-American Republicans in Congress — Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen and brothers Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart — say the law
already allows humanitarian groups to provide aid.
"But those goods have to go through the Cuban government," Acosta Cox
said. "Many times those goods end up on store shelves. We want Cubans to
be able to send help directly to their families. To take it to them if
they feel the need."
The moratorium is a good compromise. It's not what I'd like, which is
the termination of the embargo. And it's not what ultra-conservatives
want, which is absolutely no relaxing of the embargo.
Although she's been a proponent of lifting all travel restrictions,
Silvia Wilhelm, executive director of the Cuban American Commission for
Family Rights, doesn't want to even bring up the embargo.
"Because that would turn it into a political issue," she said, "and
we're dealing with humanitarian relief. We are looking at a real tragic
situation in Cuba. This is not a political situation."
"It should be our policy to support the Cuban people," Acosta Cox said.
"Well, here's an opportunity."
An opportunity too long in the making. Hopefully not as long in the taking.
Ralph De La Cruz can be reached at rdelacruz@SunSentinel.com,
561-243-6522 or 954-356-4727.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-ralph0909pnsep09,0,2717205.column
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