By Kim Ghattas
BBC News, Washington
The election of Barack Obama has energised those seeking a change in
relations between the US and Cuba.
And with so many thorny, complex issues awaiting the incoming president,
analysts say Cuba might provide Mr Obama with an easy opportunity to
bring about the kind of change to America's foreign policy that the
world and Latin America in particular are waiting for.
From Russia to Iran, Iraq and Pakistan, "none of these crises will
allow President Obama to signal swiftly to the world the kind of changes
he proposes in American foreign policy," write Lawrence Wilkerson,
former chief-of-staff to Colin Powell, and Patrick Doherty, from the New
American Foundation.
"In contrast, US-Cuba policy is low-hanging fruit: though of marginal
importance domestically, it could be changed immediately at little cost."
Younger generation
Hopes have been raised by statements made by Barack Obama himself and
policies spelled out on his campaign website.
A big factor driving the calls for change is the growing number of
Cuban-Americans who are eager for more contact with the homeland, want
to help their families there improve their living standards and believe
this will help bring about change inside Cuba.
Attitudes are especially changing amongst the younger generation, which
does not bear the scars of life under Fidel Castro - but some older
Cuban-American have also had a change of heart.
Carlos Saladrigas is a 60-year-old Cuban-American from Miami. He is a
life-long Republican, but voted for Mr Obama this time round.
Speaking to the BBC earlier this year, he said: "You don't have to be
very smart to figure out that after 50 years of trying something that
hasn't worked, maybe it's time to try something new."
He said the best way to bring about change inside Cuba was to allow
Cuban-Americans to become the agents of change by letting them visit the
island.
On Mr Obama's campaign website, the section on Cuba states that he will
"empower our best ambassadors of freedom by allowing unlimited
Cuban-American family travel and remittances to the island".
A quick way to send a signal of change would indeed be for Barack Obama
to lift some of the restrictions imposed by President George W Bush in 2004.
Mr Bush limited the number of visits Cuban-Americans were permitted to
make to the communist island from one a year down to one every three years.
He also reduced the amount of remittances they could take with them to
Cuba from $3,000 to $300.
Embargo
A new report published by the Brookings Institution in Washington makes
even further recommendations on Cuba, advising almost total reversal of
US policy.
The report, written by prominent policy-makers from the US and Latin
America, advocates lifting all restrictions on travel to Cuba by
Americans and recommends removing Cuba from the State Department's list
of countries sponsoring terrorism.
While Mr Obama may not go this far initially, there is little doubt that
he will make changes to a policy that has put the US at odds with most
of the world.
In October, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution urging the US
to lift its trade embargo against Havana, for the 17th year in a row.
Only Israel and Palau joined the US in supporting the embargo, with 185
countries voting against it.
A rapprochement with Cuba would also help improve ties with Latin America.
On his website, Mr Obama states that "George Bush's policy in the
Americas has been negligent toward our friends, ineffective with our
adversaries, disinterested in the challenges that matter in people's
lives, and incapable of advancing our interests in the region".
"As the Americas have changed, we have sat on the sideline, offering no
compelling vision and creating a vacuum for demagogues to advance an
anti-American agenda."
The Bush administration rejects the charge that it has neglected Latin
America, pointing out that the president has travelled nine times to the
region.
But there is clearly room for improvement, according to Mr Wilkerson and
Mr Doherty.
"Our Cuba policy is also an obstacle to striking a new relationship with
the nations of Latin America," they write.
"But until Washington ends the extraordinary sanctions that comprise the
Cuba embargo, Latin America will remain at arms-length, and the problems
in our backyard - Hugo Chavez, drugs, immigration, energy insecurity -
will simply fester."
Economic challenge
Supporters of the embargo and the tough policies on Cuba say any
rapprochement with Cuba would be a sign of weakness, unilateral
concessions to an oppressive regime with nothing in return.
Cuba has welcomed some of Mr Obama's proposals and Raul Castro has
offered to free political dissidents in exchange for the release of five
convicted Cuban spies in US prisons as a gesture to pave the way for a
meeting with the incoming president.
Mr Obama is unlikely to make such a deal, but Marifeli Perez-Stable,
writing in the Miami Herald in December, suggested that it may be
possible to exchange the "Five Heroes" (as they are known in Cuba) for
US fugitives living in Cuba.
Rarely before has the potential for change been so tangible, in US
policy towards Cuba but also in the attitudes inside the island itself.
After a devastating hurricane season, a worldwide economic downturn and
a drop in oil prices, which impacts how much support Cuba can get from
its oil-rich ally Venezuela, the Castro brothers, both of whom are old,
may be more malleable.
Mr Obama is expected to travel to Trinidad and Tobago in April to attend
the Summits of the Americas.
There have been calls for him to announce the policy shift towards Cuba
ahead of the gathering so that the meeting can be the start of a new era
in Washington's ties with Latin America.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/7807348.stm
Published: 2009/01/02 11:31:57 GMT
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7807348.stm?ad=1
No comments:
Post a Comment