Reaching out to Cuba can end this cold war

Brian Till

Sunday, Sept. 21, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Fidel Castro said last week the devastation wrought by Hurricane Gustav reminded him of desolation he witnessed after nuclear bombs were dropped on Japan in 1945. The Red Cross estimates that repairing wreckage left by Hurricanes Ike and Gustav, both of which hit the island this month at the height of their strength, will total between $3 billion and $4 billion. The Castro regime places damage at more than $5 billion.

The nation’s old, brittle architecture has been hit the hardest, with the United Nations estimating 450,000 homes have been damaged and another 63,000 have been destroyed. A friend staying near the center of the island lamented that her 85-year-old grandfather had never seen such devastation.

“We’ve been without electricity for seven days; the only way to cook is with electric stovetops, so that’s been impossible. We have had to improvise. You can’t find candles at night. There’s a shortage of water. On state TV all they say (is) it’s nothing huge, it’s OK, we’ve been through many hurricanes. They say the damage is 90 percent repaired.”

In a country where monthly salaries typically amount to less than $20, it’s difficult to imagine the island rebuilding anytime soon. Cuba’s citrus, coffee and sugar cane crops were all severely damaged by the storms. Raul, unlike his brother, Fidel, who was known for chasing storms in his jeep to assess damage with his own eyes as soon as humanly possible, was largely absent from public view.

Our own nation has gone rather silent on the Cuba issue as well, with especially little coming out of the presidential campaign trail. Or the Obarnum & Pailey circus, as it’s become.

The Bush administration — after quickly responding with a statement by Condoleezza Rice that “lifting the embargo would be inappropriate” — has since allowed a minimal flow of remittances that were capped almost immediately after reaching $250,000.

But the administration’s initial response, offering $100,000 in aid and an assessment team, didn’t go without notice. After the second hurricane, Ike, ran the length of the island, the administration upped its offer to $5 million. I asked Alberto Perez of the U.N. Development Program in Cuba how the offer was received.

“Many Cubans think that if the United States gives Cuba’s opposition leaders living in the United States $45 million per year, and gives the Cuban people $5 million after something like this, the feeling is that this figure is quite insufficient and ridiculous. I don’t remember exactly what the first offer was, but the feeling on the street was that it was something insulting,” Perez told me.

It’s important to recognize that the U.S. policy toward Cuba is symptomatic of larger problems. Latin America has experienced a strong shift toward the political left in recent years: Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia leading one direction of change, advocating a vehemently anti-capitalist and anti-U.S. future for the region, while Brazil’s Luiz Lula da Silva advocates a market-friendlier and less anti-U.S. approach.

The two models find themselves competing for hearts and minds in broader Latin America, the debate largely hinging on the views of the United States and the viability of capitalism. For both groups, however, Cuba represents a symbol of failed American involvement in the region. Responsibility for the plight of the Cuban people is largely charged as resting with the United States, not as a fault of the Castros or failed communist principle. Reevaluating our stance on Cuba could play a major role in determining how our own hemisphere looks at us, and would likely have consequences for defining the modern political left in Latin America.

For those concerned with pulling the Castros from power and bringing about more human rights for the Cuban people, a reevaluation of the embargo is also worthwhile. If we look at the history of aggressive trade restrictions with Cuba, Iraq, North Korea and Iran, it’s not difficult to see a pattern.

Sanctions have hardened dictatorial leaders again and again, populations suffering while reckless foreign policy and repression continue. Employing capitalism, however, has had a much less predictable path. Scholars often look to the success of capitalism and democratic ideas in the Eastern Bloc when given the chance to compete against entrenched communist bureaucracy. Massachusetts Congressman Jim McGovern often jokes that the two words Cuban hard-liners fear most are “spring break.” I think there’s some truth to that.

“People are trying to come out of this hole with dignity, and they will,” Alberto Perez told me. “They will work hard because they know they have to. They will rebuild Cuba.”

Shouldn’t the United States seize this opportunity to lend a hand?

Brian Till, one of the nation’s youngest syndicated columnists, writes for Creators Syndicate. He also is a research associate for the New America Foundation, a think tank in Washington.