Policy Shift Towards Cuba?
Republican Senator Richard Lugar, one of the ranking members of the Foreign Relations Committee, has suggested that the embargo against Cuba may be obsolete. He said:
After 47 years … the unilateral embargo on Cuba has failed to achieve its stated purpose of bringing democracy to the Cuban people.
While on the surface this sounds like the start of an important reversal in U.S. foreign policy towards Cuba, one has to wonder the true motives of such a move, if the embargo were to be lifted. The “stated purpose” of the sanctions are more or less to punish Fidel Castro – and by proxy the Cuban people – for not having a democratic government. The truth of the matter, of course, is far more complex, and has more than a little to do with the fact that the Castro regime ousted the U.S. installed government led by President Batista. It also had much to do with the Cold War and the ideological opposition between so-called “democratic” and “communist” nations. The shift of power from Batista to Castro also meant a change in how the U.S. conducted business in Cuba – that is, it would no longer function primarily as a resort for wealthy tourists while the majority of the Cuban people remained in abject poverty.
Castro’s success in his revolution, and the long-standing government that followed, in achieving a better livelihood for his people, is subject to debate. There are arguments both that favor him and condemn him, from Cubans and foreigners alike. The former refugees who relocated to the United States have mostly condemn Castro and his regime, while most people still living within Cuba appear to support him. However, those still living in Cuba who do not support Castro may not be the most vocal, so it is hard to garner a true consensus.
Regardless of Castro’s success as a leader, the one thing that is certain, is that the U.S. embargo has been devastating to Cuba. As Lugar has pointed out, it has done absolutely nothing to accelerate Cuba’s move towards “democracy” – a term here that means “government amenable to U.S. ideology and interests”. But since this much became clear one, five, ten, and twenty years after the sanctions were imposed, one has to wonder why U.S. officials are now coming to this realization – or at least acknowledging it publicly.
With the U.S. economy in shambles, it is unlikely that this potential ideological shift is an unrelated phenomenon. The Senate Republicans have drafted a report called Changing Cuba Policy — In the United States National Interest, the mere title of which makes it clear that this shift would have at least as much to do with the United States’ personal interests as it does with ameliorating the gross injustices perpetrated against the Cuban people.
If this does signal a new era of U.S.-Cuban relations, it will be interesting to see how the dialogue is framed – whether the U.S. will eat crow after all the rhetoric on democracy.