by Ricardo Chavira
Raúl Castro
For most of her 63 years Havana native Carmen was “a true revolutionary. But these days, her fervor has been displaced by rage at Cuba’s seemingly eternal, official crushing poverty. She is also angered by Washington’s indifference to Cuba’s plight.
“Is this revolution?” she asks dismissively, gesturing around her dirt-floored shack. Her daughter Yasmin is blind. Carmen cares for her. Together they receive the equivalent of $5 a month in government aid, not nearly enough to buy increasingly expensive food.
Carmen is not alone in having to get by on crumbs. Nor is she alone in being overcome by exasperation at Havana’s and Washington’s policy sclerosis. She wonders why the United States, a bastion of enlightenment and generosity, has stuck to its Cold War policy of isolating Cuba.
“I don’t know why (former U.S. President Jimmy) Carter and other leaders there are not acting now. It’s time for the United States to do something different here. The embargo is just like a foot on our necks. “Why not try talking to Cuban leaders?” she asks.
Not surprisingly, President Bush is not disposed to talks. Speaking March 7, he lamented that only a handful of countries had joined the United States in isolating Cuba.
Meanwhile, much of the rest of top development aid official said after a recent visit to Cuba that he would work to get EU to drop diplomatic sanctions. “I think the necessary conditions exist to open a new era in relations,” said Louis Michel.
Most world leaders have figured out what Bush and much of official Washington are working overtime to ignore. Fidel Castro is dying. His brother Raul has become head of state and likely will enact some modest economic reforms.
Raúl, dour and ill at ease as a politician, is not expected to play more than a transitional role. Cuban and U.S. officials privately say a mildly reformist coalition will run the country, probably within a few years. Finance Minister Carlos Lage and Legislative Chief Ricardo Alarcón are most often mentioned as part of this group.
Whatever the exact lineup, major change in Cuba is inevitable and rapidly approaching. Popular restiveness is palpable and growing. With the Castro brothers gone, one thing is certain. The long-silent Cuban people will make themselves heard.
They want to earn enough to feed a family. Meager rationed goods are insufficient.
Most consumer goods are priced in so-called convertible pesos, or chavitos, pegged 20 cents more than a U.S. dollar. “This system is crazy,” fumes housewife Marina San Martin. “It is impossible to buy what we need.”
The Cuban leadership is wary of loosening political controls so long as Washington maintains a policy whose stated goal is the replacement of the current government. That has been underscored by countless covert operations to subvert the regime and, of course, the longest-running trade and travel embargo in modern history.
Salary increases and unlimited remittances, severely limited by U.S. sanctions, would greatly help. Washington could permit unrestricted travel by Cuban Americans, who would bring money and consumer goods for family members. This would be an important first step toward a pragmatic change. It would buy goodwill for the United States, which has all but vanished.
It’s time to engage Cuba. Havana officials are eager to sit down with their U.S. counterparts to work out the differences that have made Cubans the most distant of our neighbors. Instead, Bush and other traditionalists talk only of the need to bring democracy to Cuba. Here’s what Bush had to say in his March 7 speech: “A few weeks ago reports of the supposed retirement of Cuba’s dictator initially led many to believe that the time had finally come for the United States to change our policy on Cuba and improve our relations with the regime. That sentiment is exactly backward. To improve relations, what needs to change is not the United States; what needs to change is Cuba. Cuba’s government must begin a process as peaceful democratic change. They must release all political prisoners. They must have respect for human rights in word and deed, and pave the way for free and fair elections.”
These sentiments reflect wishful thinking at best. At worst, they are delusional. Given the siege mentality in Havana, the leadership will not open up politically until they are on the road to normalization with Washington. That will not happen until something revolutionary happens: two longtime antagonists sit down and talk.
Cuba’s tragedy will continue until that occurs. Hispanic Link.
(Hispanic Link contributing columnist Ricardo Chavira has visited Cuba more than 40 times as a correspondent and is writing a book about the island’s people. He teaches Latin American studies at the University of California-/ rvine and journalism at California State University- Fullerton.)
