Beautiful Horizons

How Bush and Anti-Castro Hardliners Hurt Their Compatriots and Are Anti-Family

Marcela Sánchez nails the Bush adminstration's travel restrictions for Cuban-Americans for their cruel, anti-family agenda:

Sgt. Carlos F. Lazo returned from Iraq in March and wants to see his children. But the combat medic and veteran of the battle for Fallujah, whose meritorious service earned him a Bronze Star, cannot because they live in Cuba.

Strict U.S. travel restrictions adopted a year ago limit family visits to the island to once every three years. Lazo, who was in Cuba in 2003 and whose youngest child has been in the hospital over the last few weeks, must wait until next year. By that time, he may be back in Iraq.

"We are telling a guy who fought for freedom that he doesn't have the freedom to see a sick child,'' said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., in an interview. Dorgan introduced an amendment this week to allow at least humanitarian exceptions to the travel ban (the Senate rejected the measure Wednesday night). He added that the White House informed him that Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick is looking into the matter.

The hardliners talk tough:

But if Lazo is not getting far it is because he is fighting much more than a bureaucratic process or politicians reticent to look soft on Fidel Castro. He is confronting the resistance of his own compatriots in this country, people such as Jose Cohen.

Cohen and Lazo have much in common. Both were born in Castro's Cuba 40 years ago and by the early 1990s, each had fled the regime on a homemade raft. Both have successfully settled in this country and both say they long for the chance to see the children they left behind.

But Cohen has a completely different take on the restrictions and believes that Lazo's fight to ease them is a "joke.'' Cohen identifies rather with los historicos -- as the older exiles who arrived just after Castro's revolution are known -- who generally remain convinced that what's needed are more restrictions, not fewer.

In Cohen's words, "the hard line has never been applied'' against Castro. If anything, Washington has been too "easy'' on the totalitarian regime. "To travel to Cuba is to do a favor to the tyrant,'' he said, even if it would mean an opportunity to see the children he left behind 11 years ago.

I'm glad he's not my father. If I had children in that situation, I'd do anything to see him. I'll leave the last word to Sergeant Lazo:

Cohen remains skeptical of the positive impact that travelers from the United States can make in Cuba, unless of course they are with "the 82nd division.'' The U.S. Army "should go to get Castro out,'' Cohen said, "just like they did with Saddam Hussein in Iraq.''

Lazo couldn't disagree more with such a sentiment. Despite many of his compatriots' very real struggle to escape Castro and start anew in the United States, Lazo said, "they don't know what war is.''

I can't stand Castro and have no use for his apologists, but I wonder how many innocent Cubans Cohen is willing to see killed to get rid of Castro. Lazo is right: Cohen doesn't have a clue as to what war is.

Luis Posada Carriles - The Latest

Lawrence Barcella, one of the prosecutors in the Letelier assassination has stated that Luis Posada Carriles, while present at the meeting in which, among other acts of terrorism, the Letelier assassination was planned had "nothing to do with the Letelier assassination."

I didn't think that he was involved with it. One would hope that if he was that he wouldn't have been treated with kidgloves and been used as a CIA asset in the 1980's in Central America (although nothing that the Reagan administration did in the 1980's would surprise me). According to the Miami Herald he's being questioned in El Paso, TX. Meanwhile as the Bush administration dithers, Chávez and Castro are getting lots of mileage out of this.

Posada is an embarrassment to the US. The Bush administration missed an excellent opportunity to speak out on this when Mireya Moscoso pardoned Posada and the others. while I find Castro's sense of high dudgeon on this matter to be frankly, hypocritical, Bush has only himself to blame when people accuse him of paying lip service to moral clarity.

Castro Moving Away From the Dollar

Fidel Castro is seeking to limit the use of the dollar in Cuba by assessing a 10% commission for exchanging dollars.

Foreign executives said the impact on their operations will be negligible. Western diplomats saw the announcement as a clever bid to rake in dollars the cash-strapped state needs to import food and oil.

As of Nov. 8, the Central Bank decreed that Cubans, foreign residents and tourists will have to use locally printed convertible pesos, pegged at present to the dollar, for cash purchases in stores, restaurants and other businesses.

Both of the comments in the first paragraph are probably true, but that doesn't stop Bloomberg.com from swallowing the Bush administration triumphalism here:

Castro's move is "an act of economic desperation and a clear signal that President Bush's strengthened policies towards Cuba have hurt the Castro regime,'' Juan Carlos Zarate, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crime, said in a statement.

What the Bloomberg report fails to mention and the Reuters report does mention is this:

A 10-percent commission will be charged for changing dollars into pesos, but not for other currencies. [my emphasis]

Advantage, Reuters. So what I imagine Castro, the old bastard, is trying to do is a twofold scheme:

1.) Get a fast infusion of dollars as people rush to beat the deadline and pocketing ten cents on the dollar for a while as dollar remittances continue.

2.) Shift his focus from the dollar to the Euro and if the folks at Bloomberg would bother to read their own website, they might have seen the case for this.

What I think will eventually happen is that the Cuban-American community in Miami will start setting up a system to send remittances in Euros and who can blame them? Meanwhile, these comments really encapsulate the situation:

Western observers said the measure would allow the Central Bank to quickly absorb dollars now on the island.

"They just want to get those dollars out from under the mattresses and get people to start using Mickey Mouse money," said a European diplomat, who asked not to be named.

[...]

Ordinary Cubans, facing the 10 percent levy, said they were paying for the ideological war between Washington and Havana. Some said they would ask relatives in Miami to start sending euros.

"Fidel wants to recover the greenbacks and squeeze the people," grumbled Alfredo, a cafeteria employee.

[...]

Some Cubans said they were not concerned about the switch.

"I don't think about it. I'm leaving the country," a Havana resident said.

I couldn't agree more with all three of them.

Much Ado About Nothing

You know I detest the man about as much as any freedom loving person, but this really seems like much ado about nothing.

They're going to have to plunge a stake in his heart when he dies.

Castro Is Only a Problem for Cuba?

So Colin Powell says that "Fidel Castro is a problem for the Cuban people. I don't view him as that much of a problem for the rest of the hemisphere" and John Kerry jumps all over him for making that statement:

Kerry, whose campaign hopes to siphon even a sliver of the reliably Republican voting bloc from President Bush, rapidly assailed the remarks, calling it ``shocking that the Bush administration is telling the world that Fidel Castro no longer poses a problem for this hemisphere.

''Fidel Castro is a tyrant who brutally oppresses the Cuban people,'' Kerry said in a statement. "Castro's Cuba is the last bastion of communism in our region and a major obstacle to the triumph of democracy in this hemisphere.''

The Bush campaign referred calls to the White House and a spokesman could not immediately be reached.

So much for rapid response. Meanwhile from the right side of the blogosphere who were quick to excoriate John Kerry for speaking pejoratively about the Varela Project (not the project itself, mind you, but the fact that it resulted in a crackdown): dead silence.

Meanwhile, the State Department has responded thusly:

A senior state department official said that Powell ''chaired a presidential commission that makes freedom in Cuba a national priority for the first time,'' adding that Bush had implemented tough travel restrictions against the island nation.

Yes, the policy that the Secretary of State's Chief of Staff referred to as the ''Dumbest policy on the face of the Earth.''

Perhaps Powell should listen to one of his kookier undersecretaries, John Bolton:

In March 2002, John Bolton, undersecretary of state for nonproliferation, asserted that "the United States believed that Cuba had at least a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort" and had also "provided dual-use biotechnology to other rogue states."

I thought that Bolton was full of nonsense then and now, but the point could be made that Castro is a danger to the rest of the hemisphere in that he promotes a bifurcated path to development: some genuine improvements in the quality of life of some of his citizens and a corrupt, power mad repressive environment designed to stifle and crush dissent. The Americas need freedom above all. The citizens of Cuba deserve a genuine choice when they elect their leaders and they deserve to be able to read what they wish and say what they wish without fear of imprisonment and torture.

There are still the witless in the world who somehow think that Castro's way is the way to genuine progress. As I have said before, they are the other side of the argument that Pinochetistas make that their St. Augusto of Valparaíso helped Chile's economy. Both arguments make as much sense as arguing that Norman Bates was fond of his mother and a skilled taxidermist.

More Softening of Cuban-American Support for Bush

You'vo got to love this - unless you're Karl Rove:

Speaking at a Democratic Party rally Tuesday in Little Havana, a prominent Miami exile figure denounced President Bush as leading ``probably the worst administration we've ever had on Cuban policy.''

The remark by Joe Garcia, former executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation, signals what could be an unprecedented battle for Hispanic voters in the upcoming presidential race.

''Part of it is our fault,'' Garcia said. ``Because he's been saying exactly what we want to hear -- words like freedom, democracy, liberty. But he hasn't done anything to bring this about in Cuba.''

Garcia left CANF this month to accept a post with the New Democrat Network, a recruitment arm of the Democratic National Party that is launching a $6 million media campaign targeting Hispanics.

All I can say is wow! Things are not nearly as monolithic as Rove and the Republicans would like to believe.

The event drew about 200 people, but catered to Cuban-American voters such as Rosanne Vazquez, a Miami Lakes physical therapist.

''I've always been a Republican, but I'm undecided this year,'' said Vazquez, 35.

``Bush has done an OK job, but I'm concerned about the war.''

Vazquez said her friend Mariela Fuentes, also Cuban American, persuaded her to attend.

''I was raised in a Republican home,'' said Fuentes, a New Jersey native who later moved to Miami.

"And then I got an education. Now that I know better, I'm a Democrat.'' [my emphasis]

Ouch!

I really think that this is more of a generational shift than anything else. Consider this:

Garcia previously served as chairman of the Public Services Commission under Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles. He said wanted to be involved in the 2004 election.

"We should advocate for a better long-term Cuba policy with anyone who will listen," Garcia said. "The Democrats are listening."

Garcia had the support of CANF chairman Jorge Mas Santos.

"We don't want the extreme left of the Democratic Party to guide the Cuba policy or thinking on Cuba," Mas Santos said. "It is important to keep all the bases covered because we don't know who is going to win in November and we can't be so irresponsible as to put Cuba's fate in the hands of one person or one party."

Very interesting - and prudent, if you ask me.

Bush's Support Among Cuban-Americans Waning?

It's been a busy week and I really want to get some rest, but I did want to call your attention to Barry Ritholtz's post about polling among Cuban-Americans in Florida.

Check it out. I should be back Saturday.

Sloppy, Sloppy, Sloppy

I really didn't comment about President Bush's address in Tampa alleging that Fidel Castro has been luring sex tourists to Cuba. In today's Los Angeles Times, however, this quote attributed to Castro by President Bush in the speech is worth noting:

''The dictator welcomes sex tourism,'' said Bush, who used a speech devoted to the crime of human trafficking to lash into Castro, in an apparent defense of his controversial election-year crackdown on travel to Cuba.

Bush said Castro ''bragged about the industry,'' quoting him as saying: "Cuba has the cleanest and most educated prostitutes in the world.'' [my emphasis]

The White House cited the source of the quote as a paper written by Charles Trumbull who was then an undergraduate at Dartmouth. According to Trumbull, however, Bush's use of the quote (which Trumbull says was actually paraphrased) was not just out of context, but completely offbase:

But regardless of the exact wording, Trumbull says the president's speech misconstrued the meaning, which he says should have been clear from his paper.

"It shows that they didn't read much of the article," Trumbull said in a telephone interview.

According to Trumbull, who conducted field research in Cuba, prostitution boomed in the Caribbean nation after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, providing an important source of currency for the Cuban economy. Castro, who outlawed prostitution when he took power in 1959, initially had few resources to combat it. But beginning around 1996, Cuban authorities began to crack down on the practice.

Although prostitution still exists, Trumbull said, it is far less visible, and it would be inaccurate to say the government promotes it.

Even when Castro made the remarks, Trumbull said, he was not boasting about Cuba's prostitutes as sex workers.

"Castro was merely trying to emphasize some of the successes of the revolution by saying 'even our prostitutes our educated,' " Trumbull said. "Castro was trying to defend his revolution against negative publicity. He was in no way bragging about the opportunities for sex tourism on the island."

Here is what Castro actually said:

"There are hookers, but prostitution is not allowed in our country," Castro told Cuba's National Assembly in July 1992, according to a translation by the British Broadcasting Corp. "There are no women forced to sell themselves to a man, to a foreigner, to a tourist. Those who do so do it on their own, voluntarily…. We can say that they are highly educated hookers and quite healthy, because we are the country with the lowest number of AIDS cases."

I have to agree with this comment:

Julia Sweig, a Cuba expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, said it was one thing for an undergraduate to include an unsubstantiated quotation in a college paper, but it was another for the White House to include one in a presidential speech.

"That's incredibly sloppy, and it shows that when it comes to Cuba policy, they are willing to cut huge corners," Sweig said.

This makes me angry. It makes me angry because there are plenty of legitimate reasons to criticize Castro's regime. In their haste to come up with something sensational to appeal to his base in Florida, Bush's staff has sacrificed credibility on the altar of political expediency. Who benefits from this? I would imagine Fidel Castro does. The Bush administration has yet again enabled Castro to portray this as a dispute between the United States and Cuba and taken the focus again off his brutal rule. Despite the public outrage in Cuba, I have a feeling that Castro is puffing on a cigar saying "God, I hope that this cretin gets reelected! He's been the best thing for me since Elián Gonzalez."

This does nothing to help the cause of freedom and democracy in Cuba. N-O-T-H-I-N-G.

Froomkin On Cuba

Michael Froomkin - who has been doing yeoman's work on the Abu Ghraib and the torture memo issues - has a good wrap-up on some recent news concerning Cuban-American relations and some not-quite-what-they-expected reactions from the exile community.

Cuba Roundup

The day before yesterday the New York Times ran this article about the Spanish petroleum company, Repsol YPF establishing a joint venture with Cuba to look for oil off of Cuba's Northwest coast. Obviously it's a long way between looking and finding oil, but this could change the monetary equation for Castro's Cuba far more than US tourist dollars. Even Dick Cheney's former firm is hungering for a taste:

Halliburton, the nation's largest oil services company, is among the wary watchers. John Gibson, president of Halliburton's energy services group, recently said in a speech to employees that he favored lifting economic sanctions against Cuba, as well as Libya and Iran.

"Sanctions are a very U.S.-centric thing, and I believe that free enterprise will establish better relationships," Mr. Gibson said, according to The Associated Press. "There are foreign companies making money in those countries, and I think American companies should have a shot at those markets as well."

On the other hand, if oil were to be discovered, it would strip Castro of what little credibility remains for his excuse for all the ills of Cuba: the US embargo.

Meanwhile, Oswaldo Payá is urging exiles in Miami to join Cubans on the island to take part in planning for the nation's transition to democracy:

Payá's 48-page Transition Project outlines proposals on everything from human rights to reconciliation in Cuba. The project is meant to provide the framework for changes if the Cuban government ever honors Payá's petition drive, known as the Varela Project, seeking a referendum on democratic reforms.

[...]

Payá's Transition Project outlines proposals for public health, education, transportation and economic reforms. It suggests a general political amnesty, the abolition of the death penalty and the demilitarization of society.

Remarks collected from exiles will be forwarded to Havana in November and added to opinions gathered across the island. A final draft will be turned over to the National Assembly as early as February.

I'm sure they'll do what they did before and not act on it. Nevertheless, it's another terrific idea.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives voted to overturn restrictions on gift parcels that Cuban-Americans can send to family members in Cuba:

The 221-194 vote was won by a coalition in which Democrats were joined by nearly four dozen farm-state and free-trade Republicans to rebuff the president. The vote came just four months from an Election Day in which Bush would like to once again win Florida, the pivotal state in his 2000 victory, by gaining the support of that state's Cuban-Americans.

The House vote followed a familiar pattern of recent years in which the Republican-run House - and sometimes the Senate - has voted to block Bush policies restricting trade and travel with Cuba, which communist leader Fidel Castro has now run for more than four decades. Last year, both chambers voted to end curbs on travel to Cuba by Americans, only to see lawmakers back away after Bush issued a veto threat.

Wednesday's debate was an emotional one, as the debates over Cuba policy often are.

"It's hard to think of an economic sanction that does more harm to the welfare of families in Cuba, or does more to make the U.S. seem mean-spirited toward families who already have the misfortune to live under communism," said Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., one of the sponsors.

Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., a Cuban-American, said the proposal was "dishonest" and "condescending," adding, "It seeks to undermine an entire policy President Bush has just implemented ... to hasten the Democratic transition in Cuba."

Somehow the words travel ban and embargo don't seem to have hastened anything in Cuba and certainly not a democratic transition.