Beautiful Horizons

Historical Ignorance

What Greg Weeks said here. Every word, especially this portion:

The assumption that the United States can and should decide the fate of other countries is deeply ingrained in our collective psyches. It also has led to some of the most disastrous policy decisions of the last century.

Newt Gingrich claims to be an historian, but his comments show an appalling lack of basic historical facts, not the least of which is a portion of the agreement made by JFK to resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis:

The US will make a statement in the framework of the Security Council in reference to Cuba as follows: it will declare that the United States of America will respect the inviolability of Cuban borders, its sovereignty, that it take the pledge not to interfere in internal affairs, not to intrude themselves and not to permit our territory to be used as a bridgehead for the invasion of Cuba, and will restrain those who would plan to carry an aggression against Cuba, either from US territory or from the territory of other countries neighboring to Cuba."

This is also not to mention such inconvenient facts in the past such as the Platt Amendment. One wonders if the letters PhD after Newt Gingrich's name stands for piled high and deep.

A Couple of Amens

What Johan Cruyff said here.

What Greg said here.

Fidel Castro's Sister Worked for the CIA

I suppose there won't be a family reunion any time soon:

The younger sister of Fidel and Raúl Castro, Juanita Castro, says she collaborated with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency against her brothers’ rule in Cuba before going into exile in Miami in 1964.

Ms. Castro, 76, who has not spoken to either of her brothers for more than four decades, made the revelation to the Spanish-language TV channel Univision-Noticias 23 on Sunday, the day before the publication of her memoirs about Fidel and Raúl Castro.

I guess the book will make for interesting reading, but as much as I dislike Fidel and his and Raul's dictatorship, given the history of the CIA in Latin America during that period, collaborating with the CIA doesn't exactly cover one in glory.

Fidel Castro - Dumbass?

So let me get this straight: Fidel Castro did not realize that a nuclear attack on the US could result in a radioactive cloud over Cuba?

In the early 1980s, according to newly released documents, Fidel Castro was suggesting a Soviet nuclear strike against the United States, until Moscow dissuaded him by patiently explaining how the radioactive cloud resulting from such a strike would also devastate Cuba.
[...]

The Pentagon study attributes the Cuba revelation to Andrian A. Danilevich, a Soviet general staff officer from 1964 to ’90 and director of the staff officers who wrote the Soviet Union’s final reference guide on strategic and nuclear planning.

In the early 1980s, the study quotes him as saying that Mr. Castro “pressed hard for a tougher Soviet line against the U.S. up to and including possible nuclear strikes.”

The general staff, General Danilevich continued, “had to actively disabuse him of this view by spelling out the ecological consequences for Cuba of a Soviet strike against the U.S.”

That information, the general concluded, “changed Castro’s positions considerably.”

Wow. I believe I did a report on the danger of nuclear fallout when I was in the sixth grade. One would think that the spread of nuclear fallout would be common knowledge by the 1980's.

There's plenty more to be seen at the National Security Archives website.

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Despite the efforts of Venezuela and Bolivia, the Castro government of Cuba has rejected the invitation to reenter the OAS. This certainly strikes me as no surprise and I think that Human Rights Watch's Jose Miguel Vivanco strikes the right note here:

''They are looking for pretexts. Now Cuba is choosing to continue as a pariah in the region,'' said Human Rights Watch Americas director José Miguel Vivanco. ``Given the choice to participate in the region or continue to violate human rights at home, they prefer to violate human rights.''

If I were among the leaders of those nations who had been involved in trying to get Cuba readmitted, I'd certainly feel betrayed. While the true believers (i.e. Bolivia and Venezuela) probably knew this all along and applaud it, one wonders if the others aren't more than a bit peeved.

It's in keeping with the Castro brothers form. When things start to thaw, they make sure the chill comes back.

What Lula Said

Change is needed and it appears to be on its way:

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Monday called on the United States to end its economic embargo of Cuba, saying it makes no sense in the 21st Century.

Speaking at a Wall Street Journal-sponsored investment forum in New York, Silva also pointed to El Salvador's presidential election on Sunday as evidence democracy has spread across Latin America, warranting a reevaluation of the United States' relationship with the region.

At the end of his speech, Silva said the Cuba embargo is widely opposed across the region.

''There is nothing any more from the political perspective, from sociological perspective, from the humanitarian perspective that impedes the reestablishment of relations between the United States and Cuba,'' Silva said. ``It's not possible in the 21st Century to make policy looking toward the 20th Century -- let's think about looking toward the 22nd Century.''

There's also this:

Silva said he had been in touch with Latin American presidents and all were in favor of working together to forge a new relationship with the U.S. under the Obama administration.

''All of them want to work in partnership with the U.S. All of them are expecting the U.S. to establish a new relationship, a constructive relationship not based on political interference,'' Silva said, mentioning Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Bolivia's Evo Morales as leaders he had spoken to.

''The United States of North America has the obligation and the extraordinary opportunity to re-establish a new relationship with Latin America,'' he said.

It's hard to imagine anything like this happening with either Bush or McCain in power.

Standing Up for Free Speech and Against Intimidation

For an explanation see this.

Cohen on Cuba

I don't always agree with Roger Cohen. First of  all he's a Chelsea fan and I pull for Arsenal . I still believe he was seriously wrong  regarding the Iraq War.

I do largely agree with his cover story in Sunday's New York Times Magazine about the future of Cuba and Cuban-US relations on the cusp of a new administration. Viewpoints of individual Cubans are represented as well as Cuban exiles, some of whom favor the hard-line position that has failed, some of whom don't, veterans of Cuban policy in the US as well as Cuban government officials. A few comments I liked:

Wayne Smith, who ran the U.S. Interests Section under the Carter administration, has observed that “Cuba seems to have the same effect on American administrations that the full moon used to have on werewolves.” There is something about this proximate island, so beautiful yet so remote, so failed yet so stubborn, that militates against the exercise of U.S. reason.

[...]

“I say, ‘Lift the embargo unilaterally, put the onus on Cuba,’ ” [Bay of Pigs veteran Alfredo] Durán told me. “If we negotiate, what do we want from them? They have very little to give.”

As he spoke, a little ruckus erupted outside between Republicans and Democrats. Durán smiled: “You know, the only place Cuba still arouses passions is right outside this restaurant. Yet U.S. policy toward Cuba is stuck with old issues in Florida rather than logical strategy.”

[...]

“We’re always asking for the kindness of strangers,” [Aspiring artist Javier] Aguirre retorted. “This is not communism or capitalism, it’s a Cuban mess.”

[...]

“Revolution was supposed to mean equal opportunity for all, but it has become a word the Castro brothers own,” she [Giselle Palacios, daughter of dissident Hector Palacios] said. “Young Cubans don’t believe in the Castros’ version of revolution. They don’t believe in a world where the Internet is forbidden and your whole world is Cuba with the rest blocked out.”

This goes to the heart of the matter and why I detest the cult of the personality, regardless of the political leanings:

“You know,” [Dissident blogger Yoani] Sánchez said, “when a nation gets on its knees before a man, it’s all over. When a man decides how much rice I eat a month, or whether or not I can leave a country, that country is sick. This man is human. He commits errors. How can he have such power? Like a lot of people of my generation, I have willed myself to stop thinking about him, as a therapy. I think there will be relief when Fidel dies. We will breathe out. The mystical and symbolic weight of his presence is very heavy, for his opponents and even for his supporters. It’s hard to right his errors while he’s still there.”

I have said time and again, what brings progress to Latin America are institutions that are established and respected by all citizens. This is what makes a nation, not a common language, not mere geography, not race, not religion, not one man or woman and their sibling(s), but laws and rules respected by all.

Greg Weeks has a little more on what Obama faces.

Stick a Fork In It

Assuming that this is true, I have a feeling that it will put an end to the Cuban embargo regardless of who is in the White House next year:

Friends and foes have called Cuba many things - a progressive beacon, a quixotic underdog, an oppressive tyranny - but no one has called it lucky, until now .

Mother nature, it emerged this week, appears to have blessed the island with enough oil reserves to vault it into the ranks of energy powers. The government announced there may be more than 20bn barrels of recoverable oil in offshore fields in Cuba's share of the Gulf of Mexico, more than twice the previous estimate.

If confirmed, it puts Cuba's reserves on par with those of the US and into the world's top 20. Drilling is expected to start next year by Cuba's state oil company Cubapetroleo, or Cupet.

It won't be just the oil companies here that will object to the embargo, either:

However there is little prospect of Cuba becoming a communist version of Kuwait. Its oil is more than a mile deep under the ocean and difficult and expensive to extract. The four-decade-old US economic embargo prevents several of Cuba's potential oil partners - notably Brazil, Norway and Spain - from using valuable first-generation technology.

I don't know about Spain and Norway, but everything I have read has told me that Brazil's state oil company, Petrobras, is a pioneer in deep-sea drilling, especially given that they have snapped up some 80% of the rigs capable of drilling to depths greater than 3,000 meters.

Expect changes in positions; especially from the right.

US-Cuba World Cup Qualifier

While we're talking about the real football, the New York Times had this article about the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifier between Cuba and the USA, which is happening while I write this post. Here's a key point:

In the last six years, about a dozen members of the Cuban national team have defected. That total includes a handful of players who requested asylum in the United States during the regional Olympic qualifying tournament in Florida last March. A repeat is already a concern for Cuba’s trip to Washington for another World Cup qualifier on Oct. 11.

Obviously that's not a concern this weekend. There is this that I noticed, however: the USA is leading 1-0 on a goal by Clint Dempsey after the goal was scored, the camera panned over several American fans cheering the goal. Their faces were covered, but they were on their feet.

Why were their faces covered? Because of the travel ban to Cuba. Allow me to quote from a Republican, Congressman Jeff Flake of Arizona:

”If my travel which I think is my human right is going to be restricted, then it seems to me that a Communist government ought to be the one doing the restricting -- not my own government of the United States of America.”

This makes us look bad as well as stupid. It doesn't help the cause of freedom in Cuba at all.