COHA Opinion: The Cuban Mirage: Self-Deception in Miami and Washington

[Say_What]

COHA Opinion: The Cuban Mirage: Self-Deception in Miami and Washington

<clips>

For many of the anti-Castro exiles dancing along Miami’s Calle Ocho on Monday, July 31, the announcement of a temporary transfer of power by aging revolutionary Fidel Castro to his younger brother Raúl, marked the happiest of moments as well as the end of a troubled epoch in their lives. While Cuba awaits Fidel’s recovery from gastrointestinal surgery, the rest of the world is left contemplating what will occur if he fails to recuperate, or if he decides not to return to his position as the maximum leader. As Cuba’s closest neighbor and the world’s professed patron of democratization, the United States would seem to be the most likely candidate to aid in the island nation’s transition into its post-Castro era.

Unfortunately, however, Washington has recklessly used its policy towards Cuba as a legislative Christmas tree, under which anti-Castro Miami hardliners are able to place gifts of political patronage. Private campaign donations of a few million dollars to both Republican and Democratic candidates are exchanged for hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. taxpayer funds which Miami hardliners obtain as backing for pet anti-Castro projects such as Radio and TV Martí, and scores of other pork barrel entitlements. All told, in its attempt to “aid” Cubans by slavishly following the goading of Miami ideologues, the U.S. has devoted billions of dollars in public funds to bring about a variety of outlandish projects, directed at vilifying Castro’s regime.

Continued Cold War Mentality
State Department advocates maintain that the additional suffering that Cubans are forced to endure under the U.S. embargo is part of a greater plan for democratization from which the island population will ultimately benefit. In keeping with this theory, Washington has chosen to release its new strategy to guide Cubans down the ‘right’ path to democracy. The July 7 Report to President Bush is the second by the Commission for Assistance to Free Cuba (CAFC) since it was established in 2003. The Commission, which is entirely made up of high level bureaucrats, sanitized Cuban-Americans close to the White House and Cold War apostles, like Caleb McCarry, espouses a monochromatic tabloid ideology when it comes to Cuba, inspired by a clutch of ultras like Otto Reich, John Negroponte, John Bolton and Roger Noriega. The body has the specific purpose of designing and implementing a rightwing capitalistic democracy in Cuba. CAFC is currently co-chaired by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, and its members include officials from over 24 departments of the federal government. McCarry, a longtime activist and a former employee of the CIA-surrogate agency, the National Endowment for Democracy, has been designated the “Transition Coordinator,” in charge of the daily operations of the Commission. It should be noted that his new position hardly marked an abrupt departure from his tough anti-Castro role, since he previously held a staff position with such an arch Castro basher, former as Sen. Jesse Helms(R-SC).

Despite its presumptuous nature, the report depicts an accurate, but often superficial, portrayal of the difficulties average Cubans face under the current regime, which includes sanitation problems, dilapidated housing and poverty. Yale Professor and Cuban specialist, Dr. Lillian Guerra agrees with the Commission’s assessment in this respect, adding that in the district of Santos Suar, the sewage problem has become so exacerbated that the streets flood two to three times a week. However, Guerra, along with many other scholars, disagrees with the Commission’s evaluation of where these problems stem, and feels that the report is thoroughly misguided on its projected cure-all and dismantling approach.

http://www.coha.org/2006/08/17/coha-opinion-the-cuban-mirage-self-deception-in-miami-and-washington/