As I wrote last week, I am in favor of adjusting American policy on Cuba, namely some of the travel and currency restrictions, for humanitarian reasons. The U.S. government should not make it so difficult for Cuban Americans to visit relatives on the island, and for others to provide financial assistance to individual Cubans in need.
I think those changes are possible, without having to lift other measures that more directly affect the Castro dictatorship. For example, the ban on tourist travel should not be lifted until there is substantive political and economic reform on the island.
Because if the United States acts unilaterally, it only helps the regime in Havana.
Frank Calzon makes the case in an op-ed in today's Orlando Sentinel:
A recent article in the Sentinel ("House Bill Eases Travel to Cuba") reports that several members of Congress are introducing legislation to allow Cuban-Americans "to visit their relatives in Cuba as often as they wish and take as much money as they want."The congressional sponsors, no doubt, mean well, but in reality an influx of millions of dollars into Havana's coffers mostly benefits Cuba's repressive communist regime and will likely delay much needed economic reforms in Cuba.
That's not a speculative opinion; it's a reflection on the history of the Cuban regime. When the perennial economic crisis hits Cuba, the regime initiates a few economic reforms to assuage unrest. When the economy improves, the government revokes the reforms.
Facing food shortages in the 1980s, Castro freed farmers to establish "free markets" and independently sell vegetables. When production rose and hunger eased due to these successful policies, Castro shut down the markets. From the perspective of Cuba's ruling class, securing the island's food supply will never be as important as quelling the potential threat of successful farmers challenging the government.
When Soviet subsidies ended, Havana authorized opening home restaurants, called paladares. The restaurants could seat no more than 12 people, but the families who ran them could keep the proceeds (after taxes). The government also began licensing independent carpenters, plumbers and other workers. These reforms, however, were aborted with the arrival of European tourists and their new money. For foreigners, it is a sad footnote that Cubans who do not work in the tourist industry are banned from the resorts and beaches. More recently, Hugo Chavez's government in Venezuela has begun subsidizing Cuba.
It may be counterintuitive to the American mind, but the pattern is well established in Cuba: When tensions ease, reform is scratched. If Americans want to relieve the suffering of the Cuban people, we must continue to link our assistance to economic reform in Cuba.
Read the whole thing here.
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