Néstor T. Carbonell*
On December 17, following a year and a half of secret negotiations with the Castro regime, President Obama trumpeted what many have called a historic breakthrough—a new course to normalize relations with Cuba.
The course, however, is not really new. It was pursued by 10
previous American presidents who tried to engage Fidel Castro directly
or through intermediaries both during and after the Cold War. The
desired rapprochement failed mainly because the Cuban dictator would not
agree to stop his subversive activities and open up the island, or
offer a modicum of respect for human rights.
What’s new about President’s Obama’s détente is that he is
engaging Raúl Castro—not his ailing brother Fidel—and has not
established any preconditions for normalization.
How different is Raúl from Fidel? He is certainly less
charismatic and verbose than his older brother, but more focused and
disciplined. While Fidel roused and manipulated the masses, Raúl, with
Soviet assistance, quietly bolstered the armed forces and built the
totalitarian infrastructure of the regime. Despite their contrasting
physique and personality, they both share a visceral hatred of the
United States, cold-blooded ruthlessness and mastery of deceit.
Fidel’s duplicity, combined with a fair amount of histrionics, is well known. He bragged
about tricking the Cuban people, who fell for his promise to restore
democracy, and unabashedly proclaimed in December 1961: “I am a
Marxist-Leninist and will be one until the last day of my life.”
Fidel also was able to dupe U.S. presidents and senior
government officials into believing that he would be amenable to a fair
settlement of all outstanding disputes. Even David Rockefeller, a strong
advocate of engagement who had a good rapport with Fidel, felt that he
could help strike a deal with him.
Heading an impressive delegation of foreign policy heavyweights, Rockefeller presented to Fidel Castro in February 2001
a proposal developed by the Council on Foreign Relations to normalize
U.S. relations with Cuba. After five hours of marathon discussions which
ended at 4AM, Fidel rejected the “half-measures” proposed by the
Council and demanded the unconditional lifting of the U.S. embargo
without acquiescing to any significant economic and political reforms. A
disillusioned Rockefeller wrote in his memoirs: “Castro harangued us
continuously throughout the night…I think there is little possibility
for change while Castro remains in power…”
But that was Fidel Castro.
What about with Raúl now calling the shots and posing as a pragmatist?
Even though Raúl had only introduced non-systemic, revocable reforms to
alleviate the appalling living conditions on the island, Obama thought
that he could be lured or tamed with goodwill gestures and concessions.
So shortly after taking office in 2009, the President relaxed restrictions
on travel and remittances to Cuba and voted in favor of inviting the
Cuban regime to rejoin the Organization of American States, only to be
rebuffed by both Castro brothers.
Raúl then played the hostage trick on Obama, and it worked. He arrested Alan Gross,
a USAID contractor who was distributing computer equipment to the
Jewish community in Havana to gain access to the internet, and sentenced
him to 15 years in prison. Fearing that Gross, in poor health, might
die behind bars in Cuba, the President accepted the swap proposed by Castro—Gross
for three convicted Cuban spies, including one serving a life sentence
in the U.S. for conspiring to commit murder. Trying to balance out the
uneven swap, Castro released several dozen political prisoners, a bargaining chip he uses when it suits his purpose.
To conduct the secret negotiations, which were broadened beyond the exchange of prisoners, Castro assigned two of his sharpest KGB-trained intelligence officers,
fluent in English and well versed in diplomacy as a cover for espionage
in the U.S., Josefina Vidal and Gustavo Machin. The deal they were able
to extract from the American delegation is so one-sided in favor of the
Castro regime that it could well be called the Cuban Munich.
Indeed, from a weak position, with Cuba in dire straits and facing
the possible loss of its Venezuelan financial lifeline, Castro got
pretty much what he wanted. And Obama, who surrendered the U.S. leverage
of continued economic pressure on the Cuban regime and support for the
dissident movement, got virtually nothing in return.
The
U.S. will restore diplomatic relations with Cuba while repression
continues on the island, and will ship telecommunications technology
with no assurance that censorship will end. In addition, the Castro
regime will receive more dollars from U.S. “purposeful visits,” which
will flow to the owners of the tourist industry in Cuba: the military.
But for Castro, more important than those concessions is the removal
of Cuba from the U.S. list of terrorist states which would open doors to
the IMF, World Bank and other international financial institutions. His
regime gets this provision despite smuggling 240 tons of heavy weapons to North Korea
in violation of U.N. sanctions, maintaining close links to Iran, Syria
and Hezbollah, and harboring dozens of fugitive terrorists and
criminals, including one of the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted Terrorists, Assata Shakur.
To meet Castro’s ultimate requirement for normalization of relations, President Obama promised to seek congressional approval for the unconditional lifting of the U.S. trade embargo.
This would open the floodgates for U.S. investments in bankrupt Cuba,
but in a subordinate position to the only authorized partner—the Cuban
government—which controls the economy, hires and fires the labor force,
and pockets 92 cents on every dollar of each worker’s salary. Not quite
Deng Xiaoping’s model of capitalism.
Not content with that, the cagey Raúl Castro surprised the White House last month
with two additional demands that did not surface during the
negotiations: payment by the U.S. to Cuba of reparations for the alleged
damages caused by the embargo (his claim is for $100 billion), and the
return to Cuba of the U.S. Naval Base of Guantanamo. Moreover, he declared
that he will not change his Socialist system—not one iota, he
emphasized. So democracy, human rights and free enterprise are out.
The Cold War may be over but Raúl Castro seems intent on reigniting it. Last year, he offered Putin an espionage listening post on the island,
and is currently training and equipping Venezuela’s repressive forces
in support of President Maduro’s plan to Cubanize his country.
The only way out of the
President’s one-sided deal with Cuba is not to give the deceitful Cuban
ruler a blank check, but to insist on a step-by-step quid pro quo that
would safeguard the interests and security of the U.S., as well as the
long-fought aspirations of freedom-loving Cubans.
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* Mr. Carbonell is an international affairs consultant and author of "And The Russians Stayed: The Sovietization of Cuba."
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