44 years of Castro's iron fist
Panel of Cuba experts analyze island nation under Fidel's rule
Editor's note: Last month marked the 44th year of Fidel Castro's dictatorial
rule of Cuba. To discuss this anniversary and prospects for change in Cuba
are Agustin Blazquez, a documentarian of Communist Cuba whose recently
released "Covering Cuba 3: Elian," which is available through
www.CubaCollectibles.com; Enrique Encinosa, a historian and news editor
of WAQI radio in Miami, whose books include "Cuba: The Unfinished
Revolution"; Servando Gonzalez, author of "The Secret Fidel Castro:
Deconstructing the Symbol" and most recently, "The Nuclear Deception: Nikita
Khrushchev and the Cuban Missile Crisis"; and Juan Lopez, a political
science professor at the University of Illinois and author of the recently
released
"Democracy Delayed: The Case of Castro's Cuba."
By Myles Kantor
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
Question: On Jan. 8, 1959, Fidel Castro entered Havana after Fulgencio
Batista left Cuba for the Dominican Republic. What's your response to the
claim that
Castro's occupancy of power 44 years later reflects popular support?
Ted Turner, for instance, claimed at the Harvard Law School Forum in March
2001 that
"most of the people that are still in Cuba like him."
BLAZQUEZ: What I have learned from sources inside Cuba is that 90 percent
of the general population despise the regime. The rest is part of Castro's
privileged
ruling elite who, for personal economic and security reasons, are afraid
of the consequences inherent in the collapse of the regime. His longevity
is not a factor of
popular support. It is a factor of his highly repressive totalitarian
machinery that controls all aspects of life in Cuba. Since the law forbids
freedom of speech and
association, the democratic opposition forces in Cuba are unable to
carry their message to the rest of the population or outside Cuba without
incurring significant
risk.
Thus there is a generalized lack of confidence that any opposition actions
can bring about change. Contributing to the maintenance of the status quo
is the lack of
support from outside Cuba. The general ignorance of the American public
and the rest of the world of the real Cuban situation is due to the rampant
misinformation
distributed by the left-wing-controlled mainstream news media. It generates
insensitivity and a lack of international solidarity for the cause of the
liberation of Cuba.
Therefore, it is a serious roadblock to freedom.
ENCINOSA: If Castro has so much popular support as Ted Turner claims,
why doesn't he allow opposition political parties and free elections? The
facts indicate he
has no popular support but maintains power based on repression and
fear. Over 15,000 Cubans have been executed by firing squads, thousands
more have died at
sea escaping, tens of thousands have been guests of his concentration
camps and almost 2 million – out of 11 million – have escaped to exile.
GONZALEZ: Though it is impossible to know the extent of support for
Castro – opinion polls in totalitarian countries are pretty unreliable
– I don't think that
Cubans in Cuba like Castro. Though it is true that in the very first
months of the popular revolution – of which Castro was just one of its
many leaders – the majority
of the people supported it, as soon as Castro managed to get total
control this support began to diminish. Though in the last couple of years
the dislike of the Cuban
people for Castro is more and more evident, and they express it more
openly, for many years they feared repression and disguised their feelings
as best as they
could. But, in several opportunities, Cubans have expressed their anti-Castro
feelings by voting with their feet. This was evidenced when Castro opened
the gates in
the port of Camarioca in September of 1965 and again during the Mariel
boatlift of 1980, when close to 125,000 Cubans precipitously escaped from
Castro's
proletarian paradise. I am convinced that if tomorrow Castro would
open the gates again, in less than six months no less than half of the
Cubans would escape from
the island.
There is, however, at least one kernel of truth in Turner's words. In
44 years of Castro's tyrannical rule, no major anti-government rebellion
has occurred. Save for
an initial strong opposition, only a relatively minor incident in the
summer of 1994, the so-called Habanazo riots, has been reported. Therefore,
even if Cubans don't
like Castro, it seems that they don't hate the tyrant enough to risk
their lives trying to get rid of him.
Contrary to common belief, liberation from Castro's tyranny is not a
difficult thing to accomplish, but is has a high price. To do it, Cubans
don't need freedom of
association or civil liberties. They don't even need guns. They only
need to supply their blood. A spontaneous rebellion would force the Castro
regime to bring tanks
to Havana's streets and would end in several thousand Cubans massacred
by Castro's army. This would destroy the myth of Castro's popularity and
inflict a mortal
blow to the tyranny. Unfortunately, Cubans obviously value life more
than freedom, and they are not willing to pay the ultimate price for it.
In his much-quoted dictum, "Give me liberty or give me death," Patrick
Henry expressed it brilliantly. People who value life above freedom sooner
or later will
become slaves. Unfortunately, this seems to be the case of the Cuban
people.
LOPEZ: Under dictatorships, it is not possible to conduct a reliable
public opinion survey to determine what percentage of the population supports
the dictatorship.
However, there are various indirect measures to assess the degree of
support for the Castro government among citizens in the island. These proxies
suggest that the
support for the Cuban government is very low. Whenever the opportunity
to leave Cuba has come up, as in 1980 with the Mariel episode and with
the rafters in
1994, there have been endless streams of people wanting to get out.
Only force has put an end to the migrations. Indicators of social anomie,
like high rates of
suicide and alcoholism, repeated spontaneous protests (for example,
to complain about poor services and breakdowns in the supply of basic necessities),
and
small-scale strikes (to demand unpaid wages or for other reasons) are
further evidence of discontent.
Then there are the facts that the dictatorship does not want free elections,
suppresses free speech and freedom of association and is terrified of the
possibility that
mass protests could develop. Any government that is confident of enjoying
majority support does not oppose free elections. Castro is even afraid
of holding a
referendum, as the Varela Project asks. It should be clear, for those
who want to see, that mass mobilizations carried out by totalitarian regimes
to orchestrate a
facade of public support are just exercises in mass coercion. Many
signs also indicate that there is considerable discontent with the regime
among members of the
Communist Party, the armed forces and other state institutions, for
example, defections abroad, widespread corruption and even expressions
of criticisms.
As for Ted Turner's comment, the most likely explanation is that he
is a conscious supporter of the Castro dictatorship. No wonder some people
refer to CNN as
Castro's News Network. Evidence shows that CNN news reports are highly
biased in favor of the Cuban government. Other possibilities are that Turner
is an idiot
or one of Castro's uninformed foreign dupes. But I think that the first
explanation is more accurate.
Q: Rationing of food and other goods continues in Cuba; destitution
and decrepitude are prevalent (yet Communist elites drive Mercedes). What
is responsible for
this misery?
BLAZQUEZ: The shortages and rationing of food began in Cuba after Castro
but prior to the U.S. Embargo. For example, on July 4, 1961, cooking oil
and
shortening were added to the list of the rationed items. On Feb. 3,
1962, John F. Kennedy stopped all exports to Cuba, except food and medicines.
However, on
Feb. 11, 1962, the rationing of medicines began. And on March 12, 1962,
the rationing book was implanted in Cuba as the only way to obtain food,
clothing and
other items of necessity. From the beginning, this book was almost
a joke because most of the time the items were not available anyway. It
was not until March 24,
1962, that Kennedy stopped almost all exports to Cuba, except medical
products, cultural, scientific and sport exchanges.
In addition, subsidiaries of U.S. companies abroad are not included
in the ban. And, Cuba's trade with the rest of the world was not affected.
The population's
ever-present concern with such matters of daily need distracts their
concern for their lack of freedom. The timing of the rationing for a previously
self-supporting
country that exported food makes it obvious that Castro planned to
create the need for rationing. The continued misery is a convenient tool
under the direct
responsibility of Castro.
ENCINOSA: In Cuba, it is more important to be a good Communist than
a good worker. For years, promotions have been awarded based on political
knowledge,
not on work merit, creating poor performance levels in production.
Rationing has also been used as a political weapon. A nation that has to
stand in endless lines to
buy essential items has no time or resources to rebel against the system.
GONZALEZ: I don't know what is responsible for misery, but I can surely
tell you who. The only one responsible for this misery is Fidel Alejandro
Castro Ruz.
The causes for the present state of things in Cuba are to be found
only inside the convoluted mind of Fidel Castro. Before he grabbed power
in 1959, Cuba was one
of the most prosperous countries in Latin America, and its economic
indexes were far superior to many countries in Europe. Now, Cuba ranks
below Haiti and only
excels in the production of Castroist propaganda.
Most people who have studied the collapse of the Cuban economy and think
that Castro is the true cause believe that the disaster is the result of
economic mistakes
committed by the Maximum Leader and his close associates, i.e., Che
Guevara. That also was my opinion for many years. Of lately, however, I
have come to
believe that the economic and social destruction of Cuba, and the moral
and physical destruction of its people, is not the result of Castro's mistakes,
but of a carefully
conceived plan. If my interpretation is true, Castro accomplished his
goals, and, far from being a failure, Castro's Cuba has proved a total
success.
By the way, it seems that some important people agree with my interpretation
of Castroism as a successful experiment. If one is to believe media mogul
Ted Turner,
U.N. Deputy Secretary General Maurice Strong, Wall Street banker David
Rockefeller, World Bank President James Wolfensohn, General Secretary of
the World
Council of Churches Rev. Konrad Kaiser, UNESCO's General Director Federico
Mayor, Secretary of State Colin Powell and other movers and shakers of
this
world, Castro's Cuba is the model to follow.
LOPEZ: The economic misery prevalent among the population is fundamentally
due to policies of the Cuban government. The Castro regime continues with
a
Soviet-type economic system, despite the tinkering on the margins.
History has amply shown that this type of economic system is a failure.
The foreign investment
that Castro has allowed is in the form of enclaves oriented toward
foreigners, either as tourists or as consumers (export of nickel for example).
The beneficiaries of
the enclaves are basically the Cuban state and foreign capitalists,
the co-owners of the ventures. These enterprises employ a very small percentage
of the labor force,
and the wages of workers in foreign enclaves are not much different
form those of workers employed by the state in other sectors. As a matter
of fact, the Cuban
government confiscates about 99 percent of the income that foreign
capitalists pay the Cuban government per worker. Foreigners cannot hire
Cuban workers
directly.
The very limited space that the Castro regime allowed citizens to establish
micro-enterprises starting about 1993, when the Cuban economy was in a
nosedive due to
the end of Soviet subsidies, has been rolled back. Recently, the intense
attack by the government against these private endeavors suggests that
the government wants
to eliminate them as much as possible, if not totally. In a country
in which there is a serious shortage of food, the Castro government hinders
in numerous ways the
production of independent farmers, who can be more productive than
the state cooperatives; the latter control most of the land.
Those who claim that the American embargo is responsible for the scarcity
of food in Cuba should take a close look at the policies of the Cuban government
in the
agricultural sector. As the economy stabilized in 1994, the regime
started to backtrack on the limited market reforms it had allowed among
the population. This fact
is an indicator that if the American embargo is lifted, and Castro
gets the income he wants from American tourism and credits, he will be
even less likely to permit
market-oriented reforms.
Q: What is your opinion of the claim that America's economic sanctions
give Castro an excuse for his failures and cause Cubans to share his anti-Americanism
– that
is, that Castro doesn't want sanctions ended?
BLAZQUEZ: There are advantages for Castro either way. With the embargo
in place he conveniently uses it as an excuse for everything that goes
wrong in Cuba.
All the while, the embargo has little effect because before Castro
Cuba was self-sufficient – did not have the need to import food. Cuba has
four growing seasons
and four harvests each year. The disappearance of fruits and vegetables,
milk, meat and fish, had nothing to do with the embargo.
I believe Castro wants the sanctions ended but on his own terms with
no strings attached so he and his oppressive Mafia-type regime can continue
to completely
control all aspects of the economy and distribution of goods. He wants
it to end because he can make even more money with an accelerated economy
buying on
credit (that, as history has shown, he doesn't pay back, leaving the
American taxpayers to pay the bills) and because he needs a big political
victory against the U.S.
A David against Goliath victory. It would greatly raise his popularity
in the eyes of the anti-Americans of Latin America and others all over
the world. Overall, I think
he'd rather it was lifted, but either way it doesn't make that much
difference to him.
ENCINOSA: Communists are excellent at finding excuses. If the embargo
were lifted today, 15 years from now the communists would still be complaining
that "we
are still feeling the effects of an embargo that lasted four decades."
Castro wants the embargo lifted on his terms – an unconditional surrender
– that would provide a
huge moral victory.
GONZALEZ: The so-called U.S. "economic embargo" has been so inefficient
that it only has benefited Castro by giving him a pretext to justify the
Cuban disaster.
It's highly revealing that some aspects of the embargo, which would
have made it truly effective, have never been implemented. Now, just a
perfunctory look at the
list of influential Americans I mentioned in my previous answer – some
of with strong influence in U.S. foreign policy decisions – who believe
that Castro's Cuba is a
total success, shows that one does not have to be a conspiracy nut
to suspect that the embargo was actually created not to hurt Castro, but
to guarantee his
undisturbed staying in power in Cuba. Of course, Castro's worst fear
has always been the end of his main disinformation tool: the U.S. embargo.
About the possibility that, because of the embargo, Cubans may share
Castro's anti-Americanism, there's nothing to fear: Despite 44 years of
Castro's anti-American
rhetoric, Cubans are today more pro-American than ever before. I have
still not made up my mind, though, as to interpret it as a failure or a
success of Castroism.
LOPEZ: That is a common claim in the anti-embargo movement. Survey data
from recent Cuban arrivals to the U.S. indicate that very few people in
Cuba believe
that the embargo is responsible for their dire situation. They blame
the Cuban government. Reports from independent journalists in Cuba support
this conclusion. It
should not be hard for people in Cuba to figure out that government
repression against private enterprise among common citizens is not due
to the embargo but
rather to Castro's policy choices. Appeals to nationalism by the Castro
government in an attempt to bolster support are worn out. Nicolae Ceaucescu
in Romania
followed the same tactic, and his appeals to nationalism came to fall
on deaf ears. In any case, with tourist apartheid and the discrimination
in favor of foreigners and
against Cubans when it comes to allowing private entrepreneurship,
the identification of the Castro regime with Cuban nationalism has deteriorated.
The argument that the Castro government does not want the embargo lifted
is nonsensical. The Cuban government has been a very active participant,
expending
considerable time, effort and personnel, in helping the anti-embargo
movement. Just to cite one activity, Cuban government officials have crisscrossed
the United
States selling the idea to American farmers' associations and other
capitalists that if the embargo were lifted they would make millions selling
their products to Cuba.
It was not until corporate America got on the anti-embargo bandwagon
that the movement started to make headway.
Q: Another objection to economic sanctions is that they punish Cubans for Castro's abuses. Your thoughts?
BLAZQUEZ: Lifting the economic sanctions with Castro and his repressive
regime in place is not going to reduce the human-rights abuses in Cuba.
It is Castro who
has been creating the punishments of the Cuban people for 44 years,
not the sanctions. This punishment and war against the will of the Cuban
people started as soon
as Castro took power in 1959, almost three years before Kennedy declared
the economic sanctions on March 24, 1962. If the sanctions were lifted,
his control of
the distribution of goods would increase the inequities between the
ordinary Cubans and the elite, one of his means for maintaining control
over both segments of the
population.
ENCINOSA: Lifting the embargo unconditionally would not guarantee an
improvement in any way. Castro is the one punishing Cubans, not the embargo.
Castro is
the one who imposes his will, executes and jails opponents.
GONZALEZ: To the extent that the U.S. economic sanctions have helped
Castro to justify his staying in power, it has punished the Cuban people.
But I would like
to qualify the question a little. Actually, the U.S. economic sanctions
have not punished all Cubans. Despite, or, perhaps, because of, the U.S.
economic sanctions,
Castro, his cronies and the rest of the Castroist nomenklatura, have
been for long years enjoying Castro's "sociolism." (Sociolism: from "socio"
[buddy], Castro's
version of crony capitalism.)
LOPEZ: The embargo hurts most of all the finances of the Cuban government.
It curtails American tourism, some investment and credits/loans. Given
that enclave
capitalism in Cuba is a business between the state and foreigners,
that these enclaves employ a very small percentage of the labor force,
and that the state confiscates
almost all the wages of workers in this sector, the trickle-down benefits
of ending the embargo are bound to be minor. The credits/loans that the
Cuban government
has received from other countries have not ended the precarious economic
conditions of the general population. And as I have indicated, the greater
the ability of the
Cuban government to muddle-through economically, the less inclined
it is to allow entrepreneurship in the population.
The embargo weakens the dictatorship. It is not enough to bring it down,
but it is an element in the recipe to foster a transition to democracy.
Even if the end of the
embargo would spill some crumbs among citizens (which would not provide
a real solution to their miserable conditions), forgoing these crumbs for
the sake of
getting rid of the dictatorship would be a good deal for the sake of
a much better future.
Q: What would be the effects of ending economic sanctions?
BLAZQUEZ: Ending the sanctions would benefit Castro because the Cuban
economy that he owns and operates would increase. He could make even more
of the
money he needs to maintain his power. The ending of the sanctions would
have no positive effect unless they were tied to conditions with respect
to such things as
human rights, freeing of all political prisoners, freedom to establish
political parties, freedom to open businesses and own property and free
and internationally
supervised elections. Meantime, I think it is immoral to do business
with any Charles Manson.
ENCINOSA: Lifting the embargo without conditions would: 1) Give Castro
a huge moral and political victory that would enhance his image with the
Left; 2) Open
the door to international loans that he could use to strengthen his
repressive machinery; 3) It would not guarantee a higher standard for Cubans,
for Castro could limit
tourism and foreign investment to "dollar areas" and keep Cubans away
from tourists.
GONZALEZ: Paradoxically, the same way that the creation of the embargo
helped Castro to stay in power for so long, the direct effect of ending
it now would be
to guarantee the continuation of Castroism in Cuba after the death
of Fidel Castro, as a courtesy of the American taxpayers.
The fact that the ones who are now pushing behind the scenes to end
the embargo are the same ones who implemented the inefficient embargo more
than 40 years
ago seems to indicate that their true goal is not to help the Cuban
people, but to guarantee the continuation of the Castroist totalitarian
regime after the death of the
tyrant.
LOPEZ: The end of the American embargo with the Castro regime in power
would mean propping up the regime by increasing its financial resources.
The No. 1
goal of the regime is to remain in power, and it would use the windfall
mainly for this purpose. For example, it will have more resources to distribute
benefits among
regime cadres in efforts to decrease discontent inside the regime.
The end of the embargo would help the dictatorship to continue muddling-through.
The Cuban
government shows signs of having serious financial difficulties.
Also, American investment in Cuba could be a source of problems for
Cuban-American relations in the post-transition period, and it is in the
interest of the Cuban
people to try to have good relations with the U.S. without sacrificing
Cuban sovereignty. It is likely that foreign investors under the Castro
government will be taken
to court after the transitions for violating labor laws, for polluting
the environment, for using stolen property, and for having made business
contracts with an
illegitimate government.
Q: One of the recent internal efforts to de-totalitarianize Cuba has
been the Varela Project, which utilizes a provision of Cuba's 1976 "Constitution"
and calls for a
referendum on civil liberties, economic and electoral reform, and amnesty
for political prisoners. What do you think of this campaign?
BLAZQUEZ: Anything that can help – short of wasting time to establish
a dialogue with Castro – to open the doors to a change in Cuba should be
explored.
However, it is extremely difficult to imagine that working within Cuba's
1976 "Constitution." … It is specifically designed to prevent any effort
from changing any of
its provisions. It enshrines the Communist Party as the only alternative
for Cuba and clearly curtails all human rights as well as freedom of speech
for as long as it is
not in favor of the Communist ideology. Also it curtails parents' rights
to raise and educate their children as they see fit and gives all authority
to the state (Castro) to
foster the Communist formation of the children.
The power of the Varela Project is its revelation to the world of the
sincerity and valor of its participants in their struggle against overwhelming
odds under conditions
of personal threat. As far as I am concerned, that 1976 "Constitution"
approved "unanimously," the norm in totalitarian regimes where fear reigns,
belongs to the
trashcan of history. Ultimately, the 1940 Constitution, created in
a democratic way, should be reinstated with adjustments for the 21st century.
ENCINOSA: I do not support the Varela Project. It works within the structure
of the system, accepts its laws and judicial system and excludes some political
prisoners from amnesty. I consider myself an opponent, working to overthrow
the system, and to me the VP is a dissident project working within the
structure of a
system that does not need to be changed, but totally overthrown.
GONZALEZ: The Varela Project follows too closely for comfort some propaganda
and psy-op lines developed by Castro and implemented by his intelligence
services since the mid-'90s. In this sense, the leaders of the Varela
Project are, wittingly or unwittingly, playing their role in this plan
to perpetuate Castroism after
Castro's death.
On the other hand, I am not intrinsically against the Varela Project,
because I am convinced that, as soon as Cubans know of Castro's death,
all the carefully
designed plans, including the Varela Project, will crumble and go right
to the trash bin of history. As a matter of fact, the Varelistas should
be concerned about their
future. Sometimes the masses turn violent, and they particularly dislike
collaborateurs.
LOPEZ: The Castro government will not allow any referendum whose outcome
it cannot control. Oswaldo Payá knows this, as does any reasonable
person who
knows the nature of a hard-line, post-totalitarian-sultanistic regime
as one finds in Cuba today. Collecting signatures will not bring about
the end of the Castro
regime, no matter how many signatures are gathered. But the campaign
has made, and is making, three important contributions in the struggle
to topple the Castro
government. One is to get citizens to take one step in publicly showing
their opposition. By signing, people move forward in the process of overcoming
fear and
participating in an act of opposition (although a very limited one
that is insufficient).
Second, the campaign has helped bring international attention to the
opposition movement inside the island and to the struggle for human rights
and democracy in
Cuba. And finally, the project has served as an excuse to help organize
citizens independently from the state. Such organization and networking
can be useful in
promoting mass protests, if and when propitious conditions develop.
Only with mass and repeated protests can the population bring about the
collapse of the
dictatorship.
Q: What is your assessment of the Cuban exile community's opposition to Castro?
BLAZQUEZ: The Cuban exile community has a very valid and strong case
to oppose Castro's tyranny. They have firsthand experience living inside
the island. They
know extremely well what life before and after Castro have been. They
are the experts on Cuba who have the freedom to speak. Because the Cuban
people on the
island are not permitted a voice, the exiles are their voice. The Cuban
exile community in the U.S. and abroad are the same Cubans that used to
live on the island in a
state of imposed fear that made it necessary for them to praise the
revolution and Castro. But they have been unfairly mistreated and maligned
by the
left-wing-controlled U.S. media and academia as well as many liberal,
left-wing, and socialist-believing politicians on Capitol Hill.
I believe that the Cuban American opposition to Castro would be more
effective if it were more unified. Many powerful individuals are reluctant
to compromise with
each other to put together a unified front using coordinated techniques
to reach the common goal. Most efforts should be directed at the misinformed
American
people who instead receive most of their information from the U.S.
media. The frequent use of the Spanish language in protests and denunciations
of Castro's
violations of human rights for 44 years has been a handicap because
the message rarely reaches beyond the Cuban exile community and some other
Spanish-speaking groups with less political power than the mainstream
American public. Too many are content to merely share beliefs with others
in the community
with the same beliefs.
ENCINOSA: Most of the Cuban exiles have a hard line against Castro.
Some tiny organizations – some of which are linked to the Cuban government
– receive a lot
of press in the liberal media as "moderates," which they are not. The
overall quality of Cuban anti-Castro opposition in exile ranges from stereotypical
idiots to
brilliant, brave people.
GONZALEZ: Though the anti-Castro Cubans in the U.S. have been very successful
in making money, it is evident that they have not been so successful in
fighting
Castro. One of the main reasons for their lack of success is that they
deposited their trust in the U.S government, and the U.S. government has
systematically
betrayed them, mostly because the interests of the United States are
not the interests of Cuba.
The U.S. government betrayed the Cuban people when it retired its support
of Batista and opened the way for Castro's road to power. It betrayed the
invaders at
the Bay of Pigs, the anti-Castro guerrillas in the Escambray Mountains
and the urban resistance, as well as decapitated the anti-Castro exile
organizations in Florida.
Then, it betrayed the Cuban people again when, during the missile crisis,
it failed to seize the opportunity – which Khrushchev had served Kennedy
on a silver plate
– to overthrow Castro. I can keep adding items to this list, but space
constraints do not allow for it. I will study the subject in detail in
my forthcoming book, "Fidel
Castro Supermole: Walking Back the Cat in the Cuban Operation."
LOPEZ: The exile community does basically three things: 1) tries to
prevent the anti-embargo movement from weakening or ending the embargo;
2) publicizes the
cause of democracy in Cuba like disseminating information about violations
of human rights and tries to get various international actors to condemn
the Castro
government; and 3) channels some material assistance to opposition
activists inside Cuba. These activities are certainly important. For example,
international publicity
of abuses against activists in the island protects the activists somewhat
from further or worse abuses in the future.
But what the exile community is doing will not bring an end to the Castro
regime. If the exile community just continues to do what it is doing, Castro
will die of old
age about ten years from now. The opposition in Cuba needs the exile
community to bring about a transition to democracy in the near future.
Exiles have to play a
crucial role. People in Cuba can bring the dictatorship down, but they
cannot do it without the help of the exile community.
Q: How would you change American policy toward Cuba?
BLAZQUEZ: The U.S. government's policy towards Cuba should be to expose
clearly the horrors of Castro's Cuba to the American public and the world.
The
withholding of information about everything from the reasons for shortages
in Cuba and the immoral tourist apartheid to the bio-terrorist programs
in Cuba results in
U.S. citizens not understanding that Castro is a threat to the security
of the U.S. The U.S. should cancel the immoral secret deals made by the
Clinton administration
with Castro as well as others from previous and present administrations.
As for the Kennedy/Khrushchev 1962 agreement for which the U.S. became
the protector of the Castro regime, it should be abolished. The former
Soviet Union
and Cuba never abided by their part of the deal. … The new policy should
be based on moral principles and human rights rather than economic greed.
It should be a
policy of respect toward the victims of Castro and not compromising
the freedom that all Cuban citizens are entitled to have.
ENCINOSA: Tighten the embargo, prosecute more Cuban DGI [General Directorate
of Intelligence] spies operating in the U.S., publicize the links between
Castro
and Hussein, Gadhafi, etc. and stop prosecuting or arresting exiles
attempting to overthrow the Castro government.
GONZALEZ: Frankly, I feel pity for the Cuban people, whose future seems to be dependent on another country's foreign policy decisions.
I would change U.S. foreign policy, though, not only toward Cuba, but
toward the world, to one based on moral and ethical principles, not expediency.
The U.S.
foreign policy should serve the interests of the American people as
a whole, not the narrow interests of a small group of Wall Street bankers.
As a U.S. citizen, I am
extremely concerned by the fact that people who see Castro's Cuba as
a model to follow play such an important role in the shaping of U.S. foreign
policy.
LOPEZ: To bring about a political transition in the next few years,
even if Fidel is still alive, the U.S. government should: 1) maintain the
embargo; 2) enable Radio
and TV Marti to regularly reach most of the population and make the
stations surrogates of the opposition movement, as Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty were for
the Eastern European opposition; and 3) provide money and equipment
to democratic activists in the island so that they and their families can
eat, travel inside Cuba,
organize, publish and distribute their publications among the population.
Q: It's often claimed that communism in Cuba will collapse when Fidel Castro dies. Do you agree with this claim?
BLAZQUEZ: Communism in Cuba will not necessarily collapse when Fidel
Castro dies. His death alone will not change the totalitarian nature of
the regime. The
way power is organized in Cuba is like a highly structured Mafia that
is ruling the country, exploiting and terrorizing the citizens. The members
of the ruling elite will
want to keep their positions and privileges within the next Godfather's
regime, so they will earnestly support the next Fidel Castro. The thousands
of shady business
enterprises working in tandem with unscrupulous foreign businessmen
will also want to keep the status quo.
Unless there is a massive internal uprising of the people in Cuba, complete
with the needed international solidarity (notice how the lack of international
support has,
thus far, made success impossible for the people of Venezuela) to force
the ouster of the entire Mafia and bring all those criminals to justice,
I don't foresee any
significant change. I, as well as many Cubans with principles, do not
want Cuba converted into a China-type regime with some economic reforms
but with a
continuation of worker exploitation and violations of human rights.
ENCINOSA: It will go in a transition period that will attempt to develop
into a dictatorship with traces of capitalism. It is up to Cubans that
love Cuba to try to
channel it toward democracy by any means possible, not excluding violent
methods.
GONZALEZ: Communism in Cuba cannot collapse for the very reason that
there has never been a Communist regime in power in Cuba. After the death
of the evil
Caribbean Pied Piper, the Cuban people will wake up from their long
incantation with the feeling that they had a bad dream. Then, Castro-fascism
will simply
extinguish itself and disappear without a sequel, and Cuba will return
to normalcy – whatever that means.
LOPEZ: This claim is speculation. No one really knows what is going
to happen. Lenin, Stalin and Mao, all charismatic figures, had successors
without transitions to
democracy. Neither official ideology nor nationalism is the glue holding
together the Cuban ruling elite. The glue may very well be material privileges.
These could be
distributed/granted by Raul Castro or a collective rulership and a
full-fledged dictatorship could be preserved. The ruling elite in Cuba
must have been preparing for
the death of Fidel. It is not reasonable to expect that dictators will
leave power magnanimously. They have to be pushed out or they have to think
that they will not
succeed in holding on and that it is better for their interests to
negotiate an exit in exchange for concessions from their interlocutors
in the opposition.
The death of Castro can serve to promote a transition if a lot of people
in Cuba perceive that the regime is vulnerable, that their participation
could bring about
change, and people go to the streets in large and repeated demonstrations
to demand political change. In other words, the death of Castro can foster
a transition if it
gives people hope that they can bring about changes. However, there
are other ways to develop this hope in the population, even while Castro
is alive.
Myles Kantor is president of the Center for Free Emigration and a free-lance writer.