The U.S. needs to take steps for change alongside Cuba

By Wayne S. Smith

(This is a letter to the editor that recently appeared in The Washington Post.)

In his Aug. 9 op-ed column on his conversation with Cuba’s Cardinal Jaime Ortega, Jackson Diehl said that while he doesn’t doubt the cardinal’s sincerity in thinking that Cuban President Raúl Castro will bring about change in Cuba, as Mikhail Gorbachev did in the Soviet Union, Mr. Diehl sees Mr. Castro more as a Yuri Andropov, one of Mr. Gorbachev’s predecessors, who lacked the will to make the changes. And so, Mr. Diehl concludes, “the time for real change — and for deeper engagement by the United States — has not yet arrived.”

That depends upon what one means by “deeper engagement.” It is not time perhaps to begin thinking of an alliance. But Mr. Castro has said he will release most, if not all, political prisoners. President Obama had promised significant changes in U.S. policy in response to such a gesture. Where is it? And Mr. Castro has indicated that important changes in the economy are coming.

What has the United States done to stimulate further changes? So far, nothing.

Waiting until Cuba has a full democracy will not work. We need to respond now to the steps the Cubans have taken with steps of our own — such as lifting travel controls and perhaps arranging an exchange of prisoners. There are various options, but we need to move.

Wayne Smith helped negotiate the first major release of political prisoners while serving as director of Cuban affairs in the U.S. State Department from 1977 to 1979. He was also chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana from 1979 to 1982.