The Cuban nation expects action

from
President-elect Barack Obama                                    Read Spanish Version

By Lorenzo A. Cañizares and
Rolando Castañeda

From
Univision.com

On
Nov. 14, 2008, we received a notice from the Chicago offices of
President-elect Barack Obama that they had received the registered
letter we had sent him. In that letter, we expressed the desires and
aspirations of a great majority of Cubans, both there and here. But
now that the presidential inauguration approaches, it is important to
keep in mind the intelligent and flexible policy that President Obama
promised and we expect from him.

What
we expect from the President-elect:

First:
We must
remember that the intransigent policy of the past administration was
partly excused by the concern over the electoral power of the votes
from the extreme right of the Cuban community. The past presidential
election confirmed what many of us knew: the votes from the
Cuban-American extreme right are not enough to change the electoral
landscape of Florida. Moreover, its numbers continue to diminish
consistently. Many of those of us who voted for Obama are the
children of that extreme right.

Second:
We expect the fulfillment of the campaign promises to eliminate the
restrictions on travel to Cuba and to allow the remittance of
economic aid to our families, which is fundamental for ethical and
humanitarian reasons. History has taught us that good relations among
peoples and family reconciliation do not blossom under those kinds of
prohibitions and restrictions.

Third:
We expect an intelligent and flexible policy that leads us to
establish a significant dialogue with representatives of the Cuban
government. That policy would remove the clamp we carry around our
neck, which is costing us a lot, politically, in Latin America. At
this historic moment, the Cuban government and the national
intellectuals and academicians are looking for a solution to the
severe national crisis they face. Needless to say, their problems
require the same kind of creativity and initiative that we need in
the United States to successfully deal with our problems.

Fourth:
There is already a well-established history of good political
relations between Gov. Bill Richardson and the Cuban government.
These relations can be utilized to begin a serious discussion and
take the first steps toward a possible and full reestablishment of
trade relations during the process of reexamining the existing
partial embargo. To both countries, normal trade relations could be
beneficial and might end a policy that is repudiated by a great
majority of mankind, particularly by the countries in this
continent.

Fifth:
Not long ago, the Cuban government offered to exchange political
prisoners. We recommend a serious analysis of this proposal, so long
as the people who are released on the island have the right to remain
in Cuba without reprisals. We must remove every obstacle that might
make the Cuban government feel that we are its enemies. The Cuban
government already has expressed its desire to establish ties with
the Cuban exile community, and leader Raúl Castro recently said
during a press conference in Brasília that "The
world would be very boring if we all had to think alike about
everything. Difference is a virtue. We must know how to express our
discrepancies with dignity, respecting all others, simply enough, but
also demanding that we be respected." We
can begin to foster this process by acknowledging the need for a
national reconciliation that begins with the release of the prisoners
of conscience who find themselves in Cuban jails.

We are in
an ideal moment for the two nations to begin to write a new chapter
in their bilateral relations. As we mentioned, relations with the
Cuban nation raise repercussions in the rest of the continent. It
would be a huge political mistake not to take advantage of this
opportunity to improve and consolidate the fraternal relations
between two neighboring nations. The government of the United States
acts against its own national interests when it tries to isolate the
Cuban government and establishes conditions that facilitate Russian
and Chinese influence in Latin America. The opening of Russian and
Chinese diplomatic relations with Latin America begins through Cuba.
For example, during the recent trip to Venezuela by Russian First
Deputy Minister Nikolai Patrushev, he first stopped in Cuba.

It
is time to change the vision of how to relate to the Cuban government
that for decades has been controlled by the intransigents in Miami.
This vision (whose greatest proponent has been President George W.
Bush) and the support for a neoliberalism that the global crisis has
shown to be wrong have influenced the fact that most inhabitants of
Latin America today find themselves under leftist governments.

The
new President of Cuba, Raúl Castro, has already adopted some
measures and made important statements that indicate his desire to
propel a structural and conceptual change; these have attracted great
support among Cuban academicians and professionals, including the
dissidents. It is in the national interest of the United States and
the Cuban people for those changes to advance quickly. Cuba, like the
United States, has extremists in its leadership circles who consider
any rapprochement between the two countries to be counterproductive.
Let us not give them an opportunity to continue with a retrograde and
failed policy that benefits only its proponents.

Lorenzo
Cañizares is a Cuban-American union leader, a specialist in
organization for the Pennsylvania State Education Association. He
lives in Harrisburg, Pa. Rolando Castañeda is a Cuban-American
economist, and a retired official of the Inter-American Development
Bank. He lives in Washington, D.C.

http://www.univision.com/content/content.jhtml?cid=1794726#p