The type of piece we should be reading in The Miami Herald

I just finished reading an article written by Jorge Dominguez in the Harvard Magazine. It’s the type of piece written by one of the most respected authorities on Cuba in the U.S., which so often leads me to ask what I consider a logical question: Why don’t they publish this type of op-ed piece in The Miami Herald?

Anyone aware of the Miami situation understands the Herald shies away from publishing articles that state some of the things mentioned by Dominguez in his piece titled: “Hello from Havana: Nuanced but unmistakable stirrings of change in Cuba”.

For example, he concludes his column by stating:

“U.S. policy toward Cuba for the bulk of this past decade has assisted the Castro government’s state security in shutting out information from the outside world: the United States banned the shipment of information-technology products, instead of facilitating Cuban electronic access to the world, and allowed Cuban Americans to visit their relatives only once every three years, instead of enabling cousins from both sides of the Straits of Florida to speak face to face about how a different, better Cuba might be constructed. (The United States has even protected ordinary Cubans from the Harvard Alumni Association, which could not lead tour groups there.) Perhaps the United States will stop being an obstacle to change in Cuba during the century’s second decade.”

Dominguez is a Harvard professor of Mexican and Latin American politics and economics, vice provost for international affairs, and special adviser to the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for international studies. We have seen pieces written by him in the Herald before, but one like this would never make it, I assure you.

Alvaro F. Fernandez

Click to read “Hello from Havana: Nuanced but unmistakable stirrings of change in Cuba”.