Stephen Harper out of step with Latin America over Cuba
By Harry Sterling
From TheStar.com
Once again Prime Minister Stephen Harper is odd man out with other political leaders, angering fellow hemispheric politicians by his veto blocking Cuba as a participant in Summit of the Americas gatherings.
On the heels of widespread criticism by other governments of the prime minister’s controversial withdrawal from Canada’s commitment to the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, on this latest occasion he was criticized for his intransigence in blocking the wishes of Latin American leaders attending the hemispheric meeting in Cartagena, Colombia, who wanted to include Cuba in their triennial gatherings.
Except for U.S. President Barak Obama, all the other leaders said it was time to normalize relations with Cuba and welcome it back into the summit process. Summit host Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos declared it was “unacceptable” to deny Cuba admission.
Argentina’s foreign minister specifically blamed Obama and Harper for stopping a consensus in favour of Cuba’s participation.
Unlike Obama, who predictably wouldn’t agree to such a proposal because of the powerful opposition of the Cuban-American community, especially not in an election year, Harper has no such restraints.
But, true to form, he once more demonstrated not only that he is driven by rigid ideological obsessions but that he also is quite prepared to ignore any facts or realities that challenge or disprove the validity of his highly personal views.
Referring obliquely to Harper’s obstructionist action, an exasperated Santos said the failure to include Cuba was solely due to “ideological stubbornness.”
And those views should have considerable relevance for countless Canadians who, contrary to Harper, have real first-hand awareness of important changes now taking place in Cuba due to recent visits there.
Those changes have the potential to improve the economic situation for the Cuban people, notwithstanding the all-encompassing socialist system still in place there.
In addition to significant changes made a few years ago, President Raul Castro has now introduced wide-ranging “reforms” allowing the selling of privately owned homes and land holdings, legal self-employment in certain sectors, as well as the selling of agricultural crops directly to the public, bypassing state entities. These changes collectively have the potential to undermine the regime’s total control over society, even laying the groundwork for democratization and greater rights within society for the Cuban people.
Most leaders in Latin America regard what’s happening in Cuba as a reason to end Cuba’s isolation, particularly within the Organization of American States (OAS).
Although Harper has tried to justify his opposition to Cuban membership based on the OAS charter, which says member states must be democracies, he conveniently ignores that many OAS governments were once ruled by military regimes, most notably Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Venezuela, Paraguay, Chile under General Pinochet, plus several Central American countries. Ironically, Fidel Castro himself overthrew a military dictatorship.
Harper, however, is clearly out of step with hemispheric governments. Speaking to the press after his role as a spoiler in the failure of last week’s summit to agree on the issue of Cuba’s future inclusion — as well as its failure to reach agreement on re-appraising the current war on drugs policy backed by the United States, also vetoed by Harper and Obama — Harper stated that his position on Cuba was based on principles concerning democracy that were not negotiable.
Interestingly, while Harper insists his demand for democratic rights in Cuba remains non-negotiable, he brazenly ignores his own double standards regarding democracy when it comes to such countries as China, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and other authoritarian regimes.
His flip-flop on China provides a sobering illustration of his malleable double standards and questionable commitment to honouring his much-touted personal principles.
After his first election as prime minister in 2006, Harper felt free to publicly criticize China for its lack of democracy and human rights deficiencies.
However, when the Canadian business community warned that his gratuitous criticisms could endanger Canadian exports to China, he abruptly jettisoned his self-proclaimed principled stand on China’s human rights violations and muted his criticisms.
In a complete reversal of his earlier stance, Harper now seeks China’s co-operation in the development of Alberta’s controversial tar sands, a key component of his pro-energy policies. Canadians apparently are expected to consider his previous denunciation of China’s lack of democracy as simply yesterday’s news.
But now it appears Harper has rediscovered his commitment to denounce human rights deficiencies in places like tiny Cuba, as long, that is, as such criticism doesn’t harm his own self-serving interests.
Harry Sterling, a former diplomat, is an Ottawa-based commentator. He served in Cuba, Venezuela and Mexico.
