The transcendence of Gov. Bill Richardson’s initiative

By Rolando Castañeda and Lorenzo Cañizares

On May 20, 2008, presidential candidate Barack Obama established a new and different agenda for Cuba. He pointed to the failure of the embargo policy (which was older than he was), the need for a new treatment for Cuba, and the inclusion and participation of Cuban-Americans in the design of that new policy. He placed the agenda in the context that we must look to the future, not to the past, and that we have to turn the page before going on.

President Obama has already adopted some significant measures in the direction he proposed. Among them the elimination of the restrictions on travel and the remittance of funds to the island by Cuban-Americans; the initiation of bilateral dialogue between the two countries on subjects of mutual interest (emigration and direct mail); the restart of people-to-people exchanges in various areas between both countries, and the permission for U.S. investments in telecommunications.

Thus, the young president is responding to a clamor from experienced politicians from both parties and American independent academicians who propose ending, once and for all, the most anachronistic relic of the Cold War. Specifically, and among others, Madeleine Albright, William Ratliff, Larry Schoultz and George Shultz have proposed to initiate immediately and without prior conditions the reestablishment of political, economic and financial relations between the two countries.

Their proposals are counter to the calibrated, partial and reciprocity-based measures recommended by others, among them, the Brookings Report, which in fact give the Cuban or American authorities a veto power on the next steps to be taken.

Last August, Bill Richardson, the successful international negotiator, governor of New Mexico and Hispanic leader with the greatest influence on the Democratic Party, traveled to the island. Richardson has given a renewed and positive push to the process of changes to break the inertia that exists between both countries. On the island, he met with Ricardo Alarcón and Dagoberto Rodríguez (*), whom he knew when Richardson was U.S. representative to the United Nations.

Prior to his trip to Havana, Richardson met with Cuban-Americans and indicated that he supports the line drawn by President Obama in 2008, which will contribute to two fundamental themes to facilitate the reestablishment of relations between the two countries: to end the animosity between the Cuban government and the diaspora by means of a dialogue and national reconciliation, and to facilitate family reunification.

The Cuban-American community increasingly favors a change in U.S. policy toward Cuba, as well as national reconciliation. It can – and wants to – contribute to the nation’s development. The press credits Richardson with approaching our compatriot Bernardo Benes in 1997 and encouraging him to renew a fruitful dialogue between the two parties, something that Bernardo engaged in in 1978. The dialogue culminated with the visits of Cuban-Americans to the island and the release of many political prisoners.

Richardson indicated that the United States should adopt measures to free the travel of Americans to the island (on sports, culture and business trips) and to broaden the people-to-people contacts so as to develop mutual trust. He said that Cuba also has to adopt changes and be more flexible in the negotiations. It is practically impossible to ask one side to make changes while the other side refuses to make them. There must be reciprocity.

The governor mentioned as concrete steps a broadening of mobilization by diplomats in the countries where they reside, an expansion of, and greater facilities for, travel and people-to-people contacts, and the start of a dialogue between the government of Cuba and Cuban-Americans, which he later volunteered to mediate.

Richardson summarized the existing situation in a press conference in Havana and later at an appearance at the University of New Mexico. In Havana, he said that the United States does not pay enough attention to the Cuban topic because he has other priorities; he also said the island is inflexible in its stances.

However, he said as an experienced and successful negotiator and optimistic leader, there is a favorable environment to begin the change. It will take time and is not easy, but must be initiated with concrete steps by both sides, he said. At the University of New Mexico, he spoke of his opposition to the embargo and the ban on Americans’ travel to the island, and offered himself as a mediator for a dialogue between the Cuban government and Cuban-Americans.

With the Obama administration, the Democratic Congress, and now Richardson’s initiative, Cuba has an extraordinary chance to normalize its relations with the United States. These would be of great benefit to expand its exports of goods and services, in particular to increase, immediately and significantly, its tourism revenues.

It can also mobilize the investments necessary to explore and exploit the offshore oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico, the great tourism potential from the U.S., and the sale of ethnic products to the Cuban-American population in Florida, which numbered 1.6 million in 2007. Cuba could also set the premises to recover the Guantánamo naval base, with its valuable infrastructure. All that could reactivate and considerably energize the Cuban economy, which urgently needs a boost to overcome the present crisis.

For that reason, we believe that the authorities on the island and the members of the diaspora should strongly support Gov. Richardson’s initiative, which he has already reported to President Obama. Richardson has offered to mediate in an informal dialogue between the authorities and Cuban-Americans and to establish an agenda that can be developed on solid bases, as well as to adopt concrete steps for the needed change. On several occasions, President Raúl Castro has indicated that he respects different opinions and that he is ready to discuss everything. We hope this is so.

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

* Editor’s Note: In a recent Miami Herald blog (Cuban Colada) entry, Progreso Weekly/Semanal collaborator Francisco Aruca expressed doubts about Richardson’s recent visit to Cuba. Here are his words, according to Herald reporter Frances Robles: “Aruca said he snooped around in Havana and does not believe Richardson spoke to ‘top level’ officials about his plan. He doesn’t believe he spoke to any person at a minister level or head of any government body. In fact, he thinks he may have only mentioned it to a single person… ‘I would not use the word “top level,” and I would not use a plural,’ Aruca told The Miami Herald last night. ‘I am not sure why he would be exaggerating about this. Maybe he spoke to Cubans in Miami about it, and came back thinking he had to look like he was going to deliver.’”