Obama – singing the same old song

By Keith Bolender

Last week President Obama was interviewed by Miami-based Univision 23 and was asked to comment on the potential for better relations with Cuba based on the major economic changes taking place on the island. His response, obviously directed at the hard-right exile community, sounded more like something his predecessor would have said.

“We haven’t seen those changes in a realistic way yet. I mean we’ve heard some talk but the bottom line is political prisoners are still there who should have been released a long time ago who never should have been arrested in the first place; political dissent is still not tolerated. The economic system there is still far too constrained. And so my hope is that Cuba starts moving into the 21st century. If you think about it, Castro came into power before I was born – he’s still there and he basically has the same system when the rest of the world has recognized that the system doesn’t work. Obviously everything we do as an administration is going to be focused on how do we deliver more prosperity and more liberty for the Cuban people. And I would welcome real change from the Cuban government but we haven’t seen them deliver on that change yet.”

It’s not the first time Obama has made such statements indicating whatever economic or political changes taking place in Cuba, it won’t be good enough. Saying basically the same months ago in front of a group of Latin media, Obama is singing the same old song – imposing American insistence on change to their standards before any movement towards normalization can be considered. Critics claim the U.S. consistently diminishes reforms in Cuba as insufficient, indicating no desire to encourage change, only the re-integration of the island into America’s political and economic sphere.

Obama seems clear he supports that strategy. Which makes his current comments even more disappointing and hypocritical based on what he had previously said.

Back in 2003, he categorized U.S. diplomacy toward Cuba as a miserable failure, explaining: “I support the eventual normalization. And it’s absolutely true that I think our policy has been a failure. During my entire lifetime, Cuba has been isolated, but has not made progress when it comes to the issues of political rights and personal freedoms. So I think that we have to shift policy.”

During the Democratic candidates’ debate in February 2008 he commented on a possible meeting with Raul Castro. “We now have an opportunity to potentially change the relationship between the United States and Cuba after over half a century. I would meet without preconditions, although . . . there has to be preparation.”

Those remarks engendered a level of expectation Obama would bring a different perspective to the Cuban question if ever elected president. Sadly, that optimism has vanished. The resultant disillusionment has been expressed by many Cuban experts, including former head of the American interest section in Havana, Wayne Smith, who said: “We’d hoped for a new approach. We haven’t got it. Obama lifted restrictions on Cuban-American travel and remittances and has allowed a few more Cuban officials and cultural figures to come to the United States, but that is about it. The same attitudes that drove the Bush administration regarding Cuba seem to be present in Obama.”

Obama’s comments to Univision are all the more discouraging as he allowed nothing positive in response to the changes taking place in Cuba. Realizing he was speaking to an audience primarily in favor of non-engagement with their homeland, it was still a remarkably narrow and inaccurate description. Far from recognizing the Cuba system doesn’t work, it can be argued that much of Latin America is moving closer to segments of the Cuban social justice model while the rest of the world is rejecting the oligarchy controlling American corporate capitalism.

The president’s observation regarding political prisoners seems to entirely ignore the release of all of the so-called dissidents arrested back in 2003, and doesn’t square with most human rights organizations that accept Cuba now has few if any prisoners of conscious. Unless Obama was talking about the place on the island where it is acknowledged political prisoners do remain – Guantanamo Bay.

Additionally, his command that Cuba should change their economic system is the broken record of the past half-century of American hostility, and the Castro government simply retorts it is not up to the United States, or anyone, to determine how Cuba conducts its internal policies. Not to mention the hypocrisy of how America deals with other countries such as the medieval monarchy in Saudi Arabia.

Obama’s predecessor George Bush Jr. was well known and upfront about his desire to force change on American terms upon Cuba. Obama the candidate seemingly had the opposite view; Obama the president has fallen entirely in line. And that’s what makes his comments all the more disappointing and incongruous. At least Bush Jr. was honest about it, Obama’s complete turnaround is the worst type of political pandering.  He is, however, an American president and as such is susceptible to the same overriding internal bi-partisan considerations when it comes to the important swing state of Florida.

Speaking to the hard-right exile community in Miami is an easy thing to do: it’s politically expedient, and it plays well to the anti-Castro crowd where Cuba bashing is, in the words of Washington lawyer Jose Pertierra, “Like ordering pizza – it’s cheap and easy and everyone likes you for it.” The anticipation, however, was that Obama would rise above the past and connect more with the new dynamics of the Cuban American community that polls show is moving towards a majority in favor of engagement with their homeland. Not continue with the same tired, old recipe of failure.

Keith Bolender is author of Voices From the Other Side: An Oral History of Terrorism Against Cuba. (Pluto Press 2010)