Will the ‘pressure cooker’ explode?

HAVANA – Since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution one of the objectives of U.S. policy has been to increase internal pressures to destabilize the country. Examples of these are the economic blockade and the tensions caused by migratory policy. Graphically speaking, some refer to this policy as applying so much pressure that the ‘pressure cooker’ finally explodes.

Obama distanced himself from this strategy by considering it a failed policy. His goal was the opposite; he sought to facilitate the development of capitalism in Cuba, and the relations with the United States, in the hope that Cubans would end up repudiating socialism. It was an application of so-called “intelligent power” that guided his foreign policy.

For reasons closely associated with his electoral aspirations, Trump has returned to the old policy of trying to blow up the Cuban pressure cooker. The blockade has intensified and the creation of migratory tensions is once again an ingredient of this recipe.

It has reached extremes that seemed unthinkable. With the excuse of the ethereal sonic attacks, the consulate was closed in Cuba and, unilaterally, the migratory agreements have been canceled — a relic of the few bilateral relations that, apart from the constant conflicts, had survived since 1994, because they were of interest to both countries.

This decision converted Cubans, once privileged when it came to U.S. immigration policy, into one of the groups least favored by it. Family reunification programs, which allowed up to 20,000 Cubans to migrate to the United States each year, have been reduced to a minimum. On the other hand, visits to the United States, which reached tens of thousands of people each year, barely reached 4,000 in 2017, due to the difficulties and expenses involved in having to arrange them through other countries.

These restrictions have just been imposed by eliminating the five-year visa for multiple entries and exits. The excuse used was that Cuba did not act in a reciprocal way with American travelers, when in fact, traveling to Cuba is so simple for these persons that sometimes all it takes is the purchase of a tourist card at any airport.

These new measures undoubtedly create discontent and tensions in Cuba. They affect an area as sensitive and comprehensive as family relations. And yet nothing indicates that the country will experience some kind of social explosion as a result of these limitations. This is so partly because Cuban migration policy does not prevent Cubans from traveling to other countries and they are welcome in many places around the world. According to MINREX data, last year 200,000 Cubans made use of this possibility.

It is difficult to imagine that the current U.S. policy will generate any kind of support in Cuba, especially when most everyone knows that the Cuban government is not to blame for this situation.

In fact, sectors identified by the U.S. government as potential agents of change on the Island say the emerging private sector has been particularly affected by these measures. Even the so-called dissident groups, many which act under U.S. patronage, have complained about the difficulties they now face traveling to the United States, one of their main motivations.

Some believe this policy will have to change because it affects the services responsible for reporting on the Cuban reality. But it is worth asking if its advocates really want the U.S. to have the capacity to produce an objective view of Cuba. Historically, U.S. policy toward Cuba has been built on false premises, and has acted according to preconceived objectives. Most of the time the U.S. government has ended up believing its own propaganda and acting accordingly.

The Cuban-American extreme right has been an essential component in the construction of this media-friendly matrix and part of their plan has been opposition to contacts with Cuba, or to hinder them when they have had the influence to do so.

These groups unleashed a fierce terrorist campaign against the emigrants who accepted the dialogue with Cuba and the resumption of visits to the country in 1979. They violently attacked any manifestation of cultural or sports exchanges between the two countries and vehemently opposed the migratory agreements of 1984 and 1994.

Encouraged by these people, George W. Bush reduced the possibility of family travel to Cuba to once every three years. His administration also constricted the concept of family allowed to travel to one with first degree consanguineous links.

Regardless of the damage they cause the people they claim to represent, the influence that the extreme Cuban-American right has acquired in the Donald Trump administration has served to revitalize these policies.

In fact, the stance these groups take adheres to the ideas and interests of the so-called “historical exiles,” those who arrived in the United States before 1973, and mostly came from the most privileged sectors of Cuban society before the Revolution. This group has reached powerful positions in the community and, beyond its political intransigence, has been characterized by its contempt for those Cubans who arrived later who have lived another existential experience, with closer links with the Cuban society of today.

It is not strange then that the extreme right dynamite the migratory agreements, create barriers for family contacts, and even propose a revision of the Cuban Adjustment Act, bulwark of the exceptionality of the Cuban immigrants.

It is true that until now there have been no significant reactions in the Cuban-American community against these policies. On the contrary, the most aggressive positions have been stirred and stimulated by Trump’s words and actions against Cuba.

In addition, this reinforces the fear created by the extreme right that it has always been able to impose on the rest of the community.

However, it is impossible to sustain such a policy that contradicts the opinion of the majority, runs over the feelings of many people, affects a network of businesses of considerable importance for the state of Florida, and harms large American companies interested in the Cuban market.

The pressure cooker that is the Cuban-American community is being exposed to many pressures and can explode at any moment, putting into crisis a political structure based on the cult of hatred and with no foothold in reality.