Winds of change in Cuba
The
following editorial appeared in Ohio’s The Toledo Blade.
Change
is in the air across Cuba, and the Bush Administration would be wise
to chart a new course to take advantage of a rare opportunity to
encourage reform in the island Communist nation.
Since
taking up the reins for his ailing brother Fidel, new President Raul
Castro has begun to make good on a promise to do away with “excessive
restrictions.”
The
government recently ended the ban on Cubans buying and using cell
phones.
Cubans
will be able to stay at resort hotels, rent automobiles, and use
amenities such as hotel gyms that had been reserved for foreign
tourists. And Cubans also will be able to buy electric bicycles,
DVDs, computers, microwave ovens, and other items that previously had
been available only for companies and foreigners.
Certainly,
few in Cuba, where the average monthly salary is less that $20, will
be able to afford to take advantage of the new freedoms, but that’s
hardly the point.
Some
Cubans do have enough money to pay even $173 a night to stay at
Havana’s Ambos Mundos hotel, others are already planning to save up
for the once-unreachable luxuries, and all will now know that hard
work and thrift have their rewards.
More
importantly, the changes show that Raul Castro, who is also reforming
the agricultural sector to reduce red tape and increase food
production, is serious about improving the lot of the Cuban people.
His actions should be encouraged.
But
if past history is any guide, the Bush Administration won’t see
this as an opportunity to revise its Cuba policy. Instead, pandering
to Florida’s Cuban exile community in this election year, the White
House is more likely to claim that 50 years of trade restrictions are
paying dividends and suggest turning the screws tighter.
As
he did as recently as last month, President Bush also may again
pledge to help the Cuban people “realize the blessings of liberty”
and insist on democratic reforms before easing economic restrictions.
Democracy,
however, is the wrong precondition for change. Improve the economic
condition of the Cuban people and they will begin demanding greater
freedom without our help. Therefore, the United States should praise
Fidel’s brother (instead of calling him “dictator light”) and
resolve to do what we can to facilitate his reform program.
That
is the middle path available between those who want to unilaterally
end the five-decade-old U.S. embargo and those for whom the only
acceptable change in Cuba is the immediate dismantling of the
Communist regime. Not taking the middle path will only prolong Cuban
suffering.
