[La Razon, Bolivia]
La Nacion, Chile
Making Sense of the
U.S. Blockade of Cuba
"What distinguishes Cuba from
China or Vietnam in the eyes of the United States? … When Castro enrolled Cuba in
the socialist camp in the midst of the Cold War - the U.S. simply couldn't permit
the installation of hostile bases that, in case of war, might impede navigation
in the Gulf of Mexico."
By Raul Sohr
Translated By Elise Nussbaum
April 19, 2009
Chile
- La Nacion - Original Article (Spanish)
What distinguishes Cuba from
China or Vietnam in the eyes of the United States? All three countries are ruled
by communist parties and define democracy from an economic and social perspective.
First and most important to all of their ideologues is that people have food,
health, housing and education. What use is freedom if they live in misery and
ignorance? For decades the question has been formulated in various ways.
Democracy, from the standpoint of what is known as social realism, is the
right of the masses to enjoy the benefits of economic progress. The political
dimension is relegated, for the sake of national harmony, to a later phase - a
phase unknown to every nation ever led by a communist party. This means that
there are no competitive elections to guarantee equal conditions to all
participants - there is no freedom of the press or opinion. For those who cross
the lines of tolerated dissent, harassment, jail or exile
await.
Although the three socialist states
share these characteristics, they are treated very differently by Washington.
China and Vietnam have full political relations with the United States, despite
the fact that the U.S. battled the Chinese in Korea and fought its longest war
in Vietnam, where it lost 58,000 men. This past doesn't impede a blossoming
trade with the two Asian countries.
So what's the reason for enforcing
a trade embargo with Cuba which has already lasted half a century - particularly
when it's obvious that the blockade hasn't achieved the desired objectives? The
Cuban regime has had the capacity to survive frontal attacks like the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, a
multitude of covert operations and aggressions of various kinds. Havana today
all but carries on normal trade with every country but the United States. Has
the embargo affected the island? It has of course hurt Cuba by making it poorer,
but that hasn't been enough to trigger regime change. On the contrary, many
believe that the siege has helped cause a majority of the population to close
ranks behind the government.
'A PASSING
FAD?'
[El
Nuevo Diario, Nicaragua]
Cuba’s biggest problem in the
context of international relations is that it's a small island in very close
proximity to the U.S. Being in the Caribbean, Cuba rests in a body of water
that Washington considers its own by right - as in the Monroe Doctrine, which in
1823 maintained that a safe and friendly Latin America required the presence of
the United States.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
The shamelessness shown by some
in the U.S. press during the campaign to wrest Cuba from the hands of the
Spanish [the Spanish-American
War] has gone down in the annals of journalism. Bored
because no fighting had broken out, a photographer sent to Havana to cover the impending
war asked his publisher, William Randolph Hearst,
if he could return home. Hearst responded, "You provide the photos,
I’ll provide the war."
The 1898 conflict was brief,
and President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed at its conclusion, "it was a splendid
little war, the best we ever had." The victory allowed the U.S. to obtain
the now sadly infamous base/prison at Guantanamo Bay. In 1903, Washington was
granted a lease to the land in perpetuity. It was all part of its plan to keep
the Caribbean under full U.S. control.
[Editor's Note: Actually,
Roosevelt wasn't president until after Cuba was in American hands. In order to
participate in the war, Roosevelt resigned as assistant secretary of the Navy and
joined the famed "Rough
Riders" - an infantry division. The quote that the author refers to
was taken from a letter to Roosevelt by his friend, who was U.S. ambassador to England].
[El Espectador,
Colombia]
Later on, Cuba became a kind
of Las Vegas, a place where American tourists could give free rein to their
fantasies. At the time of the revolution, Havana counted 270 registered
brothels and thousands of bars with women, men and children to satisfy the
desires of visitors. American businesses controlled 90 percent of production.
The fall of Fulgencio
Batista, who was backed by Washington, gave way in 1959 to the regime
headed by Fidel Castro. The nationalization of many farms and ranches is the
technical cause - and it has been argued that the embargo was imposed due to a
lack of compensation. But when Castro enrolled Cuba in the socialist camp in
the midst of the Cold War - the U.S. simply couldn't permit the installation of
hostile bases that, in case of war, might impede navigation in the Gulf of
Mexico.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
At the same time, the exodus
of thousands of Cubans to settle in the United States was a phenomenon that
took on a life of its own. Many of the exiles became prosperous businessmen and
influential politicians. The state of Florida, essential in presidential
elections, couldn't ignore the immigrant vote. The anti-Castro rancor of many
of them was in direct proportion to the maltreatment they suffered before
leaving Cuba. Thus the Cuban question became a motif of U.S. domestic politics.
Today there's a new
generation of Cubans in the United States, Fidel Castro is no longer in power
and the embargo doesn't serve the slightest useful purpose. There are no valid
reasons, from the standpoint of political realism, to continue to exclude Cuba
from the fraternity of nations to which it belongs.
CLICK HERE FOR SPANISH
VERSION
[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US April 20, 1:19am]
