Cuba

Michael Moore's recent documentary has redrawn some attention to Cuba. In the movie, Moore takes several 9/11 rescue workers to Cuba to receive medical care. Those rescue workers were refused care by the U.S. government despite the fact that they were harmed during rescue attempts and not told about the dangers to their respiratory system from working so long around the WTC rubble. In Cuba, the rescue workers simply walked into a local pharmacy and then a hospital in Havana to receive free state-of-the-art medical care. For his transgressions, Michael Moore is being investigated for breaking American law by visiting Cuba without permission.

The point of this post is not to talk about Cuba's health care program. The point is to talk about the insanity of our current trade embargo and visiting restrictions on the country. But before I get to that, I want to talk a little about health care in Cuba. The documentary has spawned a reaction form both conservative and mainstream media trying to debunk the myths supposedly perpetuated by Moore in the film. I'll just say it: these "journalists" don't know what they're talking about. They assume that because it's Castro's Cuba, the country could not possibly have a comparable if not better health care system than the United States. There must be some hidden evil. A basic exploration of the country would prove otherwise: Cuba has devoted itself to building an exemplary health and educational system that some Americans would find envious. They have done this by sacrificing GDP growth. You may argue that the cost is too high, but if people are being educated, protected, and remain healthy, who's to say they're worse off? Not only has Cuba provided for its citizens, but it has also sent health workers all across the third world to train and treat the impoverished. It has also brought in people from across the world to train in its prestigious Havana University so that they may return home and use their acquired knowledge in their homeland. In fact, many young Americans have chosen to attend the university in what they believe is a unique educational experience. Many "journalists" have pointed out ways in which Cuba's educational or health care system is inferior (for example, there is only one place in Cuba to really receive this top-shelf medical care--Havana, where Moore goes, although anyone can go there and there are local doctors and pharmacies everywhere), but they neglect to mention that the U.S. is the richest country in the world, while Cuba is one of the poorest, with a GDP per capita of $2,000 and that for Cuba to have a system that in any way compares to the most powerful country on earth is laughable.

So, if Cuba isn't evil incarnate, why do we have such strict trade and visiting restrictions? Let's look at the history: in 1959, Castro overthrew a dictator supported by the United States named Batista. Batista was one in a long run of dictators in Cuba that had ruled pretty much none stop since the United States "freed" the island from Spanish tyranny during the Spanish-American War in 1898. When Castro took power, America was not sure what to think. They had never been confronted with a victorious political movement in Cuba that they had not directly sponsored. I'm no communist, and neither was Castro. Castro's main goal was to redistribute Cuba's oligopolized land, establish an educational and health care system, and end Cuba's economic dependence on American purchase of Cuban sugar. He made several diplomatic attempts to work with America in reforming his nation.

However, those feelers were rejected by America. Instead, the U.S. placed an embargo on Cuban sugar, crippling the economy. Castro then traveled to America to try to smooth things over to no avail. It was during this trip that the CIA first attempted to assassinate him. They failed, but Castro found out about it.

It was only after Castro's visit to the U.S. that he even contacted the Soviet Union. Why would he turn to the communists that he had worked so hard to purge from his movement during the revolution? Because the U.S. was trying to kill him! The U.S. was also trying to depose Castro using Cuban exiles in what would become the Bay of Pigs debacle.

Let's look at these Cuban exiles. These "exiles" came in three groups. The first were not exiles at all...they simply ran away. Mostly Batista collaborators and EXTREMELY wealthy sugar plantation owners/ Havana nightclub and casino owners with close links to the American mafia, they had fled because they feared their immense wealth would be ceased by the state and they hated anyone with a hint of leftism. The second group were exiled in the sense that if they didn't leave, they would have been jailed or killed. Again these were often extremely wealthy individuals who had been exploiting agricultural workers for immense financial gain. Albeit, conservatives (basically those that were in or were associated with the military) were also persecuted and fled. What is remarkable about this group was how 'white' these early exiles were. Cuba, then, was strictly divided between its white and "mixed" populations. For the most part, the whites owned all the land and the "mixed" did all the work. The whites were mostly old Spanish creole landowners with a scattering of former American families that fled the South after the Civil War. Fearing attacks from the people that had ruled over for decades, these whites fled to America and began organizing a way to overthrow Castro and his egalitarian message...this would become the Bay of Pigs.

I'll talk about the third group later, so let's go back to why Castro approached the Soviet Union. As I pointed out, the U.S. attempted to kill Castro and would launch an entire campaign throughout the 1960s dedicated to that purpose called Operation Mongoose (documents were completely declassified earlier this month, but they were already widely known), which used everything from poisoned food to exploding cigars. The U.S. was also threatening to invade the island or at least support a takeover attempt by Cuban exiles. Castro and Cuba did not have many resources. To protect itself from America it only had one option: the Soviet Bloc. The Soviets were more than happy to give Cuba everything it wanted if nothing else than to irk America. The Soviets gave Cuba arms, trade deals, and finally nuclear missiles (which gave us the Cuban missile crisis).

In response the United States placed a complete trade embargo on Cuba which included tourism and necessarily meant that Americans could not visit the island. It is this embargo that remains with us today. Until 6 years ago, Americans could not go to Cuba for any reason. Now, with special permission, you may visit the island for educational purposes (basically you have to be a med student or grad student studying Latin American politics or something.) This embargo has remained as the only absolute embargo on any country in the world by the United States despite the fall of communism in 1989 and despite the fact that we have most favored nation status with China, a country actually ran by a communist party.

So the question is, why do we hate Cuba so much? As the argument goes, Cuba is an oppressive regime and only a trade embargo will force Castro out of power. Anyone who believes this doesn't know what they're talking about. Firstly, simple trial and error of 50 years should tell us that the embargo will not force Castro from power. It obviously hasn't worked.

Secondly, I don't argue that Cuba is an oppressive country or that it's leader is a corrupt megalomaniac (some estimates put Castro as one of the 20 richest people in the world). Castro allows almost no political dissidence. He uses harsh methods including torture to punish his enemies. In all likelihood thousands of political prisoners have been killed by his regime.
But let's make an incomplete list of countries that the United States has only not placed embargoes upon but has supported and even allied with who were oppressive and used torture as official policy (some of these countries have since reformed, so I'll indicate what period I'm talking about in parentheses when appropriate):

China, Chile (Pinochet), Nicaragua (Somoza), Peru (63-80), Uruguay (73-85), Saudi Arabia, Iran (under the Sha), South Vietnam, Phillipines (Marcos), Indonesia (Suharto), Turkey, Spain (Franco), Portugal (Salazar), Greece (67-75), Argentina (2 military dictatorships), Bolivia (75-80), Brazil (64-85), Guatemala (54-91), El Salvador (32-83), Honduras (50s to 90), Uzbekistan, Romania, Yugoslavia (Tito).

Well, that's all I could think of. The point is that the U.S. since '59 has not had a problem supporting countries with human rights abuses comparable if not worse than those occurring (that occurred) in Cuba. The list includes mostly right-wing military dictatorships, but also includes some lefties like China, Uzbekistan (sorta), and Yugoslavia. In other words, there must be another reason.

So, what's the real reason? One of the real reasons is that the Cuban exiles form a very powerful block of voters and financial resources particularly in the swing state Florida that have forced presidential candidates to remain strictly opposed to Castro and committed to the embargo. Although the initial group of Cuban exiles was relatively small, during the late 1960s and 1970s a flood of Cubans arrived in Florida as refugees constituting the third group I mentioned earlier. Most were not running away from political persecution, although some were, but instead were running away from poverty, ironically caused by the American blockade. Met in Southern Florida by arch-conservative politically active Cubans from the initial fleeing, these "mixed" Cubans that now make up a large majority of the Cuban-American population are equally anti-Castro and have been convinced that the embargo is the best way to punish him. Unfortunately, these ex-Cubans are contributing to the crippling poverty that has struck the country since 1989 as the fall of the Soviet Union not only meant an end to subsidies, but also a viable trade partner (China, as we have learned, are not interested in American much less Cuban goods.)

Instead of blaming the ex-Cubans, we should be blaming the politicians that cowardly continue the ridiculous embargo. President Bush, who will not face another election, could push for an end to the embargo, but he won't because of the harm it will do to his party and possibly the next Bush presidential candidate Jeb Bush (former Gov. of Florida fully committed to making Cuba suffer). Clinton could have done it after 1996, but instead he used his last efforts to pardon ex-Cuban drug smugglers who just happened to reward their legal representatives (Hugh and Tony RODHAM...hmmm...) handsomely for their successful effort to get them clemency.

The embargo doesn't punish Castro, it punishes Cuba and Cubans. Prohibitions against travel to Cuba, with all its harking back to the glorious days of the Soviet Union's migration restrictions, hurts Americans (and Cubans), not Castro. In a post-Cold War world, the embargo is insane. What threat does Cuba give to America? Maybe someone doesn't want you to know about their health and educational system. Maybe someone doesn't want to admit that the Castro problem was an American made problem. Maybe someone is afraid that if they end it now, people will realize there was no reason to have it in the first place.