How to reach achieve real political reform in Cuba

Posted on Thursday, 05.17.12
CUBA

How to reach achieve real political reform in Cuba
BY RAY WALSER
www.heritage.org

What's the best way to mark the fifth annual Cuba Solidarity Day? If we
want to help the long-suffering people of Fidel Castro's island
"paradise," the answer should be obvious: Shine a light on the
repression and tyranny that makes daily life there such a grinding
ordeal. Show unflinching support for dissidents and advocates of
non-violent change on the island.

That's what the George W. Bush administration did on the first Cuba
Solidarity Day, May 20, 2008. Worldwide efforts focused on political
prisoners and the demands for progress and democratic change. That first
Solidarity Day attempted to look below the decks of the Cuban ship,
boring down to the unrest and unhappiness on the galley-level.

But there's another school of thought on how best to mark this day — one
that encourages "engagement" and leans more on diplomacy than
accountability.

Today, thanks to the Obama administration, as well as left-leaning think
tanks in Washington and New York, an effort is underway to steer an
opposite course — one that moves, incredibly enough, closer to
cooperation with the Castro regime. Tossed overboard are demands for
human rights, freedom and dignity for Cubans. In their place: the siren
song of tourism partnerships and exchanges of academics and musicians.

A fresh wave of Cubans is disembarking on and around May 20 to
participate in Cuba's latest charm offensive. The capstone visit for
this round features Mariela Castro Espín, daughter of Raul Castro and an
activist for gay and lesbian rights, at the Latin American Studies
Association in San Francisco. She will be received with acclaim as a
voice of progressive tolerance on issues of individual sexual preference.

The objective of these latest Cuban visitors — salaried employees and
privileged members of the regime — is to convince ordinary Americans
that Cuba is already on a course to better days. We're to believe that
major economic change is underway, and that small portions of
"democratic space," as the Obama administration fondly refers to it, are
being carved out.

The ultimate goal of spokespersons such as Mariela Castro is relatively
simple: Win the coveted U.S. imprimatur of acceptance for Cuban-style,
post-Castro socialism, and smooth the way for full diplomatic
recognition. The eventual goal, of course, is to bring down the 1996
Helms-Burton Act and with it the trade embargo. That way, the fabled
Castro Revolution may continue on a course of channeled change, with a
succession of next-generation party apparatchiks, bureaucrats and
military leaders fully in control in the wheelhouse.

Yet, as the Bush administration knew, and the Obama administration seems
to forget, authentic change in Cuba requires far more than institutional
tinkering and piecemeal economic reform or the creation of manufactured
"democratic space." It means taking these five fundamental steps toward
authentic political reform:

• Recognition of the right to independent political parties to exist
legally and operate freely.
• Free and fair elections.
• Genuine freedom of expression, including unfiltered access to the
Internet.
• Freedom of association for civil society, private enterprise and
organized labor.
• Genuine rule of law and human rights standards, which include the
release of all remaining political prisoners.

Nothing more — and nothing less — will do.

The first step to real solidarity with the Cuban people is to correct an
erroneous impression that the hired guns and apologists for the Castro
regime who ride in first class cabins speak for all Cubans. Time for
truth in advertising! They represent the Castro regime. They speak for
the power elite in Havana. And they have clearly in view a succession
scenario, or "soft landing," for the post-Castro era.

On May 20, those interested in the future of U.S.-Cuba relations, and
authentic liberty on the island, need to remember that the authentic
voices of change are far more likely to be found below decks in Cuba's
permanent steerage class. Here you find the people barred from
traveling. Here are the ones with limited access to the outside world.
Here are the ones constantly harassed and threatened, left in jail and
treated as enemies of the state.

It's a difficult course to steer, but it's the only one that will effect
change. Solidarity with Cuba's people begins below decks, not in luxury
cabins with ocean views.

Ray Walser, a veteran Foreign Service officer, is a senior policy
analyst specializing in Latin America at The Heritage Foundation.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/17/2804508/how-to-reach-achieve-real-political.html