Cuba

The Havana Note: Neocon-Realist Collaboration on Ending Cuba Embargo?

The Havana Note — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:11:00 -0500

Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw "Radek" Sikorski, husband of Washington Post editorial writer (and Polish cuisine expert) Anne Applebaum, is a compelling, brilliant, eclectic political intellectual who I admire a great deal. In part, I admire Sikorski because while tenacious and committed to his own analysis and views, he maintains an open mind; he listens; and while tenacious, he debates his intellectual opponents without going into the gutter. And he is occasionally unpredictable in all the right ways...

Former Sec of State George Shultz says QUOTE ME: End the US-Cuba Embargo. End the Travel Ban.

Patrick Doherty — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:14:00 -0400

Former Reagan Administration Secretary of Treasury and Secretary of State George Shultz thinks that the US embargo against Cuba should "simply be lifted." In a letter issued by Secretary Shultz to David Dreyer and the Center for Democracy in the Americas, Shultz writes (pdf available here):

I have long felt and have said publicly on a number of occasions that, with the cold war behind us, we should simply remove the embargo on Cuba. I'm glad to hear that you are making headway on a bill that would repeal the travel ban for all Americans. This is a step in the right direction. I am glad to be on record, and you may quote me as supporting this effort.

Shultz echoes sentiments offered by former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft who has stated that the US-Cuba embargo makes no sense in foreign policy terms. Shultz's views are not exactly new as he said that American sanctions against Cuba were "ridiculous" on the Charlie Rose Show in April 2008. His comments were not as widely reported as they should have been at that time, however.

Shultz said:

I think our policy of sanctions against Cuba is ridiculous. During the cold war it made sense because it was a Russian base. They used it for flying spying missions, and so on, but that's over. And all we do by our sanctions is allow Castro, and now maybe his brother, to blame the problems of Cuba on us. And at the same time I think particularly now that there's some transitioning of some kind probably coming about, we're much more likely to get a constructive outcome if there's a lot of interaction. And to try to prevent interaction under these circumstances, I don't think is sensible. -- former Secretary of State George Shultz interviewed by Charlie Rose, 4/24/08

President Barack Obama invited George Shultz two weeks ago to join him along with Henry Kissinger, former Defense Secretary William Perry, and former Senator Sam Nunn to observe Obama chairing a Security Council Meeting at the United Nations on the subject of nuclear non-proliferation and arms control. I watched President Obama greet Shultz and the other world leaders and special guests -- and it was obvious to me sitting in that chamber that President Obama connected with George Shultz and valued his presence that day. The Obama national security team should take stock of George Shultz's views on the only part of the Cold War that managed to get colder during the Bush administration and do much more to thaw the ice in this hemisphere. The US-Cuba embargo undermines America's position in the world. Everyone knows this. Barack Obama knows this. There will be a vote in a couple of weeks in the United Nations that has practically become ritual. About 185 nations will vote against the US, Israel, and one or two of our island protectorates on the US embargo of Cuba. It's time to end America's isolation on this anachronistic stand that mattered perhaps in the 1960s, if then, but definitely is "ridiculous" today.

-- Steve Clemons

Doherty: Catholic Bishops Call for an End to the Embargo

The Havana Note — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 07:37:00 -0400

Pope Benedict XVI and President Obama meet at the Vatican (White House Photo) In a well-publicized visit to the island of Cuba, a delegation from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops this week called on Havana and Washington to "listen to our better angels" and work to end the embargo that has caused decades of unnecessary suffering on the people of both nations. That's good advice...

Embrace the Economic Changes

The Havana Note — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:16:00 -0400

The monthly food ration for a Cuban adult. Photo credit Javier Galeano/AP.

One of the most hopeful signs that both the U.S. policy of regime change and the Cuban policy of total resistance is melting was the joint military exercise at the Northeast gate of Guantanamo earlier this month. It is just really hard to maintain that the other side is all that bad if our armed forces are training to save each others' lives rather than kill each other.

Imagine that happening in North Korea or Iran.

Progress on our Common Interests

The Havana Note — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 21:20:00 -0400

The recently turned-off ticker sign at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.

I want to share a little nugget of my analysis that helps to get past the zero-sum conditionality question that my colleagues John McCauliffe and Phil Peters have recently posted on.

I think we can describe the current U.S. policy as having the following attributes:

1. Rhetorical Caution
2. Regulatory Inertia
3. Operational License...

Doherty: Guantanamo Exercise Underscores Changes

The Havana Note — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 03:28:00 -0400

After nearly ten years of discretion, the existence of U.S.-Cuba joint military and civilian first responder exercises has broken to the surface in a very visible way. And that is news...

Blowing Away The Embargo

The Havana Note — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:28:00 -0400

A National Hurricane Center photo montage showing the path of Hurricane Ike, 2008. My latest article, called "Cuba, Nothwithstanding" is now available online and in the stores, thanks to the good people at the Washington Monthly. Here's the teaser: President Obama doesn't necessarily need Congress's support to lift the trade embargo on Cuba. Under the right conditions, he could lift it unilaterally, if he were so inclined. And those conditions are dictated by, of all things, the weather. Click here to read the full article.

Doherty: Honduras and Cuba: Ending the Hypocrisy

The Havana Note — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:42:00 -0400

President Eisenhower and Cuban President Batista meet in Panama.

One of the most difficult communications challenges for President Obama will be overcoming America's history of ideological hypocrisy. In his speech in Cairo, Mr. Obama started down this path, recognizing that our own history in the Middle East, such as the invasion of Iraq and the coup against the popularly-elected Iranian government of Mossadegh, was less than stellar. Indeed, whenever the United States has intervened on behalf of democracy and everyday human rights, our efforts have generally made things worse. Iraq, Grenada and Vietnam come readily to mind. The premature elections in Palestine and the failed 50-year old embargo on Cuba are also examples. Democracy is an organic and indigenous political condition and cannot be imposed by intervention or isolation...

Doherty: Cuban Five: An Opportunity for Change Cubans Can Believe In

The Havana Note — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:14:00 -0400

Yesterday, the Supreme Court of the United States officially refused to hear the case known as the "Cuban Five." That puts an important ball back in the administration's court.

The Cuban Five are five men convicted in federal court of unregistered foreign agents. To grossly oversimplify, the men were indeed agents of the Cuban government but they were not spying on the U.S. Government. Rather, they were trying to infiltrate the various right-wing paramilitary groups--and the groups supporting them--that are operating outside U.S. law in South Florida and seeking to destabilize Havana. What brought the case to the Supreme Court however, was not the question of whether the Five were spies. Rather, the case went to the highest court in the land because instead of getting the standard 6 year prison sentence they got 25 years and the Five were not granted a change of venue. They were tried in Miami, where it is arguably impossible for accused Cuban agents to get a fair hearing. It was, plain and simple a miscarriage of justice...

Clemons: What Is Most Important in the US-Cuba Policy Narrative?

The Havana Note — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 19:14:00 -0400

My colleague Patrick Doherty decided to push back on the comments made by Cuba's Ambassador in Geneva today that Human Rights Watch was somehow a tool of the U.S. government.

Doherty made the case that Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other groups concerned with improving the human condition in Cuba actually oppose the United States embargo of Cuba and are as such bedfellows along with a growing coalition of US State governors, travel and agricultural groups -- as well as serious foreign policy strategists -- who think that this embargo significantly undermines American interests. I am glad that HRW and these other NGOs see the perversity of the US embargo and how it has damaged the human rights of Cuban citizens.

Human Rights Watch also made clear that its funding is one hundred percent private.

All that said, there is a tendency on all sides of the US-Cuba debate to fall into a circular, never ending debate about what place the human rights question should have in our debate to end the Embargo. That is not my lens...