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03/02/13 - nwitimes.com - GUEST COMMENTARY: Lingering Cold War legacy in Cuba is fading 

By Arthur I Cyr

Cuba's President Raul Castro has made notable news by announcing on Feb. 24
that he will retire from that office in 2018. His older brother Fidel
stepped down from the same post in 2008, after turning 85 years of age.

Reflecting the iron control the regime has exercised since early 1959, the
designated successor to President Castro was announced simultaneously.
Miguel Diaz-Miguel Bermudez, a protege of Raul, is a loyal functionary who
has developed a reputation for bureaucratic effectiveness through
administering rural provinces. At age 52, he arguably represents a youthful
wave in this quiet geriatric pond. Given the extremely slow pace of change
in Cuba, and the remarkable half-century tenure of the Brothers Castro,
this benchmark event deserves some attention and reflection.

Last year marked the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis of
October 1962, when the world stood at the edge of general nuclear war.
This was a singular event but also a punctuation mark in a very long
history of difficulties between Havana and Washington.

Raul Castro, by all accounts, lacks the popular appeal of his older
brother. Enemies join with admirers in agreeing Fidel possessed a unique
leadership style before age and illness led him to retire from the
presidency. His singular charisma continues to facilitate the regime's
half-century in power.

After Havana was captured and despised dictator Fulgencio Batista fled in
early 1959, Raul Castro handled bloody mass executions with efficient
dispatch, and since has provided effective leadership of the military and a
pervasive domestic security apparatus.

Soon after taking power, the Castro brothers ended hopes for representative
democracy and nationalized major industries, including U.S. corporate
assets. Fidel Castro highlighted alliance with the Soviet Union by joining
Nikita Khrushchev in a remarkably raucous 1960 visit to the United Nations,
in session in New York, punctuated by the Soviet leader publicly pounding a
shoe on a desk.

The Eisenhower administration began a clandestine effort to overthrow the
increasingly radical regime. The successor Kennedy administration
drastically escalated such efforts. The Cuban Missile Crisis occurred in
this context.

In recent years, the evolution of the Americas toward democratic
governments has been striking. As a result, Cuba is more isolated than
ever. Radical Venezuela provides important but limited aid.

When Fidel Castro stepped down, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a
formal public statement endorsed the desirability of "peaceful, democratic
change" in Cuba and also suggested the "international community" work with
the people there. The Bush administration had been pursuing a particularly
restrictive hard line toward that island nation.

President Barack Obama early in his first term loosened extremely tight
restrictions on interchange with Cuba. Cuban-Americans are now allowed to
travel and send financial remittances to relatives still living there.

The punitive Helms-Burton Act, passed during the Clinton administration in
an effort to court the fiercely anti-Castro Cuban population of Florida,
does not prohibit these exchanges.

Cuba today encourages trade and investment, along with loosening travel
restrictions. In this context, the American economy has great advantages.
As part of such efforts, we should work to expand cultural and educational
as well as personal family exchanges with the island.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower initiated comparable programs with the
Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War, to great benefit. As Ike
saw, the arts and science represent universal languages. The wisest
warriors appreciate peace.


Original Source / Fuente Original:
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