ENCASA's Important Analysis of Bush transition plan
- From: periodistalibre@xxxxxxx
- Date: 14 Jul 2006 10:36:26 -0700
Insanity is doing the same thing again and expecting a different result
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 09:51:25 -0700 --
TO: ENCASA/US-CUBA members
Below is the text of a statement released today by ENCASA/US-CUBA
-- this time opting for a quite different and distinctive style
in our response. In addition, attached below is a detailed,
line-by-line critical analysis of the 2006 CAFC report produced
by ENCASA and aimed for our congressional allies.
ENCASA/US-CUBA
Emergency Network of Cuban American Scholars and Artists for Change in
U.S.-Cuba Policy
July 12, 2006
"Insanity is doing the same thing again and expecting a different
result...
We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used
when we
created them."
--Albert Einstein
ENCASA REJECTS BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S
CUBA COMMISSION REPORT
Commission report calls for more of an immoral, inhumane, and
counterproductive policy
When we read the first report of the Bush Administration's so-called
"Commission for Assistance for a Free Cuba (CAFC)," issued in 2004,
we were
alarmed, appalled, dismayed, indignant, saddened, and outraged. Reading
the
second report-released on Monday, July 10, by the U.S. State
Department-evokes the same feelings, but now amplified, intensified
and
reinforced by our knowledge of what needless and mindless suffering has
been
wrought by the implementation of many of that report's most nefarious
recommendations.
The measures put into place by the U.S. government during the last two
years
have produced no positive results for Cubans on the island, for
Cuban-Americans in the United States, or for the American people.
Instead,
new travel restrictions have further separated Cubans, here and there,
from
family and friends living on the opposite of the Florida straits; the
Commission went so far as to absurdly redefine the meaning of what
constitutes "family" for Cubans to exclude aunts, uncles, nephews,
nieces,
and cousins, permitting only one visit every three years for immediate
family members regardless of circumstance. (So much for "family
values.")
In addition, the right of Americans to pursue educational travel to
Cuba has
been abridged, while the U.S. government has denied visas to scores of
Cuban
scholars who were to present papers at scholarly conferences in the
United
States and Puerto Rico. The Cuban government has responded to
aggressive
moves to undermine it, as called for in the 2004 report, with its own
crackdown. No one is better off as a result of the work of the
Commission.
Almost everyone is worse off, including the Cuban people, Cuban
Americans in
this country, U.S. taxpayers, students, scholars, business people, and
farmerseveryone except some elements of the anti-Castro industry in
Miami
and Washington who have benefited from the largesse of the U.S.
government.
The new 2006 CAFC report, long delayed and just released, and the
accompanying "Compact with the Cuban People," cannot be read
without
experiencing a sense of déjà vu or without being struck by the many
ironies
contained therein, ironies that would provoke belly laughs if their
consequences were not so deadly serious.
What are we to make, for example, after the Katrina debacle, of the
pledge,
made by the U.S. government to a hypothetical "Cuban transition
government"
as part of the "Compact with the Cuban People" to "provide
emergency food,
water, fuel, and medical equipment and help ensure that these vital
supplies
are rapidly distributed throughout Cuba?" (In fact, the Cubans have
repeatedly demonstrated that they are extraordinarily effective in
managing
disasters such as hurricanes; it is the Cubans who should be
instructing
FEMA and the U.S. government on the rapid distribution of vital
supplies in
an emergency, rather than the other way around.)
In light of this and other absurdities, rather than attempt here a
detailed,
reasoned analysis of a report that is based on anything but reason or
analysis (although we have prepared just such an analysis in a separate
document, attached), we have chosen to make use of the finest
traditions of
Cuban and American irreverence to respond to this second edition of the
CAFC
report in the manner that it deserves.
TOP TEN SIGNS THAT THE CAFC REPORT IS BAD
10. It is an exercise in political opportunism
How coincidental is it that the Bush administration rediscovers Cuba on
even
years (2004, 2006) just before tough elections? This is a sure sign
that
Cuba policy is made not in the interest of the American or Cuban people
but
with an eye to winning a few thousand votes in Florida (and its
electoral
votes in presidential elections).
9. It is contemptuous of international law and world opinion
At a time when the United States should be seeking to repair an image
tattered by brazen disregard for international norms and for the views
and
rights of others, the last thing this country should be doing is
reinforcing
a policy already roundly condemned by almost every nation in the U.N.
(The
vote against the U.S. embargo of Cuba in the United Nations last year
was
182-4. The 4 voting "no" were the United States, Israel, Palau and
the
Marshall Islands.) Yet this is what this report recommends when it
seeks to
tighten enforcement of extra-territorial U.S. laws designed to strangle
Cuba
economically by infringing on the sovereign rights of other nations.
8. It is a failed welfare program for the professional anti-Castro set
In the 1960s, the CIA spent tens of millions of dollars and employed
thousands of Cubans in Miami in its failed campaign against the Cuban
government. The U.S. government does not seem to have learned the
lesson of
that experience. A two-year, $80 million program purportedly designed
to
help dissidents in Cuba is a centerpiece of the CAFC report. We don't
have
space to detail all the things that are wrong with this initiative. For
starters, much of this money is sure to end up in the bank accounts of
people who have made a lucrative career out of fighting Fidel Castro
from
the safety of the United States. Then there is the fact that the very
existence of this fund of money tends to cast suspicions regarding the
motives, the independence and the patriotism of anyone in Cuba who
disagrees
with the government. This has led some prominent members of the
opposition
in Cuba to reject this component of the report. Finally, there is the
matter of a double standard. U.S. law does not allow foreigners even
to
contribute to candidates for public office here, much less allow
foreign
governments to financially support Americans bent on changing our
political
system. And how would the American people feel about those who would
take
foreign government money to influence politics in the United States?
7. It is a combination of political science fiction, wishful thinking,
delusion and sour grapes.
Rather than admit the abject failure of the measures called for in the
last
report and, more generally, of a policy in place for almost five
decades,
the report seeks to cast blame on external actors, mainly Venezuela
(which
is mentioned no fewer than 15 times). The tone of much of the report
is
almost surreal and delusional in its talk about a hypothetical Cuban
"transition" government and its detailed description of the
policies such a
government might undertake and the U.S. government actions that would
result. Repeatedly, the report implies an imminent collapse and asserts
cause and effect relationships without any logical, factual or
historical
foundation. For example: "...as we rapidly approach the transitional
moment,
the more economic pressure is on the regime, the greater the likelihood
there will be dramatic and successful change for the Cuban people."
But that
has been precisely the failed approach taken by U.S. policy since it
imposed
a trade, travel and financial embargo on Cuba 45 years ago. In
psychiatry
and in the reality-based community at large, a delusion is defined as
"a
false belief strongly held in spite of invalidating evidence." The 2006
CAFC
report is as delusional in this regard as its 2004 predecessor. Both
evidence a profound ignorance of Cuban history and society.
6. It is a model of cynicism and cruelty disguised as concern
This is true in too many respects to describe here. The report is
replete
with crocodile tears and expressions of concern over the humanitarian
needs
of the Cuban people and promises of help--but only after a transition
is
under way. What about the problems faced by Cubans today? In that
regard,
the report recommends measures to tighten the U.S. embargo which
inflicts
untold hardships on the Cuban people right now. It is yet another
version
of "destroying the village in other to save it." The message seems
to be
that the U.S. will punish the Cuban people unless or until they change
their
system and their leadership, in which case they will reap rich rewards,
compliments of U.S. taxpayers. Such promises are not worth the paper
they
are printed on, as the transition experience of Nicaragua and other
countries shows. Worse, this kind of blackmail is unworthy of the
United
States and an insult to the dignity of the Cuban people.
5. It infringes on the freedom of American citizens
The report calls for tightening the enforcement of travel restrictions
even
further, keeping Cuba off-limits to U.S. citizens. It is yet another
irony
that a set of policies purportedly intended to promote freedom in
another
country diminishes the freedom of people in this country. What ever
happened to the U.S. government's pious pronouncements of the "free
exchange
of ideas"?
4. It is not about the desires and the dreams of Cubans abroad
The same commission whose recommendations have led to Cubans in the
United
States being punished for visiting relatives, for sending them aid, and
for
having a more inclusive view of family than that approved by the U.S.
government, now dares to invoke "the vital role of Cubans abroad?"
What
"vital role" is thisto do what the U.S. government wants and
nothing else?
The report states that "Cubans abroad should re-double their efforts
to
foster reconciliation on and off the island." This is completely
inconsistent with the tone, tenor and policy implications of the
report. Is
the Commission speaking in a code in which reconciliation means
confrontation, isolation, and economic strangulation?
3. It is not transparent
The existence of a classified secret annex, one of the more ominous
aspects
of this second report, recalls the long U.S. history of deniable
invasions,
numerous assassination attempts, sabotage, clandestine incursions, and
other
cloak-and-dagger operations. Given this background, and the track
record of
this administration, one can only imagine what items of dubious
legality and
sheer lunacy may be contained in this classified portion of the report.
2. It is not about sovereignty
"There is no transition and it's not your country." We could not
find words
more apt than those of the Secretary General of the OAS (Organization
of
American States). The repetition in the report of the phrase "if
requested
by the Cuban transition government" doesn't do anything to mask the
sheer
arrogance implicit in the ideas contained therein as well as in the
very
existence of the Commission and of an office of Cuba Transition
Coordinator
in the State Department.
The report's emphasis on "restoring sovereignty to the Cuban
people" is one
of its most Orwellian aspects. A state that respects the sovereignty of
another nation and its people does not produce a detailed script for
the
political future of that nation and that people.
More than century of repeated U.S. transgressions against Cuban
sovereignty
and of meddling in Cuban affairs are at the heart of much of what has
gone
wrong in Cuba since 1902 and of troubled U.S.-Cuba relations over the
last
50 years. This report, the assumptions that underlie it, and the
policies it
champions, embody the same misbegotten principle enshrined in the
interventionist Platt Amendmentwhich the United States arrogantly
attached
to the fledgling Cuban Constitution in 1902, giving the U.S. the right
to
intervene unilaterally in Cuba's internal affairsand in much of
U.S. policy
toward Cuba since. In once again resorting to a Plattist approach, the
authors of the CAFC report have failed to learn the lesson that "we
can't
solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we
created
them."
1. It is about regime change, stupid
And regime change, by any other name, by any other means, would still
carry
the same stench of illegitimacy and the same steep moral, human and
material
costs as the one the Bush Administration launched in Iraq in 2003. Make
no
mistake about it; this is a blueprint for accelerated regime change.
Evidently, the Bush Administration has not been sobered by the
disastrous
resultfor Americans for sure but especially for the Iraqi people and
its
devastated nationof its recent adventure in U.S.-imposed regime
change. Nor
has it learned how far astray certain kind of exiles, with their own
agendas
and delusions and totally disconnected with the people back home, can
lead
this country.
ENCASA/US-CUBA is a national network of prominent Cuban American
scholars,
artists, and public intellectuals based in more than 75 universities
and
many other organizations in 26 states, the District of Columbia and
Puerto
Rico. A founding declaration of principles is available online at
<http://www.rprogreso.com/friendly.php?pdr=Mar1622_06&progreso=encasa>
http://www.rprogreso.com/friendly.php?pdr=Mar1622_06&progreso=encasa
..
Established in 2006, ENCASA is part of a long continuum of Cuban
American
political activism. Since the early 19th century, literally hundreds
of
organizations have emerged in the Cuban exile community to try to
influence
U.S. policy towards Cuba in one way or another. The majority emerged
after
1959. While ours is not the first organization to advocate diplomatic,
cultural, and trade relations as a means of fostering positive change
in
both Cuba and the United States, ours is distinguished from our
predecessors
in its membership, comprised entirely of scholars representing a wide
variety of academic disciplines, as well as artists, writers, and
playwrights. This sector of the community has produced extensive
research on
Cuba, but has generally kept out of the political limelight in the name
of
academic objectivity. We can remain silent no longer. We are committed
to
promoting reasoned debate in the public arena, to countering the
stereotype
of a monolithic Cuban American community, to challenging the
disproportionate influence of an unrepresentative sector out of touch
with
U.S. public opinion, and to help reverse a failed policy that defies
all
sound principles for conducting foreign affairs.
As Cuban Americans (or "Cubans abroad," in the language of the
CAFC) and as
informed U.S. citizens profoundly concerned with both Cuba and the
United
States, we denounce in the strongest terms this latest misbegotten
attempt
by the Bush Administration's misnamed "Commission for Assistance
for a Free
Cuba" to perpetuate a politically failed and morally bankrupt US-Cuba
policy.
Rubén G. Rumbaut
Professor of Sociology
University of California, Irvine
http://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=4999
.
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