As was noted in this space last week, it’s always good to see Tampa native Frank “Francisco” Sanchez back in town. What was less welcome, however, is Sanchez’s retention of the same approach to Cuba that he was voicing–in behalf of then-candidate Barack Obama–five years ago.
The Obama strategy toward Cuba would be one of “incrementalism,” he explained back then in an Ybor interview. Much would depend on Cuba coming around on human rights and democracy, he emphasized.
It sounded, to be sure, not unlike what the Bush Administration–and predecessors–had been saying. But this, after all, was from the “hope and change” candidate. I chalked it up to pragmatic politics. First you have to get elected. Why unnecessarily alienate those who can hurt those chances?
That was then, this is now, and, Frank-ly, little has changed except some loosened restrictions on travel and family remittances.
In a Q&A with CENTRO Tampa, Sanchez responded to a query about a re-elected Obama’s position on the counterproductive, 50-year-old Cuban embargo. The upshot: We shouldn’t expect anything game-changing. No references to “low-hanging” foreign policy fruit, to be sure.
“…Unfortunately, they (Cubans) still don’t have the same liberties as other people in the world,” noted Sanchez. “So, I won’t make a prediction about what could happen in the future… .”
No, they don’t have the “liberties” of Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, China, most countries that end in –stan, the usual gaggle of African nations and a few banana republics, all of which we have normal trade and diplomatic relations with. We don’t tell such sovereigns: “Shape up democratically, as we define it, or we won’t deal with you.” That’s because we can’t ignore half the world.
But we can still dictate to Cuba. That’s because the usual vendetta-agenda suspects say we can’t do otherwise–and those in a position to do otherwise are still intimidated.