Category: International

If you know anything about Tampa, you know its historical link to Cuba. Before there was Miami, there was Tampa. Teddy Roosevelt didn’t prep for the Spanish-American War at the Fontainebleau.

This is where Jose Martí –as well as Fidel Castro–came to raise funds and consciousness. Prior to the Castro-led revolution–more than 50 percent of all American exports into Havana came via the Port of Tampa. The cruise business meant Tampa-Havana.

If you know anything about Florida politics, you know the bottom-line reality. Well-heeled, well-organized, disproportionately-influential Cuban-American power brokers in South Florida have been wielding de facto, foreign-policy vetoes over efforts to liberalize Cuban-American relations since the Cold War. For them, it’s personal–not about what’s best for Florida and the United States.

In effect, how does Washington hit a reset button on Cuban policy–from the embargo to unfettered travel–when the mega swing-state of Florida, the one most impacted, hasn’t been applying political pressure to do just that? Florida politicians–from mayors to congressional delegations to governors have been routinely intimidated and bought off over the years. And, yes, that still includes U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who chairs the Democratic National Committee and has insider status around the White House and with certain cable-TV pundits.

If you know anything about geopolitics, you know that U.S. credibility and good will have been undermined–from the United Nations to our home hemisphere–as a result of our Cuban policy. The world’s only Super Power is unnecessarily seen as super hypocrite. And that wasn’t just the take of Hugo Chávez and Evo Morales.

 Cuban conference here

If you wanted an insiders’ update–including national security insight–on where this uniquely frustrating relationship is, where it seems to be going and what might be expected from “Obama The Sequel,” you were in the right place if you were fortunate enough to be at the Cuban Club in Ybor City last Saturday. That’s where the Center for International Policy and the Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy Foundation jointly sponsored “Rapprochement With Cuba: Good for Tampa, Good for Florida, Good for America.” It also came with the tag line: “No Nation Was Ever Ruined By Trade.” Not exactly subtle.

Tampa’s Al Fox, the founder and president of ARCPF and long-time crusader for normalizing Cuban-American relations, was the catalyst. Frankly, we’re lucky he’s still on the case, given the toll the politics of frustration–and its practitioners–can take on a point man for a cause.

Here’s this observer’s takeaway:

*U.S. Rep. Kathy’s Castor’s pep talk Friday night underscored how far she has come on the issue. She’s no longer a House rookie and is in a district without determinative Cuban politics. She’s not intimidated by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen or anyone named Díaz-Balart. She knows the implications of improved Cuban-American relations for Tampa–from her effort to help secure charter flights to Cuba out of TIA to recognizing key port scenarios.

Her presentation remarks ranged from noting changes taking place in Cuba, including those related to travel and the economy, to decrying the economic embargo and a policy that inexplicably keeps Cuba on America’s State-Sponsors-of-Terrorism list. The Tampa Democrat has become a player on the Cuban issue and impressed out-of-towners as an effective local advocate.

*Dan Whittle, senior attorney and Cuba Program Director for the Environmental Defense Fund, pointed out that overlapping issues of fishing, oil drilling, hurricane preparing and the like have created pragmatic, although well shy of ideal, levels of cooperation. “There has been movement,” noted Whittle. “Science is a common denominator. … I think the embargo dies by a thousand cuts.”

*No such conference would be complete without Wayne Smith, the former U.S. Interests Section chief in Havana (1979-82) who is now a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University. Smith left the government when the Reagan Administration tightened the screws over Cuban involvement in Nicaragua’s Sandinista movement.

Smith hasn’t exactly been buoyed by events of the last 30 years, although he regained a measure of optimism after some travel-and-remittance easing in the first Obama Administration. “Cuba wants a meaningful dialogue with the U.S.,” said Smith. “But there’s no sign of an energetic move by the U.S. to improve relations with Cuba.

“The U.S. is now the only country in the Western Hemisphere without relations with Cuba,” added Smith. “It’s the U.S. that is isolated. It’s absurd. Thirty years later, here we still are. I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that the second Obama Administration has a more rational, sensible, productive policy toward Cuba.”

*Peter Kornbluh, author and director of the Cuba Documentation Project for the National Security Archives, reminded his audience that President Barack Obama promised a “new chapter in Cuban-American relations” in his 2008 campaign. Now “we need to remind him.” It helps, underscored Kornbluh, that “(Secretary of State John) Kerry understands that Cuba is changing and so does (Defense Secretary) Chuck Hagel.”

* Col. Larry Wilkerson, former member of the National Security Council under President George W. Bush and former chief of staff for Secretary of State Colin Powell, provided a military insight we’re not typically privy to. There are forces “on both sides of the Straits” who don’t want rapprochement, he noted, meaning those Cubans who still value “animosity toward the U.S.as a pillar of the revolution” and American hardliners including Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz plus Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz.

“The Pentagon has absolutely no inclination in considering Cuba a threat to the U.S,” stated Wilkerson. “Quite the opposite. It thinks our policy is preposterously stupid. Hell, they’re not sponsoring revolution. They’re sponsoring health care.” Cuba, added Wilkerson, a Republican who said he voted twice for Obama, should be our counter-terrorism partner in the Caribbean.

“We’re becoming a pariah in our own hemisphere,” he said. “I hear from hemispheric sources: ‘First step is to lift the embargo.’ We really need to get our foreign policy in shape. I’ve seen so little moral courage.”

Ironically, Wilkerson knows something about moral courage. He acknowledged his own deficit when he was in the Bush White House (2003-04). He should have resigned, he admitted, rather than help enable an “illegal war” of “choice.”

*We’ll give the last word to Al Fox, who continues to fight the good fight and refuses to give up–despite decades of politically emotional ebb and flow and progress measured in increments.

What will it take, including Castro brothers’ mortality, to get rid of the embargo and open up Cuban travel for all Americans? In short: “Money.” It still talks. It still leverages. The vendetta-agenda crowd in South Florida, especially, is better financed, motivated and organized than its counterparts, for whom Cuba is still a secondary, if not tertiary, issue. Washington notices. It backs winners.

Money, explained Fox, is not a “bribe.” It’s a way “to show commitment.” And the side perceived as less committed is the side all-too-easily ignored.

Some things never change in politics. Even when it concerns the economic, geopolitical and humanitarian crucible that is America’s counterproductive, abnormal relationship with Cuba.

The early returns on recently-elected Pope Francis have been very favorable. The 76-year-old Argentinian seems humble, deferential, pleasant and even humorous. No, the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio is not the charismatic Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, who could host his own cable talk show. But neither is he “God’s Rottweiler.” By all accounts, under those papal trappings and vestments is a genuinely good man, who now presides over a church with 1.2 billion members.

What will be telling will be his ultimate impact.

That means on the curia, which could use an corruption-challenging overhaul, and on social- and economic-justice issues, which are not to be confused with matters of doctrinal purity. But most of all, it means dealing with the underlying roots of the scandals that have been undermining the church’s credibility and relevance. That means matters of celibacy–and who is attracted to that lifestyle. That means matters of male domination–and who is precluded from that priesthood. And that means matters of birth control–and who is responsible for a woman’s body. If reform is to be Francis’ legacy, it will have to move on multiple fronts.

What the Catholic Church can ill afford is simply a much more appealing version of Benedict XVI.

The over-the-top Hugo Chavez rhetoric out of Caracas hasn’t ended. Venezuela’s interim President Nicolas Maduro even put Chavismo spin on the precedent-setting election of Pope Francis, the former cardinal of Buenos Aires. “We know our commander ascended into those heights and is standing before Christ,” said Maduro. “He must have exerted some influence for a South American pope to be elected.”

Word is Dennis Rodman is planning a getaway in August to–North Korea. Reportedly, to vacation with his new best buddy, Kim Jong Un, the 20-something despot Rodman has referred to as “awesome” and his “friend for life.”

Some unsolicited advice for America’s most unlikely emissary to Pyongyang’s parallel universe:  Don’t go. But if you must, please stay. Distract Kim, not us.

*Hyperbole is more than acceptable at funerals. In the case of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, he was compared to both Jesus Christ and Simón Bolívar. And it was announced that his body would be embalmed and put on “eternal” display.

It was impossible, however, to ignore the rhetorical irony inherent at Chavez’s fiery, foot-stomping state funeral. “Chavez lives!” declared Acting President Nicolás Maduro. “Mission accomplished!” Imagine, however, what Maduro would have said had Chavez’s 14-year legacy not included:

^Horrific crime rates.

^Squandered oil riches.

^Decaying infrastructure.

^20 percent inflation rate.

^Constitutional manipulation.

^Narcissism embodiment.

*Chavez’s legacy also includes his singular contribution to political stagecraft: his long-running, Sunday morning TV show, “Aló Presidente.” It was a hodgepodge of unscripted policy pep talks, bully pulpit harangues, tours and dedications of social projects. Government ministers were required to attend. They could be called on the carpet about anything. Sometimes policy was made on the spot. Nothing was left on the editing-room floor. Personality-cult sausage for the masses.

I saw it a few years ago when I was in Caracas. It came on at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday. There was no fixed end time. At 5 p.m., it was still plodding on. CTTV never looked so good.

For Chavistas, the late president will be an impossible act to follow. For fans of “Aló Presidente,” Chavez’s passing has added a lot more free time to their Sundays.

*Chavez was known for his fulminating ways when it came to the United States. Among his more memorable, if revolutionarily parsed, messages: “There is no poverty in Venezuela! Factory capitalism is poverty!”

And doesn’t it seem surreal that Chavez once (1999) waved to the New York Stock Exchange gallery at the closing bell ceremonies?

* President Barack Obama’s recent interview with Telemundo’s Jose Diaz-Balart once again underscored that when it comes to Cuba, the Obama Administration looks a lot like “W, The Sequel.” A few incremental changes, but the same basic boilerplate directives–the ones that can’t be seriously aimed at the likes of Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and China–repeated for South Florida consumption. Nothing of game-changing significance for a president who still aspires to be transformational. Just an exercise in unnecessarily pragmatic politics on an issue that really could be low-hanging, non-Middle East foreign policy fruit in 2013. No matter what Marco Rubio might say in self-serving response.

After noting to Diaz-Balart that Cuba had to get its act together on “political prisoners” and “basic freedoms of the press–and assembly,” the president then riffed on the ideologic and economic mess that has been Cuban reality for more than a half century. “It’s one thing to have cars from the 1950s,” derided the president. “It’s another thing when your whole political ideology … is 50 years or 60 years old and it’s been proven not to work.”

All too true.

But so is this: America’s counterproductive relations with Cuba, a paean to the Cold War and knee-jerk anti-Communism, is a sovereign embarrassment. The consequences of an asinine policy based on Cuba being a Soviet proxy range from the humanitarian to the geopolitical–especially in our own hemisphere–to the economic–especially in our own state of Florida. This policy of pandering exile politics has gone on for some 60 years–and “it’s been proven not to work.”

* For those few Americans visiting Havana, a can’t-miss drive-by is the USS Maine monument on the seafront Malecon boulevard, the inspiration for our own Bayshore Boulevard. Long steeped in grime as well as history, the 88-year-old, twin-column monument is overlaid with symbolism and irony. It honors the memory of 266 U.S. sailors who died in 1898 when the Maine exploded and sank off Havana. It was dedicated as a tribute to Cuban-American friendship and a thank you for the U.S. role in the war with Spain.

Now, however, the Maine monument has been part of an overall restoration project around Havana, involving hundreds of works. In fact, the scaffolding has been recently removed and the nearly re-finished monument is once again seen as a study in white marble and gleaming bronze.

Apparently the high-profile, uber symbolic restoration has nothing to do with any formal change in U.S.-Cuban relations, however. Essentially they’re still stuck in that Cold War time warp. Indeed, no one has actually said anything officially, except that plans call for finishing touches: getting the fountains working and restoring the landscaping.

But for those hoping for a sign of possible rapprochement, here’s something to consider. When originally dedicated, the Maine monument prominently featured a 3-ton, bronze eagle, emblematic of America, on top. It came down–in pieces–in response to the Bay of Pigs invasion. For years its parts were shared by the U.S. Interests Section and the Havana City History Museum, respectively. Should the eagle reappear intact atop the Maine monument, it could represent more than a restoration project’s final finishing touch.

The man most responsible for the Maine monument restoration is City Historian Eusebio Leal. He said this in response to a question about envisioning the iconic eagle back on top: “On the occasion of a friendly visit by a U.S. president. I wish President Obama would be the one to do that.”

Remember the Maine–but keep watching for the eagle.

* Here’s another reminder–besides those one-sided United Nations votes against the U.S.-imposed Cuban embargo–that the dysfunctional relations between Cuba and America are more than just a personal tete-a-tete. Last month the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States convened in Santiago, Chile. The newly-elected chairman: Raul Castro. Among other interested outside parties: a delegation of European leaders led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. You can bet the frustrating and globally-ridiculed U.S. embargo didn’t go unacknowledged.

*Next month Cuba’s most famous blogger-dissident, Yoani Sanchez, will be New York and Washington as part of her 80-day tour of a dozen countries, including those that have awarded her international prizes that she has been heretofore unable to collect. Her travels–after having been denied permission more than 20 times over the last five years–will be well chronicled and scrutinized by governments and human rights advocates as a test of Cuban authorities’ commitment to meaningfully free travel.

The back story is compelling. Cuba’s leaders regularly castigate dissidents as traitorous mercenaries, and officially-sanctioned bloggers have charged that the renown of Cuba’s social network pioneer is a product of Western intelligence agencies’ stage management. The 37-year-old Havana resident also has been accused by some in the West of being a blogging double agent.

Particularly notable about Sanchez’s sojourn is her return. High-profile, regime opponents have left Cuba before–for exile. Her blogging–beginning from Brazil–has already begun. You can check it out for yourself by going to www.DesdeCuba.com/GenerationY. It will take you to an English language version.

There was considerable irony–as well as shock–in the surprise announcement earlier this week that Pope Benedict XVI was resigning. Heretofore, it had been a papal given: Pontiffs serve for life. The last one to step down did so some 700 years ago.

This Pope had a turbulent eight-year run, one that was plagued infamously by sex-scandal cover-ups and the conservative controversies over birth control, abortion and women as priests. But he bucked tradition when he determined that his health wouldn’t enable him to do justice to the papacy. He is to be given credit for placing the best interest of the Catholic Church and its need for viable leadership over the tradition of serving for life, however compromised.

But how ironic. His most notable accomplishment was resigning.

Would that the Cold War-era relationship between Cuba and the United States were merely an embarrassing, time-warp tete-a-tete. Hardly the case, as we are routinely reminded with those one-sided United Nations votes against the U.S.-imposed embargo on Cuba. Another example: the recent gathering of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States in Santiago, Chile. The newly-elected chairman: Raul Castro. Among interested outside parties: a delegation of European leaders led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The theme wasn’t isolation.

* South Florida’s Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the Cold Warrior-in-Chief of the U.S. House, is at it again. The former chairwoman of the Foreign Relations Committee has made it known that she doesn’t think much of President Obama’s choices for Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense, John Kerry and Chuck Hagel respectively, when it comes to Cuban-American relations.

Said the Havana-born Republican: “I think both are bad for strengthening the U.S.-Cuba embargo. They would work for an appeasement policy. They would work to normalize relations.”

You can’t make this up. She might as well have invoked Neville Chamberlain. It’s beyond time-capsule commentary. It’s also an outrage that still passes for another day at the office within the Beltway. For Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen, the best interests of her country and state are far less important than her vendetta agenda.

* How about this for future concerts: no more indoor pyrotechnics. Ever. No permits. Even if you have windows and a back door. None. From Rhode Island to Santa Maria, Brazil.

* How bad is it in Egypt? Imagine, post-Mubarak chaos, scary Muslim Brotherhood scenarios and some of the world’s most violent soccer fans.

* Our most problematic “ally” in the fight against Al Qaeda and all things terroristic emanating from Afghanistan is Pakistan. Here’s another sobering reminder: In Pakistan’s history, no democratically elected government has ever been succeeded by another democratically elected one.

* Iran is really, really insistent that it is not pursuing nuclear weapons. Last week a Foreign Ministry spokesman underscored it as only the Islamic Republic of Iran can underscore stuff. At a press conference, he pointed to the religious decree–or fatwa–issued by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which flat-out bans nukes. So there.

* Last week a Vietnamese court found 14 democracy activists guilty of subversion and sentenced them to jail terms ranging from three to 13 years. Officially, the United States responded with immediate criticism–and again referenced last month’s governmental detentions of human-rights bloggers. But, no, this is no threat to normal, bi-lateral relations. This is Vietnam, not Cuba.