Helen Yaffe: History absolves Cuba, as US moves to restore diplomati

On 21 and 22 January, Cuba and the US held direct talks about
restoring diplomatic relations for the first time since 1961,
exploring cooperation on various issues and reviewing existing
migration accords. The meeting in Havana took place one month
after the historic announcements made simultaneously on 17
December 2014 by Presidents Obama and Raul Castro about a thaw in
US-Cuban relations. This included a prisoner swap which finally
freed the remaining Cuban anti-terrorist agents imprisoned in the
US, known as the Cuban Five. The announcements followed 18-months
of secret talks facilitated by Canada and the Vatican. The
tactical change by the US administration reflects the failure of
its Cuba policy, and economic and (geo)strategic developments
which put competitive pressure on US capitalists who do not
benefit from the blockade.

[Josefina Vidal press conference Jan 2015]

 

 

 

 

The head of Cuba’s delegation, Josefina Vidal, gives a
press conference following talks with US representatives in
Havana in January 2015.

Historic announcements: 17 December 2014 Obama announced three broad policy changes: First, the restoration of diplomatic relations with Cuba, the

re-establishment of a US embassy in Havana and a visit to Cuba of
high-ranking officials to initiate talks about these issues and
shared interests ‘on issues like health, migration,
counterterrorism, drug trafficking and disaster response’.
He cited health collaboration in Africa, where Cuba has sent
hundreds of medics to fight the spread of Ebola, as an example.
He asserted that the US would raise its differences ‘on
issues related to democracy and human rights in Cuba.’
Second, he indicated that the US would consider removing Cuba
from the US list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. Third,
‘we are taking steps to increase travel, commerce and the
flow of information to and from Cuba’ – making it easier
for people in the US to visit Cuba, authorising financial
transactions and easing some trade restrictions.

‘These are the steps I can take as President to change
this policy’, Obama stated. He cannot, however,
unilaterally end the US blockade of Cuba which is
‘codified in legislation’. He made explicit,
however, that he considered the US blockade to be a failed
policy, and hopes the US Congress would ‘lift the
embargo.’

It is important to be absolutely clear. Obama is not supporting
Cuba’s right to self-determination; to develop its
socialist system without interference and sabotage 90 miles from
the US shore. He believes that a more effective strategy to
destroy Cuban socialism is to distort, seduce and pervert it
through, what he calls, ‘engagement’, by imposing
the logic of the capitalist market, social relations and cultural
values on Cuba.

‘[W]e will end an outdated approach that, for decades, has
failed to advance our interests… these 50 years have shown
that isolation has not worked. It’s time for a new
approach… through a policy of engagement, we can more
effectively stand up for our values.’

Obama’s speech exposed the hypocrisy of US policy towards
Cuba when he welcomed ‘Cuba’s decision to provide
more internet access for its citizens’ just after having
admitted that ‘our sanctions have denied Cubans access to
technology’; a tacit admission that the US blockade is the
principal reason for Cuban’s limited internet access.

Perhaps referring to the brutal chaos resulting from US and Nato
interventions in North Africa and the Middle East, he said:
‘it does not serve America’s interests, or the
Cuban people, to try to push Cuba toward collapse… we know
from hard-earned experience that countries are more likely to
enjoy lasting transformation if their people are not subjected to
chaos.’ Likely Obama believes that increasing US access to
Cuban society will improve the effectiveness of ongoing covert
operations aimed at generating an internal opposition – a
tactic which has also failed.

 

 

 

 

President Raul Castro began his brief speech by making two
political assertions: first, of his political continuity with
Fidel Castro who, likewise, pursued efforts to
‘normalise’ relations with the US on the basis of
sovereign equality. Second, to pre-empt critics claiming that
rapprochement with the US would lead to the restoration of
capitalism, he reiterated that ‘the task of updating our
economic model [is] in order to build a prosperous and
sustainable socialism’.He continued:

‘The economic, commercial, and financial blockade, which
causes enormous human and economic damages to our country, must
cease…While acknowledging our profound differences,
particularly on issues related to national sovereignty,
democracy, human rights and foreign policy, I reaffirm our
willingness to dialogue on all these issues… The progress
made in our [prisoner] exchanges proves that it is possible to
find solutions to many problems.’

In a speech to the Community of Latin American and Caribbean
States (CELAC) summit on 28 January, Raul stressed issues on
which Cuba would not compromise: ‘[the] normalisation of
bilateral relations… will not be possible as long as the
blockade exists, or as long as the territory illegally occupied
by the Guantanamo Naval Base is not returned, or radio and
television broadcasts which violate international norms continue,
or just compensation is not provided to our people for the human
and economic damage they have suffered… If these problems
are not resolved, this diplomatic rapprochement between Cuba and
the United States makes no sense.’

On 16 January, new US rules did indeed come into effect enabling
US citizens to visit Cuba without applying for licenses, although
they still had to certify one of 12 ‘legitimate’
purposes for travel. Restrictions were eased on sending money to
Cuba, and on spending money and using credit and debit cards in
Cuba. The new rules facilitate US telecommunications, financial
and agricultural companies to do business on the island.

The talks on 21 January constituted the annual review of existing
Cuban-US migration accords. Despite talk of
‘normalising’ relations, the head of the US
delegation confirmed that the Cuban Adjustment Act would remain
in law. This encourages illegal emigration from Cuba by
automatically granting US residency to any Cuban who enters the
US, regardless of how they arrived. No comparable law exists for
the population of any other country – so much for
normalisation!

On 22 January the delegations discussed steps towards the
re-establishment of diplomatic relations and reviewed the state
of existing cooperation on air security, aviation and oil spills,
and identified new potential areas: drug trafficking, terrorism
and epidemics (starting with Ebola), seismic monitoring and
protecting marine biology. The Cuban delegation proposed
scientific collaboration on environmental protection, mitigating
the effects of climate change and preventing natural disasters.
The issue of human rights was also addressed although the
discussion went beyond the US’s discredited neo-liberal
script. The head of the Cuban delegation, Josefina Vidal
expressed Cuba’s concerns about the guarantee and
protection of human rights in the US, highlighting the continued
illegal detentions and torture in the US base at Guantanamo,
alarming police brutality and increasing racial discrimination.
She also raised the issue of the racially-biased application of
the death penalty, wage differentials which see women paid 25%
less than men, the incidence of child labour and limits on trade
union freedoms. The talks concluded on the need to continue
talking.

A victory for Cuba

These developments represent a victory for the Cuban Revolution;
a tribute to its tenacity, principles and resistance. Clearly,
opening up to US capital and the ‘economic hitmen’
who fight its political battles, implies risks for Cuba that have
to be managed. However, the revolutionary government understands
those risks and is implementing measures to manage them. All
proposals for foreign investments must be vetted by the central
government. Foreign capital will be channelled to priority areas
to develop Cuba’s productive infrastructure. Most foreign
investments are carried out through joint ventures with the Cuban
government, as Ivonne Vertiz Rolo, Vice Director the Ministry of
Foreign Trade recently explained: ‘with the aim of
guaranteeing the participation of our enterprises in projects of
strategic interest, to effectively transfer new technologies, to
raise the qualifications of the Cuban labour force and protect
the environment’ (Granma, 11 December 2014). There are
also legal limits on private accumulation and property ownership,
while socialist state ownership predominates. Cuba is not the
Wild West or the former Soviet Republics in the 1990s. It is not
open to carpet baggers, oligarchs and exploiters. Only those who
are ignorant of, or ignore, the devastating impact of the US
blockade can argue that the opportunity to improve Cuba’s
access to international markets, including in the US, should be
shunned for some idealistic notion of soldiering on in isolation.

Any rapprochement with Cuba, whatever the motivation, faces
ardent opposition from the right-wing Cuban exile community whose
strategic handle on political and economic power has enabled it
convert Cuba policy into a US domestic issue. Although the
majority of Cuban-Americans support improved relations, there are
politicians in the Senate and Congress who will attempt to block
progress. The Obama administration has calculated that there is
more to gain through ‘engaging’ Cuba than there is
to lose in a conflict with a political elite that losing its
leverage.

Political pressures

In autumn 2014, the New York Times published a series of
editorials criticising US policy towards Cuba and arguing for the
re-establishment of diplomatic relations. The editorials were
clearly contrived to generate public support for Obama’s
announcement. Policy changes introduced in Cuba since 2008 and as
part of the 2011 ‘guidelines for updating the economic and
social model’, especially those promoting private-farming,
self-employment and small businesses, and permitting the free
sale of property, have allowed US commentators to claim that Cuba
is making the liberalising reforms stipulated as prerequisites
for an improvement in relations. It is unlikely that the current
political rapprochement would have been possible without these
measures.

However, the US has also been forced into this concession by the
rejection of its Cuba policy throughout Latin America, where even
right-wing governments criticise US attempts to isolate Cuba. In
the 1960s the US demanded that the rest of the continent break
off diplomatic relations with Cuba. All except Mexico obeyed. But
over the years every sovereign nation has restored relations with
Cuba, leaving the US behind in a region of growing global
significance that the US historically treated as its own
backyard. Today, Cuba is central to the movement for regional
political and economic integration; a regionalism which rejects
US interference. Several countries had threatened to boycott the
annual Summit of the Americas in Panama in April 2015 if the US
continued to exclude Cuban participation. Obama was forced to
back down: ‘This April, we are prepared to have Cuba join
the other nations of the hemisphere at the Summit of the
Americas’, he said.

Economic pressures

Despite the US’s unilateral, punitive legislation
prohibiting third countries from trading with Cuba, the
revolutionary government has been busy diversifying trade and
securing investment partners. The pace of these collaborations is
speeding up, especially with the new super-port and development
zone being built in Mariel, with Brazil as a major partner.
Benefiting from Cuba’s important geostrategic location,
the port will accommodate the world’s largest container
ships (see FRFI 238). Foreign investment is set to increase
significantly since Cuba’s new foreign investments law was
approved in 2014 (See FRFI 240).

In his annual speech on 14 January 2015, Thomas Donohue,
president of the US Chamber of Commerce, enthused about the
prospects of trade with Cuba, which he perceives as a new market
of pent-up demand for consumer goods, such as computers,
smartphones and cars. The Chamber of Commerce is a powerful lobby
which spent $35 million on the mid-term elections in 2014, and
Donohue travelled to Havana in summer 2014. ‘Somebody is
going to sell’ to the Cubans, Donohue said, ‘and
it’s not going to be all us.’ He pointed out that
many countries were increasing trade with Cuba, including Russia
and China. Indeed, the Presidents of both Russia and China also
visited Cuba last summer on missions to increase trade and
investment.

During Putin’s trip, $32bn of Cuba’s Soviet-era
debt was written off, leaving just $3bn to be paid over ten
years. Repayments will be spent by Cuba on projects jointly
decided with the Russians. ‘We will provide support to our
Cuban friends to overcome the illegal blockade of Cuba’,
Putin said on 11 July. Russia is exploring for oil and gas in
Cuban waters and assisting the Mariel port construction. Cuba
will host navigation stations for Russia’s own satellite
global positioning system, Glonass. Other economic, financial,
military and intelligence projects between the two countries are
underway.

Two weeks later, Chinese President Xi Jinping made his second
visit to Cuba in less than four years. Cuba’s annual
bilateral trade with China is worth almost $2 billion. President
Xi signed 29 trade, debt, credit and other agreements. China will
continue to restructure debt, estimated at $6 billion, import
Cuban nickel, sugar and cigars, digitalise the television system,
upgrade communications and cyber security and cooperate in the
health, education and science sectors. China is providing a $120
million loan and assistance with the construction of another new
port and industrial development zone in Cuba’s second
city, Santiago de Cuba. President Xi thanked Cuba for advancing
cooperation between China and Latin America and strengthening
South-South cooperation.

Meanwhile, the European Union is Cuba’s biggest external
investor and second most important trading partner, accounting
for 20% of total Cuban trade. In October 2014, British Foreign
Officer Minister, Hugo Swire was the first government Minister to
visit Cuba in a decade. He was there to discuss trade and
investments.

In early January, some 30 US agricultural and food companies
announced that they would pressure Congress to end the blockade.
Other companies have stated that they will initiate trade and
investments with Cuba. Meanwhile the stalwarts of the Cuban
exile-community have promised to block Congressional moves to end
the blockade. Republican Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart complained
bitterly that ‘president Obama has given everything, all
the concessions that that regime was asking for’ and
‘getting, frankly, very little’ in return. Well
played Cuba!

An edited version of this article is printed in the Feb/Mar 2015
issues of Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!
<http://www.revolutionarycommunist.org/index.php/americas/cuba>

*Dr Helen Yaffe, completed her doctorate in Cuban economic
history at the London School of Economics. She is the author of
Che Guevara: the economics of Revolution
<http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?PID=307678> , first
published by Palgrave MacMillan in English in 2009.

[Helen Yaffe] <http://profile.typepad.com/1228909008s30771>

By Helen Yaffe <http://profile.typepad.com/1228909008s30771>
Feb 10, 2015 9:33:56 PM
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as-us-moves-to-restore-diplomatic-relations-.html>