Mr. Carlos Gutierrez, Commerce Secretary in the US Cabinet, recently spoke at a Heritage Foundation series entitled Cuba at the Crossroads.
Like many others, I beleive Castro would have fallen from power many years ago if the US had dropped their embargo, but Mr. Gutierrez, a Cuban by birth, makes a very strong case for keeping it in place as long as Castro's bankrupt policies remain intact.
He notes:
There is, of course, a competing vision in Latin America. That vision seeks equality by spreading poverty, not prosperity. And I would suggest to you that that is too easy of a way out. If you want to have equality of opportunity, that's one thing. But to say "Let's make everyone equal by making everyone poor" doesn't strike me as a very exciting vision for the future. The competing vision also empowers governments--not people--and it discourages creativity, individualism, free speech, and free markets. Over the past decades, the Western Hemisphere has generally moved forward economically and politically. We have made great progress. Under the Castro dictatorship, Cuba has moved backward.
He goes on later to say:
The questions that people should be asking are:
• "When will the Cuban people be free to travel abroad and travel inside of their country?" It's amazing that we're asking that question in 2007.
• "When will the Cuban people be free to change jobs and create independent businesses of their choice?" You could be arrested in Cuba for selling a sandwich out of your kitchen.
• "When will the Cuban people be free to choose the education they want for their children, to visit any hotel or resort or other tourist area that they wish in their own country?" They can't go to these tourist areas, but tourists can. It's almost like apartheid, with areas of the country that are good for tourists but not good for Cubans.
• "When will they be able to watch and listen to independent, uncensored television and radio stations, to be able to read any book?" I'm constantly reminding myself how lucky I am that I can read anything I want.
• "When will they be able to read any book, magazine, or newspaper of their choice; seek employment with foreign companies on the island; choose any doctor or hospital they wish?"
• And also, incredibly, in the year 2007: "When will Cubans be able to access the Internet like any other citizen of the hemisphere can?" That's an amazing thing to think about: They cannot have access to the Internet and what that means for bringing people together.
• "When is it going to stop being a crime to be an independent librarian, a human rights advocate?"
• "When will the regime stop making arrests for the crime of--and this is in quotes--‘dangerousness,' the so-called crime of dangerousness?" You can be arrested for dangerousness, and that is so vague that if you look dangerous you can be arrested for dangerousness.
• And another thing, too, the promises of the so-called revolution; in a country where there is such a large population of Afro-Cubans, you don't see Afro-Cubans in the leadership ranks of the so-called revolution. You just don't see it. "What happened to racial equality?"
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What do you think?
