Why the pointless calls (now) to lift the embargo against Cuba? -The iPINIONS Journal

I am convinced that, if reelected, Obama will seal his legacy by lifting the embargo and normalizing relations with Cuba. But where I have advocated for this cause as a categorical imperative, I am not sure that CARICOM leaders fully appreciate what lifting the embargo augurs for our zero-sum regional economy. Be careful what you wish for…?

(Fifth Summit of the Americas: managing expectations, The iPINIONS Journal, April 17, 2009)

International organizations calling on the United States to end the embargo against Cuba is rather like Nancy Reagan calling on teenagers to “just say no” to drugs.

Therefore, in light of patently feckless calls in recent days by the UN and CARICOM for the U.S. to do just that, I have decided to reprise my December 12, 2008 commentary CARICOM’s ironic, if not misguided, call to lift the embargo against Cuba.

But as you read this please keep my opening quote in mind because it crystallizes my views on this issue. More to the point, it is even more relevant now because anybody who knows anything about American politics knows that the last thing Obama needs is to give Republicans a foreign policy issue to add to all of the domestic ones that are making his reelection prospects so unnerving:

At an extraordinary summit in Cuba this week, leaders of all countries in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) called on President-elect Barack Obama to lift America’s nearly 50-year embargo against their host country.

As we gather today in Cuba, the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America is still in place… The Caribbean community hopes that the transformational change which is underway in the United States will finally relegate that measure to history.

(Antiguan Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer, CARICOM president)

I have written a number of commentaries calling on American presidents, including Bill Clinton, to relegate this embargo to history. For example, here’s what I wrote on January 24, 2006 in President Bush, seal your legacy: Lift the embargo against Cuba:

Advocates for America’s puerile, inhumane and hypocritical policy towards Cuba invariably cite Fidel Castro’s dictatorship as justification for sustained hostilities. But all one has to do is cite China – with whose dictators the U.S. courts a very beneficial relationship – to dismiss this justification as demonstrably specious….

Nevertheless, I find it ironic, if not misguided, that CARICOM leaders traveled to Cuba – in an unprecedented show of unity – for this elusive purpose. After all, at least my call was always tempered by the hope that a fully integrated CARICOM would be firmly established to compete economically (and politically) in the region with a Cuba unbound by the perennial restrictions the U.S. has placed on its growth.

Yet here we had all of the leaders of a congenitally fractious CARICOM advocating for a cause that is sure to hasten the economic demise of their respective countries. Indeed, its member states are notorious for the zero-sum fighting over tourism and off-shore financial services that has prevented their integration.

Meanwhile, the irony seemed completely lost on them that they were attending a summit to discuss economic ties with a country that not only poses a far greater threat to their economies than the global financial crisis, but also looms as yet another cause for more zero-sum fighting.

Specifically, CARICOM countries are already reeling from the loss of remittances (from Caribbean nationals working in America) and tourism revenues as a result of the economic recession in the U.S. And the large sucking sound that will be heard throughout our region if this embargo is lifted will be American tourists abandoning the Caribbean for more exotic, and cheaper, vacations in Cuba.

Not to mention that President-elect Barack Obama has already declared that, like every other president over the past 50 years, he has no intention of lifting the embargo against Cuba – unless Cuba becomes a bona fide democracy, which nobody expects any time soon. In fact, he has promised only to lift restrictions on family travel and remittances to Cuba.

Of course this suits Fidel (of nine lives) and his brother Raul just fine. Indeed, the wily Castros must thank their lucky stars for the double standard that has governed political and moral outrage against this embargo. Because those who condemn American leaders have invariably granted the Castros absolution despite the fact that Fidel and Raul have imposed a 50-year embargo on their own people – in terms of travel, freedom of expression and other basic human rights – that has been even more oppressive than the U.S. embargo.

But it must have seemed an insult to his visiting Caribbean comrades when Raul greeted them at the opening of this summit by declaring that Cuba is “prepared to battle the embargo for another 50 years”. Frankly, one wonders why CARICOM leaders coordinated this highly publicized trip to make such a quixotic, adversarial and futile call. After all, this is hardly the way to begin a constructive relationship with the U.S. president-elect.

Instead, their time would have been far better spent holding a summit in a member state for the sole purpose of discussing ways of lobbying Obama to amend his pending legislation Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act. Because this Act contains provisions that could prove even more devastating to our regional economies than the fallout from this global financial crisis or the loss of tourism market share to Cuba.

Never mind the perennial dithering among these leaders (since 1973) over the categorical imperative of integrating our regional economies to better withstand the other looming effects of globalization….