2.  Cuba promotes its international ties 

At the UN General Assembly again this year, Cuba's non-binding resolution criticizing US sanctions was approved 167-3, with only the Marshall Islands, US, and Israel against it, and four abstentions. The UN urged the US to lift the embargo "as soon as possible", said the Washington Times Nov. 10.

At the Summit of Americas at the end of Octo-ber, Peter Romero, US Assistant Secretary of State, reminded 35 Hemispheric leaders of the region’s great progress made in strengthening democracy and free enterprise, with, now, only one nation, Cuba, under a dictatorship.  US Envoy to the OAS, Amb. Luis Lauredo, said both Presi-dential candidates “will…make the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas a priority.” 

In contrast, the new head of Peru’s influen-tial National Society of Industries, Manuel Yzaga, called attention to globalization’s dangers and urged high tariffs to protect Peru’s industry and to create jobs - arguments which will emerge again in opposition to World Trade Organization and other trade and common market efforts.    

A "virtual love fest" with Venezuelan Presi-dent Hugo Chavez was capped by Castro’s signature Oct. 30 of an oil assistance pact, similar to others with neighboring countries, but which critics say Venezuela can ill afford. Venezuela will provide Cuba with 53,000 bbl/day at current prices, worth over $500 million, to be paid for in barter and cash over 15 years after one year's

grace, at 2% interest, and Cuba agreed to begin paying down its $69 million debt to Venezuela.  Exchange of services will include Cuban technology and products to support Venezuela's development program.   

An Oct. 30 agreement with Portugal would take effect in June to promote investment, trade, cultural, and sports exchanges and minimize double taxation and fraud.

Haiti’s President Rene Preval agreed in a visit last month to cooperate with Cuba on health, education, statistics, physical planning, and the setting of standards or policies.

1500 firms attended the recent international fair in Cuba Oct. 29-Nov. 5.  Foreign Trade Minister Raul de la Nuez welcomed 64 countries.  With 500 Cuban enterprises in the largest pavilion, other big participants were Spain, France, the UK, Canada, Japan, and Germany, plus 18 Russian enterprises.  First-time participants were Australia, Malaysia, The Gambia, and Armenia, according to an Oct. 30 ITAR-TASS News Agency report.

3. US and Cuba continue to criticize each other.  For example, Castro says that no matter who wins the US presidential election, according to Washington Times, there is little likelihood of change in US relations because he expects nothing from either candidate, will continue resisting U.S. pressure, and doubts that the trade embargo can last forever.  Prof. Wayne Smith recently told an AmCham Cuba audience that any real change in US-Cuba relations will more likely come from Congress than the White House.

On the other hand, the Inter-American Press Association, meeting in Santiago last month, deplored the lack of media freedom in Cuba.  It cited 40+ years of repression since confiscation of independent media properties, subsequent news blackout, continuing imprisonment of four Cuban journalists for alleged "crimes" of information, and the exile of over 20 independent Cuban journalists in the past six months.  Its web site is sipiapa.org.

4. Tripping to Cuba continues 

A licensed February Farmer-to-Farmer Huma-nitarian Trip to Camaguey for its 487^th anniver-sary is sponsored by the Madison [WI}-Camaguey Sister City Assn. Feb. 18-27. Travelers will donate first aid medical and other humanitarian supplies to the region’s dairy, beef, poultry, sugar, banana, citrus, and pineapple farmers, partake of a Cuban pig roast, and hear country ballads.  The inclusive $1785 fee may be supported by purchases of seeds.  For information call 608-219-6736.  

Arts exchanges seem to grow exponentially:  There are frequently reported Canadian invasions of the arts in the fascinating island 90 miles south of Florida.  Many DC arts programs have also trekked south.  The Washington Post predicts that already planned events will give Cuba as large an impact on DC arts as any other single country.

5. AmCham Cuba news

Small meetings and contacts for corporate members to be promoted.  Initiatives to improve AmCham Cuba value to corporate members were examined by the Directors Nov. 13, with a view to adding to members’ special knowledge and contacts without undermining our non-political stance.  Among initiatives to explore are more exchanges of view between small groups of corporate members at briefings with members of Congress, experts of both governments, and other Cuba-watchers. 

See the following message from the AmCham Cuba President.

Corporate dues to rise.  The Board unanimously agreed to raise the annual dues of large corpora-tions, those with annual gross sales over $50 million, from $1000 to $1500 – still a bargain in comparison with other non-profit Cuba-watch groups.  Those wishing to renew prior to January 1, 2001 may do so at the lower rate.  Dues will not change for smaller firms or individual subscribers.     

6. Other meetings on Cuba.  There isplenty of interest in US-Cuban affairs these days!   

Nov. 8: Speakers at Cardozo Law School in NYC on The Cuban Economic Embargo: A Cold War Relic or Sound Policy? included Cuban diplomat Manlio Hernandez, Ariel Rojas of Vassar College, AmCham Cuba member and Orbis International consultant Maria Werlau, DC attorney Alberto Mora and moderator David Golove, visiting pro-fessor at NYU School of Law (tel. 212-790-0306). 

Nov. 15: Dr. Margaret Daly Hayes, Director, Ctr. for Hemispheric Defense Studies, discussed Latin American Security Concerns at the start of the 21^st Century.  She is an expert on USAF-Latin American air force engagement and cooperation.  .

Nov. 17: ICCAS (Inst. for Cuba & Cuba-American Studies, U. Miami) hosted discussion of Cuba After Castro: Succession, Transition or Chaos, with Prof. Brian Latell of Georgetown U., Prof. Antonio Jorge of Florida Intl. U. and ICCAS Fellow, and ICCAS Director Jaime Suchlicki.  Information is available from 305-284-2822.

Dec. 5-8.  The 24^th Miami Conference on the Caribbean & Latin America, sponsored by CLAA (Caribbean Latin American Action) together with cooperating US, Mexican, and international organizations (CARIFORUM, OAS, IICA), will focus on the Challenge for the Americas:  Transitioning to the Global Economy.  Sessions at the Inter-Continental Hotel deal with the sectors of regional trade, not focusing on Cuba.  Speakers will be prominent US and Latin American leaders and policy-makers, trade experts, scholars, journalists, government officials and legislators, financiers and business CEOs.  Information on this large gathering is available from 202-466-7464, or info@claa.org.

7. Sources and Resources 

Phil Peters, Vice President of the Lexington Institute, describes in the Nov. 2 issue of Policy Analysis “A Policy toward Cuba that Serves US Interests.”  He says four decades of the US embargo have failed to promote change, given Castro the political arguments of “victimhood”, and are being increasingly questioned in the US.  Economic hardship produced migrants but no revolt, he says.  Castro benefits even from non-communists because of the perception that he is the defender of independence. Though “economic reforms…are still incipient,” he claims that small enterprise, foreign investment, incentive-based agriculture, and other changes have helped the economy survive its post-Soviet crisis, and that Cubans working in those sectors gained experi-ence with markets, and augmented their earnings.

Peters thinks that the US (“Goliath”) has little to lose by experimenting with different approaches to Cuba (“David”), and outlines factors which should govern reexamination of US policy.  He would put human rights at the forefront, lift the embargo which is viewed by Cubans as worsening their situation, and allow Cuba’s government to earn hard currency as a means to restore American influence.  He calls for “sun-setting” the Helms-Burton law to give the next Administration “unfettered opportunity” to start new debate on Cuba - a debate which is spurred by American farm interests.  Unexpectedly, he observes, openness to change is rising among Cuban-Americans, especially younger members, fueled by criticism of efforts to keep Elian from his father.  Peters proposes innovative in-kind solu-tions to property claims.  In sum, he would use US “magnetism”, not “isolation,” to help Cuba move “toward a future that the tide of history can only make more free.”  For a copy, call 703-522-5828, or e-mail mail@lexingtoninstitute.org. 

A comprehensive list of recent publications of the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS) may be helpful.  Call 305-284-2822 or by mail: 1531 Brescia Avenue, Coral Gables, FL 33146-3010.  We reported on some of these publications when they first came out.   

1/ The Pope's Visit to Cuba and its Aftermath, Sociology Prof. Juan Clark, Miami-Dade

2/ Cuba in the Middle East: A Brief Chronology, Domingo Amuchastegui, ICCAS

3/ The U.S. Embargo and the Failure of the Cuban Economy, Prof. Antonio Jorge, FIU

4/ Modern Slavery: Labor conditions in Cuba", Efren Cordova & Eduardo Garcia Moure

5/ The U.S. Embargo of Cuba, Jaime Suchlicki, ICCAS Director

6/ Afro-Cuban Diasporan Religion: A Comparative Analysis of the Literature & Selected Annotated Bibliography, Prof. Sara M. Sanchez,  UMiami

7/ Searching for the Soul of American Foreign Policy: The Cuban Embargo & the National Interest", Irving L. Horowitz, Prof. Emeritus Hannah Arendt, Rutgers U. 

*     *     *

Let us know of meetings or studies which we should share with other AmCham Cuba members, or your views for one of our Opinion Corners.  See Dennis Hays’ Opinion Corner column on page 6.

Keep in touch.   We are always happy to hear from you.

Sincerely,

Phoebe Lansdale, Executive Director

Editorial review:  Robert Weekley  

November 21, 2000   

*     *     *

OPINION CORNER.  Dennis Hays, Executive Vice President of the Cuban-American National Foundation in DC, offers a thoughtful piece on "Castro's Missing Legitimacy".  Cuba has no form of the “social contract, dear to John Locke and Thomas Jefferson, as the basis for democracy.  Its lack permits Castro’s "mis-rule", he says.  Mr. Hays was US Ambassador to Surname 1997-2000, after tours as State Department Coordinator of Cuba Affairs 1993-95 and President of the American Foreign Service Association.  Amb. Hays’ degrees are from the University of Florida and the Kennedy School of Harvard University.  

Three centuries ago, John Locke put forward the proposition that governments derive their authority and legitimacy from the people.  Then considered revolu-tionary, Locke's views have become the foundation on which the great democracies of the past two hundred years have been built.  In our own case, Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that "Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

If one accepts this - that governments derive their legitimacy only through a social contract with the people - then it is clear that regimes that deny the people's right of self-determination are illegitimate.  To go a step further, illegitimate regimes that use force to deny the people's will are not governments at all, but in effect are criminal conspiracies that exist for the purpose of amassing and preserving power by the few.   Which  brings us to Cuba and Fidel Castro.

In the early part of the last decade. A group of European socialists tried to convince Castro to hold some form of referendum on his rule.  They failed miserably.  What they did not understand, but Castro understands all too well, is that the last thing a despot will agree to is an unfettered expression of the people's will. Castro understood what would happen to Ortega in Nicaragua, Milosovic in Serbia, and dozens of others when the international community insisted that they hold free and fair elections:  their "legitimacy" would crumble and their hold on power would be irrevocably weakened.   

Although there is now broad, if unarticulated, agreement in the western world that it is Locke,, the man of the 17^th century, and not the Castros, Pol Pots, and Mugabes of the 20^th, who offer hope for mankind, there remains no consensus on how best to engage anti-democratic regimes.   Many well-meaning individuals continue to believe direct and uncritical engagement is the best approach; they assume dictators like Castro have the same concerns as democratically elected leaders and will respond to the same incentives and appeals to reason.  What they have forgotten, of course, is that the logic that propels Castro is the logic of self-preservation.  Further, Castro has made it clear that if one wishes to engage him, it must be done on his terms, and his alone.  Thus, any engagement becomes part of his criminal conspiracy.  And this explains the sorry spectacle of Canadian and European companies meekly accepting wage confiscation, tourist apartheid, racial discrimination, trading in stolen properties, etc., as part of the "price of doing business" in Cuba. 

At the beginning of the 21^st century, we can best help the Cuban people regain their self-determination by viewing Cuba clearly and acting accordingly.  Castro and his inner circle have no legitimate claim to power.  They exist only to perpetuate their misrule.  We should have nothing to do with them or any Cuban who buys into their corruption.  We should instead work aggressively to support, train, and fund those Cubans on-island who believe in and are prepared to struggle for freedom. 

                                    [END OF OPINION CORNER)