How Cuban repression benefits Fidel Castro
The Toronto Star Copyright (c) 2003 The Toronto Star
Sunday, June 22, 2003
BUSINESS
How Cuban repression benefits Fidel Castro
Ann Louise Bardach
special to the star
"Propaganda is the very soul of our struggle," Fidel Castro instructed a comrade in a letter written in 1954. What then, could Castro, a champion spinmeister, be thinking by tossing 75 Cuban writers and dissidents into prison two months ago, to serve terms ranging up to 28 years?
Or when he summarily executed three men who had hijacked a passenger ferry on April 2?
Or, just last week, when he flailed out at Cuba's most important trade partners - Spain and Italy - name-calling their respective leaders "little Fuehrer" and "Benito Berlusconi"?
Fidel Castro is many things - belligerent, Machiavellian, prideful - but he is not stupid.
So, while rights groups and the media rain down condemnation of the egregious April purge, it would be useful to understand what has motivated Castro's provocative moves.
It's likely the mass lock-up was intended to make a statement, and even to win Castro some advantage.
The Cuban government claims the purge was its response to Washington's Cuba policy, specifically citing meetings held with dissidents at the residence of the U.S. Interests Section chief in Havana, which it called "subversion by a foreign power."
But as Washington hardens its views, an overwhelming number of Cuban dissidents say the only beneficiary is Fidel Castro.
As noted in several polls of exiles in south Florida last month, a majority of exiles now favours negotiations with the Cuban government.
And the most influential exile group, the Cuban American National Foundation, is for the first time seeking a more pragmatic policy toward Cuba.
But whenever it seems Cuba is on the path to rejoining the world, Castro does something to derail its progress.
Consider what happened in 1996, after the Clinton administration and Cuba had settled on migration and drug interdiction accords.
Castro (after months of warnings) shot down two planes operated by the exile group Brothers to the Rescue, killing four people.
The upshot was the signing of the Helms-Burton Act, which significantly tightened the embargo and codified it into U.S. law.
Did Castro know this would be the result? Of course he did.
In 1980, president Jimmy Carter re-opened the U.S. Interests Sections in Havana as a de facto embassy. Castro responded by sending 125,000 refugees to Florida in the Mariel boatlift.
In the mid-1970s, in a remarkable and audacious act of diplomacy, then-state secretary Henry Kissinger and his assistant, William Rogers, conducted secret negotiations with the Cuban government on ending the embargo. Just as they believed they were closing in on a deal, Castro sent troops into Angola - scuttling the talks.
There is another scenario at play here. Castro is an avid student of history and military campaigns. He obsessively watched the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and concluded that "regime change" has become a preferred U.S. diplomatic tool and will not be limited to Iraq.
Of course, one could argue that Castro has been the target of "regime change" for some 44 years, spanning 10 U.S. presidents.
But there have been no serious designs on Castro since the Reagan administration, although many of those earlier players are back in power.
Atmospherics in Havana have not been helped by the administration's decision to transport some 650 accused Al Qaeda terrorists to the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay. Castro believes this surreal relocation gives the U.S. an excuse to beef up its base - not far from where he was born and raised.
Certainly, there are many veteran Cuba watchers on both sides of the Straits who believe the Bush administration has not ruled out a foray into Cuba - not unlike the invasion of Grenada or the ouster of Panama's Noreiga some 20 years ago.
A wily strategist, Castro always prepares for the worst and sees no benefit in having the opposition out and about in the streets.
There is a third factor motivating Castro. He has been in a sustained rage over the jailings of five Cubans, known as the Wasp Network, for espionage in 2001.
Although the five were regarded as low-level operatives, they were given sentences ranging from 15 years to life, under particularly harsh circumstances.
Their release has become an obsession for Castro, who no doubt believes he may now have some cards to play to effect a prisoner exchange.
And in the spirit of an eye for an eye, he has accorded his jailed dissidents similarly harsh prison conditions.
One might ask, then: Who are the beneficiaries of this crackdown? Once again, only the hard-liners in Cuba and Miami.
There is the Cuba Liberty Council, which sits at the far right end of exile opinion and has often been critical of many of the arrested dissidents for being too moderate.
Now, the council has asked that all U.S. travel to Cuba be suspended, seamlessly playing into Castro's hand.
Ann Louise Bardach is the author of "Cuba Confidential: Love And Vengeance In Miami and Havana" and editor of "Cuba: A Traveler's Literary Companion."