Cuba Policy
Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2009 8:48 pm
Model Congress -- Cuba Policy
Debate: October 14, 2009
The United States has a complex historical relationship with Cuba. With a globalizing world and a new American administration, what approach should the United States take to address our concerns for and our fundamental differences with Cuba? Let the debating begin.
"Cuba Policy Brief
Cuba and the United States are close neighbors- but only in the physical sense. About 90 miles of water separate Cuba and the state of Florida. Politically, however, there is a vast divided between the two neighbors. Prior to 1959, the nations had varying relations. At first Cuba was liberated from Spain by the United States in the Spanish-American War, and then varying leaders went through, each with a neutral to positive relation to the United States. The last pro-American ruler in Cuba was the dictator General Fulgencio Batista. Batista was supported by the United States, and American businesses held a lot of interests in his country.
The relationship soured when Communist rebel Fidel Castro overthrew the Batista government and became the Prime Minister of Cuba. This took place in 1959, at the height of the Cold War. The Cold War was a unique conflict that lasted from 1945, shortly after the end of World War 2, to 1991. Rather than direct military action between the two main belligerents, it involved primarily intelligence, diplomatic intelligence, and proxy wars. It was a quest for geopolitical and ideological supremacy between the Communist Soviet Union and the capitalist United States. Castro enjoyed a short grace period in the eyes of the United States, but shortly after he started nationalizing businesses, as per Communist policy, he was firmly classified as an enemy. In 1960, President Eisenhower authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to train an army of Cuban exiles to overthrow Castro. During Kennedy’s term, in 1961, this resulted in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. Fearful of another invasion, the Soviet Union placed nuclear missiles in Cuba, resulting in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Eventually this was privately resolved between the two superpowers as the UUSR pulled its missiles out of Cuba and the US removed the American missiles in Turkey. Kennedy also promised that the US would never invade Cuba. Despite this, relationships remained frosty. Various CIA attempts to humiliate or kill Castro continued. All of them failed and Castro outlasted the Soviets themselves.
In modern-times US-Cuban relations still have not thawed. Neither nation has an embassy in the others. The Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C. and the United States Interest Section in Havana are both officially under the protection of the Swiss Embassies there. Apart from old mistrust relating to the prior invasion and assassination attempts and missile placements, the nations still have disputes today.
One issue that divides the two nations is the status of Guantanamo Bay Naval base. Cuba would like to see America leave the base and return it to the Cubans. However, the Cuban-American Treaty, under which the base was leased, states that so long as the rent is paid, the base can continue to exist. Cuba will only get the land there back if both sides agree to it or the United States unilaterally withdraws. Cuba has claimed that the coercion involved in the procurement of the treaty makes it invalid under the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, but the Convention is specifically non-retroactive, meaning that it would not apply. However, the treaty says that the US may use Guantanamo “generally to do any and all things necessary to fit the premises for use as coaling or naval stations only, and for no other purpose.” Whether or not prisoner detention is a naval station purpose is debatable. America has sent in the lease checks every year in full and on schedule. Fidel Castro cashed the first one he ever received; the rest are stuffed in a drawer in his office.
Another thing that is displeasing to the United States is Cuba’s human rights record. As an authoritarian one-party state, the human rights record is predictably abysmal. Human Rights Watch and the United Nations, along with the US State Department, have accused the Cubans of suppression of dissent, suppression of freedom of expression, show trials, torture, mob actions called “acts of repudiation”, and so on. These things go against the American ideals, contained in the Declaration of Independence, of the rights to “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Clearly, these things must be factored in to America’s policies about Cuba.
One interesting test of human rights consideration came in the Elian Gonzalez affair. Gonzalez was a young Cuban boy whose mother had attempted to take him to the US and then drowned. Immigration officials released him to family members in Miami who resolved to keep him and take care of him. However, his father, still in Cuba, asked for him to be returned. After widespread media attention and passionate arguments on both sides, Attorney General Janet Reno ordered the Border Patrol to seize Elian by force. He was eventually returned to Cuba. Castro appears to have used him as a propaganda tool, attending at least one birthday party: Elian considers him a “friend” and a father. Opinions on the issue varied: journalist Richard Cohen wrote that this was an issue between a boy and his father, while philosopher Leonard Peikoff claimed, “It would be a sin to deport Elián Gonzalez. ... To send him there in order to preserve his father's rights is absurdity, since there are no parental or other rights in Cuba. To send him there because ‘He needs a father, no matter what,’ is a mindless bromide.” The Gonzalez affair is significant not only on its own but also because the issue of divided families that will likely play a part in future immigration disputes.
Finally, the United States maintains an embargo against Cuba, along with travel restrictions. The embargo, contained in its modern form in the Helms-Burton Act, makes it very hard to sell most products there. In the meantime, it appears to have had little effect in instilling democracy on the island. The US Chamber of Commerce says that the embargo costs the United States $1.2 billion a year. Cuba is also seen as a potentially large market for American exports and businesses. Some might argue that ending the embargo would legitimize Castro’s government. However, the US has already recognized Castro, and the idea has been raised that the embargo merely aids Castro as it allows him to blame the US for Cuba’s problems.
Fidel Castro is no longer the president of Cuba (the position of prime minister no longer exits, and president is the highest rank available). He retired in 2008 due to health concerns but remains First Secretary of the Communist Party. His younger brother Raul is now president.
EDIT for news update 9/3/09: The US Treasury department decided that Cuban-Americans could send their relatives as much cash and visit them as much as they wanted under Obama’s softer policy towards Cuba. Other changes have also been put into place. See last link.
Links:
http://www.hrw.org/legacy/english/docs/ ... a12207.htm
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/dip_cuba002.asp
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N17200921.htm
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Vienna_Co ... f_Treaties
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4299294.stm
http://www.freetrade.org/node/433
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/244974.stm
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090903/us_nm/us_cuba_usa "
Debate: October 14, 2009
The United States has a complex historical relationship with Cuba. With a globalizing world and a new American administration, what approach should the United States take to address our concerns for and our fundamental differences with Cuba? Let the debating begin.
"Cuba Policy Brief
Cuba and the United States are close neighbors- but only in the physical sense. About 90 miles of water separate Cuba and the state of Florida. Politically, however, there is a vast divided between the two neighbors. Prior to 1959, the nations had varying relations. At first Cuba was liberated from Spain by the United States in the Spanish-American War, and then varying leaders went through, each with a neutral to positive relation to the United States. The last pro-American ruler in Cuba was the dictator General Fulgencio Batista. Batista was supported by the United States, and American businesses held a lot of interests in his country.
The relationship soured when Communist rebel Fidel Castro overthrew the Batista government and became the Prime Minister of Cuba. This took place in 1959, at the height of the Cold War. The Cold War was a unique conflict that lasted from 1945, shortly after the end of World War 2, to 1991. Rather than direct military action between the two main belligerents, it involved primarily intelligence, diplomatic intelligence, and proxy wars. It was a quest for geopolitical and ideological supremacy between the Communist Soviet Union and the capitalist United States. Castro enjoyed a short grace period in the eyes of the United States, but shortly after he started nationalizing businesses, as per Communist policy, he was firmly classified as an enemy. In 1960, President Eisenhower authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to train an army of Cuban exiles to overthrow Castro. During Kennedy’s term, in 1961, this resulted in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. Fearful of another invasion, the Soviet Union placed nuclear missiles in Cuba, resulting in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Eventually this was privately resolved between the two superpowers as the UUSR pulled its missiles out of Cuba and the US removed the American missiles in Turkey. Kennedy also promised that the US would never invade Cuba. Despite this, relationships remained frosty. Various CIA attempts to humiliate or kill Castro continued. All of them failed and Castro outlasted the Soviets themselves.
In modern-times US-Cuban relations still have not thawed. Neither nation has an embassy in the others. The Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C. and the United States Interest Section in Havana are both officially under the protection of the Swiss Embassies there. Apart from old mistrust relating to the prior invasion and assassination attempts and missile placements, the nations still have disputes today.
One issue that divides the two nations is the status of Guantanamo Bay Naval base. Cuba would like to see America leave the base and return it to the Cubans. However, the Cuban-American Treaty, under which the base was leased, states that so long as the rent is paid, the base can continue to exist. Cuba will only get the land there back if both sides agree to it or the United States unilaterally withdraws. Cuba has claimed that the coercion involved in the procurement of the treaty makes it invalid under the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, but the Convention is specifically non-retroactive, meaning that it would not apply. However, the treaty says that the US may use Guantanamo “generally to do any and all things necessary to fit the premises for use as coaling or naval stations only, and for no other purpose.” Whether or not prisoner detention is a naval station purpose is debatable. America has sent in the lease checks every year in full and on schedule. Fidel Castro cashed the first one he ever received; the rest are stuffed in a drawer in his office.
Another thing that is displeasing to the United States is Cuba’s human rights record. As an authoritarian one-party state, the human rights record is predictably abysmal. Human Rights Watch and the United Nations, along with the US State Department, have accused the Cubans of suppression of dissent, suppression of freedom of expression, show trials, torture, mob actions called “acts of repudiation”, and so on. These things go against the American ideals, contained in the Declaration of Independence, of the rights to “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Clearly, these things must be factored in to America’s policies about Cuba.
One interesting test of human rights consideration came in the Elian Gonzalez affair. Gonzalez was a young Cuban boy whose mother had attempted to take him to the US and then drowned. Immigration officials released him to family members in Miami who resolved to keep him and take care of him. However, his father, still in Cuba, asked for him to be returned. After widespread media attention and passionate arguments on both sides, Attorney General Janet Reno ordered the Border Patrol to seize Elian by force. He was eventually returned to Cuba. Castro appears to have used him as a propaganda tool, attending at least one birthday party: Elian considers him a “friend” and a father. Opinions on the issue varied: journalist Richard Cohen wrote that this was an issue between a boy and his father, while philosopher Leonard Peikoff claimed, “It would be a sin to deport Elián Gonzalez. ... To send him there in order to preserve his father's rights is absurdity, since there are no parental or other rights in Cuba. To send him there because ‘He needs a father, no matter what,’ is a mindless bromide.” The Gonzalez affair is significant not only on its own but also because the issue of divided families that will likely play a part in future immigration disputes.
Finally, the United States maintains an embargo against Cuba, along with travel restrictions. The embargo, contained in its modern form in the Helms-Burton Act, makes it very hard to sell most products there. In the meantime, it appears to have had little effect in instilling democracy on the island. The US Chamber of Commerce says that the embargo costs the United States $1.2 billion a year. Cuba is also seen as a potentially large market for American exports and businesses. Some might argue that ending the embargo would legitimize Castro’s government. However, the US has already recognized Castro, and the idea has been raised that the embargo merely aids Castro as it allows him to blame the US for Cuba’s problems.
Fidel Castro is no longer the president of Cuba (the position of prime minister no longer exits, and president is the highest rank available). He retired in 2008 due to health concerns but remains First Secretary of the Communist Party. His younger brother Raul is now president.
EDIT for news update 9/3/09: The US Treasury department decided that Cuban-Americans could send their relatives as much cash and visit them as much as they wanted under Obama’s softer policy towards Cuba. Other changes have also been put into place. See last link.
Links:
http://www.hrw.org/legacy/english/docs/ ... a12207.htm
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/dip_cuba002.asp
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N17200921.htm
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Vienna_Co ... f_Treaties
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4299294.stm
http://www.freetrade.org/node/433
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/244974.stm
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090903/us_nm/us_cuba_usa "