Obama: “…the fact that you had Raul Castro [Cuban president] saying that he is willing to have his government discuss with ours not just issues of lifting the embargo but issues of human rights political prisoners, that’s a sign of progress…”
PM Barrow: “Cuba is a subject on which there is, I believe apart from the United States, a unanimity of opinion in the region in so far as we all agree that Cuba needs to be integrated formally into the official hemispheric processes and we all agree that the embargo against Cuba ought to be lifted.”
“The cruel blockade on the Cuban people takes lives and causes suffering; it also affects the economy of the nation and limits its possibilities to cooperate with healthcare, education and sports services, with energy saving and with the protection of the environment in many poor countries of the world.”
This was the declaration made by former long-time president of Cuba, Fidel Castro, in his regular column, titled “The Secret Summit,” distributed just after the closing of the Summit of the Americas. Castro was in power when the blockade began.
It is clear that the protest threatened by Cuba’s strongest allies in the region well ahead of the Summit, to not sign the Declaration of Commitment of Port of Spain because of Cuba’s continued exclusion, was one of the reasons that there was no collective signing of the declaration, but merely a symbolic signing by the chairman of the Summit, Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning.
Amandala is reliably informed that Cuba was a persistent topic at the Summit, from the opening ceremony for the Summit on Friday night to the closing press briefings before leaders dispersed back to their home bases two days later.
Even US President Barack Obama acknowledged the pressing importance of the Cuba question when he addressed Cuba in the very first minute of his brief statement at his closing press conference with journalists at the Hilton in Port of Spain.
Obama said that, “…too many citizens are being denied dignity and opportunity and a chance to live out their dreams in Cuba and all across the hemisphere.”
During the Q&A with journalists, Obama was questioned about the apparent shift in his stance on Cuba. A journalist reminded him that back in 2004 [when Obama campaigned for a senatorial seat], he had said that he supported lifting the embargo. “What made you change your mind?” the journalist inquired.
“2004 seems like aeons ago,” Obama joked, but added on a more serious note that his administration has acknowledged that the policy the US has had in place for nearly 50 years has not worked the way they wanted it to.
“The Cuban people are not free. And that’s our lodestone, our north star when it comes to our policy in Cuba. It is my belief that we are not going to change that policy overnight. And the steps that we took I think were constructive in sending a signal that we’d like to see a transformation.”
On Monday, April 13, Obama issued executive orders, which lifted restrictions that had been imposed on Cubans in the US, limiting their travel to the island and the amount of money they could send back home in the form of remittances. However, there have been mixed reactions among Cuban-Americans, some of whom do not support Obama’s move and see it as too early a move to please Cuba while not demanding that that country at least lessen the 30% tax on remittances.
However, Obama made it clear that he was not going to budge beyond the pre-Summit concession without Cuba also making some changes to reciprocate.
Said Obama: “…the fact that you had Raul Castro [Cuban president] saying that he is willing to have his government discuss with ours not just issues of lifting the embargo but issues of human rights political prisoners, that’s a sign of progress…
“So we’re gonna explore and see if we could make some further steps. There are some things that the Cuban government could do; they could release political prisoners. They could reduce charges on remittances to match up with the policies that we have put in place to allow Cuban American families to send remittances. It turns out that Cuba charges an awful lot, they take a lot off the top. That would be an example of cooperation where both governments are working to help Cuban families and raise standards of living in Cuba….”
Obama said that there are ways that the Castro administration can send some signals that they are serious about pursuing change.
“I think that all governments here were encouraged by the fact that we have taken some first steps. Many of them want us to go further, but they at least know that we are …not dug in, into policies that were formulated before I was born,” Obama added.
But the fact of the matter is that even while restrictions against Cuban-Americans have been relaxed, the hated embargo and Cuba’s exclusion from the Inter-American system remain in full effect.
“I think all of us in the region would like to see a lifting of the economic blockade against Cuba but clearly the president [Barack Obama] is not entirely the master of that situation; that will depend as well on the US Congress, but the leadership of President Obama in that respect is going to be very important and I think he is already establishing that he means to be progressive on the question of Cuba by these initial measures that he has announced,” Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow told Amandala when the Port of Spain Summit of the Americas was closing.
Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, in her formal remarks at Friday’s opening of the Summit of the Americas, called on the US to finally lift the embargo, while she expressed appreciation for steps Obama had taken on Monday, in advance of the Summit.
She also said that the Summit provided a second opportunity for countries in the Americas to build new relations – an opportunity that should not be missed. She added that the Summit provided a starting point to build a new regional order.
Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega was the strongest voice for Cuba at the Summit of the Americas, and he held the microphone for nearly an hour, calling out the US’s treatment of Cuba as “criminal.”
Ortega said he did not feel comfortable attending the Summit, and that he felt ashamed to be there without Cuba and Puerto Rico (a territory of the US) participating as states in the dialogue.
Referring to notes scribbled on a paper for him by Fidel Castro’s brother, Raul, the current president of Cuba, Ortega noted that the Summit was beginning on the same date of the invasion of Cuba back in 1961.
(Ortega was referring to the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba by exiles said to have been backed by the US, which happened in the same period when the US embargo was put into effect and Cuba was put out of the Organization of the American States. It was before Obama was even born and while African-Americans were still victims of a system that segregated Blacks from Whites – Ortega made references to this period too in his speech, evidently appealing for Obama’s compassion on the Cuba issue.)
Ortega said he would not support the Port of Spain Declaration of Commitment at the Summit, because of Cuba’s continued exclusion without merit. Keeping the embargo in place means that the US is targeting Cuba in a criminal way, he further charged.
“Cuba is a subject on which there is, I believe apart from the United States, a unanimity of opinion in the region in so far as we all agree that Cuba needs to be integrated formally into the official hemispheric processes and we all agree that the embargo against Cuba ought to be lifted,” Prime Minister Barrow told our newspaper.
“President Obama, I thought, was very clear in signaling that he wants a new beginning with Cuba. How long it will take for that change in tone and in approach to actually translate into a lifting of the embargo is anybody’s guess.
“We have to understand that he has to deal with various constituencies in the United States: He has to deal with Congress, he has to deal with public opinion. But I think that his indication that he is prepared to begin a dialogue with Cuba is a signal development; it is a very welcome development and, of course, he’s acted on that by, in fact, easing the travel restrictions for Cuban-Americans and the restrictions on remittances by Americans with Cuban roots….
“So clearly, it would have been impossible for us to make the kind of breakthrough that would have seen President Obama make any announcement that the embargo would have been lifted. I mean that simply could not happen in the circumstances. But I think there is great encouragement. I think the rest of region, we have to be careful that we do not seem to be attempting to bully President Obama, because that will produce a backlash in the United States that will make it more difficult for him to achieve the objective that we believe now is ultimately now going to be his end game – the incorporation of Cuba into the hemisphere process and the lifting of the embargo.”
UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, said in a statement to the Heads of State attending the Fifth Summit of the Americas that, “We have noted with interest the change of direction by the new U.S. administration. It is a sign of changing times, of fresh winds blowing, in ways large and small.”
On Friday, CARICOM leaders met in Caucus on the Carnival Princess cruise ship and declared their position on the Cuba issue:
“As members of the Caribbean family CARICOM countries have longstanding ties with the Governments and peoples of United States and Cuba, our close neighbors and friends. We have made it clear at every Summit that the inclusion of Cuba into the mainstream of hemispheric affairs remains a matter of priority importance for us. In this regard we welcome the initiatives recently taken by the President of the United States Barack Obama to remove the restrictions on remittances and travel by Cuban-Americans. We are convinced that the new US Administration fully understands the need for new approaches in a new era of hemispheric partnership, which will lead to changes, including a lifting of the embargo. We expect also that a framework can be established to promote dialogue on the issues that have defined the relationship between the United States and Cuba over the years.
“We stand ready to assist in any way that we can to promote such dialogue between our two close allies in what we recognize is a complex process towards the rebuilding of a relationship, and the reversal of 50 years of active non-engagement between them. We appreciate the need for wide consensus-building on this issue within all branches of the United States Government and the importance therefore for all leaders to show patience and understanding towards the Governments of the United States and Cuba as they embark on what we hope will be a defining moment in their bilateral relations.”
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was more critical of Cuba, though he, too, expressed the need for “normalization of Cuba’s relationship with the rest of the hemisphere.”
He said at a press conference held at the International Finance Center in Port of Spain, Trinidad, that, “…every political leader faces political opposition in his country. That is not the case in Cuba today. We’d like to see that change. We’d like to see a reintegrated Cuba that demonstrates some democratic norms. President Obama has indicated new openness and willingness to look at changes and to make changes to American policy. We would hope the Cuban Government would reciprocate…”
The man to have his last say was ex-president of Cuba, Fidel Castro, in his widely distributed column.
Calling the Fifth Summit of the Americas both “secret” and “luxurious,” Fidel chronicled much of his observations on the Summit, including friendly exchanges between Obama and Chavez – who has held a reputation as being one of the US’s greatest opponents and one of Cuba’s greatest allies in the region. He noted that Chavez had given Obama the Spanish version of the book: Las Venas Abiertas de America Latina, systematically updated by the author. (The book is The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries by Eduardo Galeano, and ratings on the Internet reportedly increased after Chavez made this gesture. The book includes accounts of US actions in and interactions with Latin America.)
Asked how he felt about the book presentation, Obama told journalists Sunday he thought “it was a nice gesture…I’m a reader.”
It appears that even Fidel does admire some things about President Obama. In his column he observed that, “His predecessor [Bush] went to bed early and slept for many hours. Seemingly, Obama works hard and sleeps little.”
Still, other parts of Fidel’s commentary were scalding: “…I will be 83, almost twice his age, but now I have much more time to think. I wish to remind him of a basic ethical principle with respect to Cuba: there is no excuse for any injustice, any crime to last, regardless of time; the cruel blockade on the Cuban people takes lives and causes suffering; it also affects the economy of the nation and limits its possibilities to cooperate with healthcare, education and sports services, with energy saving and with the protection of the environment in many poor countries of the world.”
Obama concurred with statements made at the Summit by leaders who pinpointed areas where Cuba continues to make tangible contributions to the peoples of the Americas, particularly referring to comments by leaders that Cuba sends thousands of doctors to their countries to help them.
“It’s a reminder for us that if our only interaction with these countries is drug interdiction, if our only interaction is military, then we may not be developing the connections that can over time increase our influence and have a beneficial effect when we need to try to move policies that are of concern to us forward in the region and I think that’s why it’s so important that in our interactions not just here in our hemisphere but around the world… that we recognize that our military power is just one arm of our power and we have to use our diplomatic and development aid in more intelligent ways so that people can see very practical concrete improvements in the lives of ordinary persons,” said US President Obama.
In response to that, Fidel said: “We, the Cubans do not do it to gain influence; it’s a tradition that was born in Algeria in 1963, when that country was fighting French colonialism, and we have later done likewise in scores of Third World countries.”
The Cuba-America debate is one that is rooted in strong differences in ideologies over what kind of system of governance and economy works best for people – the socialist/communist system or the capitalist-backed forms of democracy that today dominate in the Americas but at the same time are fingered by socialists as the real reason why today’s financial crisis has imploded all over the hemisphere and the world, and why the gap between the rich and the poor continues to expand.
This was, in fact, the underlying question in Daniel Ortega’s pro-Cuba, anti-capitalist speech with which he opened the Fifth Summit of the Americas.
Ortega said that under the current system of things, poverty expands while the rich multiply their wealth. He said that the people subscribing to that system are simply digging their own graves.