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The Key to Normalization
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13849 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
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12 / 1988 |
1,943 Words |
| Author
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Jose Fernandez
José Fernandez is the associate dean of the School of
Languages and Linguistics at Georgetown University. |
Current U.S. policy toward Cuba is largely ineffective. Designed to foster internal difficulties for the Castro regime, promote its isolation, and restrain its activity; abroad it has met with very limited success, and at times it has been utterly counterproductive. After 30 years of failure and frustration, the situation appears to be ripe for a move in a new direction, and undoubtedly this is what many would-be policymakers have been pondering for the past few months. No one would make a unilateral move toward Fidel Castro, for such a move would be reckless and politically costly. But we may rest assured that by now the incoming administration must have received more than one memorandum advocating the reopening of discussions with Cuba for the purpose of making progress toward the normalization of relations between the two countries.
The climate prevailing in the world, moreover, seems to be propitious for such a shift. Almost everywhere—at least in the relevant areas of the world—events are moving at a rapid pace toward the relaxation of tensions and negotiations rather than confrontation. U.S.-Soviet relations are at a new high level of accommodation; Sandinistas and Contras are talking rather than shooting at each other in Nicaragua; the protracted war in Angola has entered a phase of multilateral conversations that just might culminate in the withdrawal of the Cuban forces from the area.
Even the escalating animosity that once characterized the Cuban policy of the Reagan administration has abated to the extent that ever-watchful Cuban exiles have begun to talk about secret understandings between Washington and Havana. One of the most significant events to elicit this sort of comment was the accord signed by the two apparently irreconcilable enemies late last year whereby up to 20,000 Cubans became eligible annually for U.S. resident visas under normalized immigration procedures. Castro, for his part, graciously agreed to take back approximately 2,700 Cubans with felony records and mental problems who came to the United States in the 1980 Mariel boatlift. This was the accord that provoked the riots at the Oakdale, Louisiana, and Atlanta federal prisons last year. Ironically, the flames that were ignited by the detainees who were to be deported served as a signal to everyone concerned that, rhetorical fireworks notwithstanding, the Cuban policy of the Reagan administration had lost its teeth.
Most critics of American policy would insist that it is basically up to the new administration to capitalize on this favorable trend. These critics actually believe that Washington should be held responsible for its lack
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