Washington Regrets E.U.-Cuba Normalization
Published in Le Figaro
(France) on 20/06/2008
by Philippe Gélie (link to original)
Republicans do not see reasons to relax American sanctions. But the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, promised a new approach.
“We are disappointed.” Gordon Johndroe, spokesperson for the Council of National Security at the White House, did not hide behind diplomatic formulas after the decision of the European Union Thursday night, to lift the regime sanctions against Cuba: “We estimate that the Castros should take a certain number of measures in order to improve the rights of ordinary Cubans before one mediocre sanction can be lifted.” At the Department of State, spokesperson Tom Casey went one better. “We see absolutely no split with the dictatorship of Castro to make us think that the moment has come to substantially modify our politics.”
European defiance of the United States on this sensible dossier, especially in an electoral period, seems more ideological than concrete. The diplomatic sanctions imposed by the EU in 2003, after the imprisonment of seventy-five political opponents by the regime of “La Havane,” was much more limited than the American embargo maintained since 1962. They restricted high standard contacts between governments, without restricting commercial changes. In practice, the sanctions have already been suspended since 2005, which renders the decision to do away with them more symbolic than anything else: “The United States has their politics toward Cuba. We do not share that,” leveled Miguel Angel Moratinos, the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs and principal advocate of lifting the sanctions.
Europe hopes to encourage the timid liberalization already begun
Europeans estimate that this carrot should have encouraged Raul Castro, who succeeded his elder brother Fidel last February, to pursue the timid liberalization already set in motion, after his arrival. The purchase of cell phones became legal on the island as well as access to hotels up till then reserved for foreign tourists. Insufficient for the Bush administration, which maintains strict trade restrictions and which hardened the possibilities of contact between Cuban exiles in Florida and their families abroad in 2004. Some exceptions exist for the food stuffs, coveted markets for American farmers. But exports bring headaches, all ships being forbidden in American ports for six months after a stopover in Cuba.
The EU decision could give the debate, which already agitates the American presidential campaign, a new turn. The Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, has attracted the wrath of his Republican adversary, John McCain, by advocating a new approach which would not exclude the highest level contacts with the Castro regime. He promises to soften the conditions of travel to Cuba and to raise the ceiling of $1,200 per year that exiles can send to their close relatives. This opening was judged “naïve” by McCain, who rides a hard line, envisioning the legalization of relations with Cuba in “pursuing assassins and drug traffickers” associated with the regime. To be accused of being “European”, like John Kerry in 2004, could be harmful to the Democratic candidate.
The conditions of a lifting of the American embargo are serious in the law: they include the legalization of opposition movements, the liberation of some 230 political prisoners, the erasing of the Castro brothers and the organization of free elections. Whoever the next president may be, Congress must approve these conditions.
“We are disappointed.” Gordon Johndroe, spokesperson for the Council of National Security at the White House, did not hide behind diplomatic formulas after the decision of the European Union Thursday night, to lift the regime sanctions against Cuba: “We estimate that the Castros should take a certain number of measures in order to improve the rights of ordinary Cubans before one mediocre sanction can be lifted.” At the Department of State, spokesperson Tom Casey went one better. “We see absolutely no split with the dictatorship of Castro to make us think that the moment has come to substantially modify our politics.”
European defiance of the United States on this sensible dossier, especially in an electoral period, seems more ideological than concrete. The diplomatic sanctions imposed by the EU in 2003, after the imprisonment of seventy-five political opponents by the regime of “La Havane,” was much more limited than the American embargo maintained since 1962. They restricted high standard contacts between governments, without restricting commercial changes. In practice, the sanctions have already been suspended since 2005, which renders the decision to do away with them more symbolic than anything else: “The United States has their politics toward Cuba. We do not share that,” leveled Miguel Angel Moratinos, the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs and principal advocate of lifting the sanctions.
Europe hopes to encourage the timid liberalization already begun
Europeans estimate that this carrot should have encouraged Raul Castro, who succeeded his elder brother Fidel last February, to pursue the timid liberalization already set in motion, after his arrival. The purchase of cell phones became legal on the island as well as access to hotels up till then reserved for foreign tourists. Insufficient for the Bush administration, which maintains strict trade restrictions and which hardened the possibilities of contact between Cuban exiles in Florida and their families abroad in 2004. Some exceptions exist for the food stuffs, coveted markets for American farmers. But exports bring headaches, all ships being forbidden in American ports for six months after a stopover in Cuba.
The EU decision could give the debate, which already agitates the American presidential campaign, a new turn. The Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, has attracted the wrath of his Republican adversary, John McCain, by advocating a new approach which would not exclude the highest level contacts with the Castro regime. He promises to soften the conditions of travel to Cuba and to raise the ceiling of $1,200 per year that exiles can send to their close relatives. This opening was judged “naïve” by McCain, who rides a hard line, envisioning the legalization of relations with Cuba in “pursuing assassins and drug traffickers” associated with the regime. To be accused of being “European”, like John Kerry in 2004, could be harmful to the Democratic candidate.
The conditions of a lifting of the American embargo are serious in the law: they include the legalization of opposition movements, the liberation of some 230 political prisoners, the erasing of the Castro brothers and the organization of free elections. Whoever the next president may be, Congress must approve these conditions.
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