Cuba and the U.S.: A Secret Love?

When one reads the U.S. news, the relationship of the official mortal enemies is budding. Cuba is looking for a friend, on the inside.

In what direction is the Cuban Regime moving? It tries to hold everything together, and it therefore can be dealing with a foreign government and company, in order to fill the purses of the few priviliged and stay in power. The paper “U.S. Interests Section Havana (USINT)” discusses these contributions — and it is, of course, “Secret.” For 50 years the Americans have had no official embassy in Havana.

In international questions of law, the Swiss embassy actually takes on American interests. And there is the “Interests Section,” which officially takes care of practical concerns. It is the only diplomatic presence of Washington’s in Cuba. And of course they observe, as much as possible, what goes on in the communist island regime — and they foster communications with the regime, which is actually closer than the official, cultivated image of mortal enemies lets on.

The Brothers Castro

That’s shown by secret documents from the diplomatic communications of the Interests Section, which Welt Online has available. They come from the convolution of around 250,000 cables that the unveiling platform WikiLeaks leaked, and that together with their media partners, including the New York Times and Der Spiegel, have published only a fraction. Now, a second group of media under the leadership of the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten has access to the material — including the newspaper Die Welt and Welt Online — and to analyze, without relying on WikiLeaks Chief Assange’s approval.

This is especially exciting because of the evaluation of the Castro brothers, also known as the aged revolutionary leader Fidel and his one-year-younger brother Raul. In the summer of 2006, the very sick Fidel handed over governmental power to Raul. “Raul’s people must in a very short time produce results, if they want to hold back what Cardinal Jaime Ortega described as ‘the imapatience of the mob.’” And that mob is the relentless pressure for change. “That could be grounds for why Raul wants to approach Brazil and Mexico.” That could account for Cuba’s move to free itself from the one-sided connection with Venezuela.

Publicly Raul reminds the Americans of Gorbachev

And now the Americans see the difference between the two Castros: “Fidel was satisfied with Chavez as the most important partner. Raul clearly sees otherwise and has other goals — although he asserts the entire time that this is not the case — such as a way of living (modus vivendi) with the United States.” What’s more: “for someone who has only been in the U.S. once — 1960 in Houson — the obsession of Raul’s with the U.S. is unusual.”

His wish to normalize relations to the United States is in any case — besides all the other official rhetoric — real. Openly, Raul reminds the Americans of Gorbachev: “In any case, he will look for a little Perstroika in the economic section.” But neither are the “Gerontocracy” — the ruling class of old — not entirely powerless. This is still one of Fidel: “The acidly sarcastic speech of the older Castro is actually a personal razor that doesn’t necessarily reflect the true state of affairs between the U.S. and Cuba.”

Cuba’s Revolution leader can be celebrated

Next to his enemies, the regime looks more at home anyway. The diplomats report that the critical bloggers, meanwhile, are estimated to be the “most earnest challenge for the regime.” “The old dissident groups have been for the most part isolated from the rest of the island — they have no resonance in Cuba and only a small breakthrough international echo. On the other hand, the bloggers almost attract international popularity.” So grew the fear of the previously mentioned Cuban regime, that the international interest over the the world-renowned blogger Yoani Sanchez has run out of control.

With employees of the U.S. government there are often open, regular meetings — monthly meetings in Guantanamo Bay, where there is still a U.S. Naval base. The WikiLeaks documents reval a semi-intensive back and forth about the fight against drugs. There, it appears, the Cubans truly want to get the drug consumption on the island under control. To the Americans, they complain about the failure of the government of Jamaica to control the flow of drugs from there into the Bahamas and the United States. On the other hand, Washington is blamed, that Americans traveling to Cuba are not controlled enough when leaving: So the drugs flow out of the U.S. to Cuba, for example in printers.

News of spontaneous protests

At most the Cubans like to complain: “All representatives of the Cuban government constantly say that the current state of Cuban-American relations is a mistake of the Americans, and that how they will rebuild lies entirely with America.” With that lies the human rights questions and other claims of the Americans, how more democratic, something, which for the Cuban governmental officials never comes into question: “That alone usually leads to the immidiate break-up of the meeting.”

That it could come to revolts, the diplomats hold as unlikely: “There are reports about spontaneous protests. But the Cuban government does everything to censor reports about it. It is possible, but unlikely, that such a violent demonstration could start and spread throughout the land.” In the case of Cuban Journalist Alber Dubochet Hernandez, who was incarcerated for a year from August 2005 to August 2006, one recognizes the close monitoring of the security system of the Cuban State:

He had confirmed over Radio Marti in Miami that in a suburb of Havana a bomb had exploded in the office of the Communist Party. He was promptly arrested and thrown in jail. There the guards will gladly organize, for the price of 50 cigarette packs, a visit from a prosititute.

Corruption as an overall accepted survival strategy

It goes similarly in the economy: “Corruption is an acceptable survival strategy in Cuba,” writes the American. A Western businessman says, “The Cubans are no longer used to hard work,” and China’s Embassy has said, “The Cuban work ethic resembles that of China in the 1980s: The people come and go when they want.” As the Chinese Embassy underwent a general overhaul, they preferred the workers come from China.

Perhaps there are still worse guest workers in Cuba: “We have reliable reports on the presence of Colombian guerilla orginizations ELN and FARC, even the presence of Spainsh ETA members in Havana.” “The Cuban government allows them to receive health care and other services.” There is no doubt that, “the Cuban government has influence in the FARC.” However, to the U.S. diplomats, the Cuban government doesn’t allow American enemies to work on their ground. “The government attempts to avoid what could provoke the United States, activating anti-terror activity against Cuba.”