Choosing between Washington and the Castros

Despite the United States’ loss of influence in Latin America, it always beats Havana.

31 years ago, Fidel Castro was informed by the Mexican government that he could not attend the North-South summit in Cancun. The host and organizer of the event, then-president Jose Lopez Portillo, felt obligated to not invite the man he referred to as “my commander.” Ronald Reagan, in the style of a U.S. president, was very direct: If Castro went, he wouldn’t. And although Cuba presided at the time over the Non-Aligned Movement, it didn’t make sense to have a meeting on global economic development without the United States. When Castro was notified of the bad news, he threw a monumental tantrum, but at the end of the day there was no alternative but to accept.

A few days ago, Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos traveled to Havana to inform Raul Castro that he could not attend the Summit of the Americas, which will take place on April 14–15 in Cartagena. Weeks before, Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa threatened, on behalf of the ALBA nations (Ecuador, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Cuba and Paraguay), that if Cuba was not invited, ALBA countries would not attend either. As in 1981, with Mexico, Santos had previously dispatched his foreign minister to the island to investigate Cuba’s desire to participate; the response from Raul was irreversibly affirmative. That placed Santos in an uncomfortable situation: Either suffer the boycott of ALBA or almost certainly do without the presence of Barack Obama in Cartagena. Despite the well-intentioned, yet naive, advice given by Latin American commentators and politicians that advise Obama to go to Colombia and use the forum to demand directly to Raul Castro democracy in Cuba, the last thing that a Democratic president needs in the middle of an electoral campaign, as he’s being criticized by his Republican adversaries for being “weak and liberal,” is a photo with either Castro brother. Santos has no other option, for the same reasons that Lopez Portillo did not 31 years ago, but to inform Raul Castro that “there was no consensus to invite Cuba to Cartagena.”

It has been almost 10 years exactly since something similar happened to then-Mexican president Vicente Fox and his foreign minister — the correspondent writing this article. With one difference: The International Conference on Financing for Development, which took place in Monterrey at that time, was a United Nations meeting, even though it took place in Mexico. Hence, the host country felt obligated to invite the 192 heads of state of UN member countries, of which 65 attended, the highest number in Mexican history.

There was no way to avoid Fidel Castro’s visit to Monterrey if he wanted to make the trip. And he fervently desired to go to the conference, with the intention of pressuring Fox to not condemn Cuba for human rights violations at the UN Commission for Human Rights in Geneva. He attended the summit. Fox couldn’t uninvite Castro, but he did make it clear that he was welcome for the minimum amount of time possible, as set by the UN’s regulations for conferences: a speech, the so-called retirement and a dinner. The reason was obvious: Since his first visit to Caracas in 1959, weeks after the triumph of his revolution, Castro has played politics, in capital letters, in every country he’s visited. It would suffice to remember his one-month stay in Chile, in 1972, and the nightmare that was the journey for Salvador Allende.

Fox, rightly, wanted to impede Castro from preaching in the streets of Monterrey, and he made that clear to the Cuban leader. The Mexican press summarized Fox’s stance with the renowned and fictitious phrase, “You eat and you leave.” López Portillo and Santos had invited the Castro brothers neither to dine nor to eat. Fox yielded by sitting Castro at his side, waiting for him to finish his dessert before he returned back to his island.

Calderón is without a doubt the most pro-Castro Mexican president since López Portillo. What is notable over the past 30 years is that, despite the supposed decline in power and influence of the United States in Latin America, the supposed increased independence of several South American countries against the U.S. and the supposed modernizing reforms of Raul Castro in Cuba, when a Latin American country is forced to choose between Castro and Washington, they pick the same side: Washington. It goes without saying that none of the supposed allies of Havana in Latin America — Brazil or Argentina, for example — joined the ALBA boycott, nor did they inform Santos that they prefer that Raul attend in Barack’s place. Nor did Mexico defend the cause of the Cuban visit to Cartagena, and it is likely that the recent visit of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden to Mexico led the country to understand perfectly the reasons why Obama could not travel to Colombia if there was a chance he would encounter Raul Castro.

Mexico’s position reflects the paradoxes of international relations. Unless something surprising takes place in the upcoming months, President Felipe Calderon will be the first Mexican leader since Luis Echeverria Alvarez to not have visited Cuba: Echeverria (1970-1976) visited the island for three days, as did José López Portillo (1976-1982). Miguel de la Madrid (1982-1988) made a two-day visit in October of 1988; Carlos Salinas (1988-1994) went for six hours toward the end of his term. Ernesto Zedillo (1994-2000) attended the Ibero-American Summit, though it was not a bilateral visit, in November of 1999; Fox (2000-2006) made a two-day visit in Cuba in February of 2002.

Calderón is without a doubt the most ardent supporter of Castro among Mexico’s presidents since Lopez Portillo (Salinas became an admirer of Castro after leaving power). He would desire nothing more than to repair relations between Mexico and Cuba after the relationship’s deterioration, which the current Mexican president argues was due to the former Mexican president. Apparently, he will have to delay his desires, or postpone his trip until he leaves the presidential residence of Los Pinos on December 1. It will soon be seen whether he will enjoy the same hospitality that Cuban granted Salinas and others; surely Calderon will need it more than others.