The US and Cuba

Ever since I was a young man, I’ve admired the United States and been interested in its history, specifically its people’s calling to work which turned it into the most powerful country on earth. They never hesitated to fight for freedom in faraway places; take the two world wars of the 20th century, then Korea and the disaster that was Vietnam, this last one being tremendously humiliating for their military and ending with a peace treaty signed in Paris by Henry Kissinger, Nixon’s brilliant secretary of state.

The United States has made many political errors, like interfering in Guatemala with the assassination of Jacobo Arbenz, and helping to knock out Pinochet in Chile with the death of constitutional President Salvador Allende, a leftist who came to power through general election.

But their worst mistake was the cruel blockade imposed on Cuba in 1961 when Fidel Castro declared his government Marxist-Leninist and allied itself with the Soviet Union, all through the free will of a people coming out of the terrible regime of Fulgencio Batista, who had turned the beautiful island into a casino and “vice paradise” for gringos. All the mafia bosses of liquor sales during the prohibition went to Cuba and came back millionaires. George Raft, the famous actor, was one of those to benefit from this.

For more than 50 years, the infamous blockade has stood. Now, brave liberal American President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro have re-initiated diplomatic relations, through which the United States has pushed for commercial concessions in hopes that Congress will abolish the law that once isolated Cuba. These measures alleviate some of the stress of Cubans’ daily lives and I’m sure that with pressure from the rest of the world, headed by Pope Francis, the island will once again be a prosperous nation, especially in its tourism industry as it has the most beautiful seas in the Caribbean.

If the U.S. can have diplomatic and commercial relations with China and Russia, why not with Cuba? All that talk about there not being democracy in Cuba isn’t worth a dime to listen to. In no socialist system is there anything called democracy, that which is perfect in England, almost perfect in the United States, and perfunctory in Colombia, and in many other countries claiming to be democracies.

Socialist regimes or communists in this case, don’t tolerate opposition parties. For example, in China you can’t post tweets against the government like Alvaro Uribe does here in Colombia, nor would it be tolerated in Putin’s Russia or the Castros’ Cuba.

A similar case exists in Venezuela with Hugo Chavez’s “Socialism of the 21st Century.” I can’t understand why the members of Colombia’s Democratic Center continue to nag President Santos to send our country uninvited to solve our neighbor’s political and economic problems.

I’m excited to hear the news that Cuba will soon be incorporated in the region’s economy, something that will benefit not only the United States but the whole American continent.