CUBAN AMERICANS: Hard-liners, moderates, appeasers

October 31, 2007 | The Miami Herald
By Frank Calzon

According to some analysts, Cuban Americans -- depending on their reaction to President Bush's recent Cuba speech -- may be cataloged as hard-line, moderate or appeasers. But can they?

If one were to look beyond the labels, this is what one would find:

• "Hard-liners" are Cuban Americans who believe that the real issue is freedom and not U.S.-Cuba policy. They agree with Bush that the Cuban regime needs to talk to the Cuban people and allow Cubans to talk before negotiating with anybody else, including Washington. In a role reversal, it is Bush -- not the Cuban government leaders -- who insists that Cubans, not foreigners, decide the destiny of their island.

Why should those Cubans be identified as hard-liners? American civil rights leaders who demanded the dismantling of all segregated facilities -- drinking fountains, buses and hotels -- were not. Today, neither is Burma's courageous opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who calls on the outside world not to travel to Burma and for foreign governments to put sanctions on Rangoon's military regime. And the label, which is sometimes used as synonymous with ''extremists,'' was not applied to the South Africans who urged the world to boycott that country's racist regime in order to achieve change in Johanesburg.

• Some "moderate" exiles demonstrate their moderation by continuing to have illusions about negotiating with the Castro regime. Why do they say so little about the government-sponsored rapid deployment brigades who throw rocks, yell obscenities and sometimes threaten to burn the homes of Cuban dissidents? Is Martha Beatriz Roque, the former Cuban political prisoner and dissident leader from Havana who supports the embargo, a hard-liner?

It is time to go beyond the simplistic question of, Are you for or against the embargo?

If you ask me, 'Are you for lifting the sanctions in exchange for the release of political prisoners, the relaxation of the Castro brothers' economic decrees that prevent Cuba from achieving its economic potential, the opening of all segregated facilities to all Cubans where now only foreigners are allowed?'' my answer is a resounding Yes.

But if I am asked, ''Are you in favor of lifting the embargo so that American tourists could join other foreigners in Cuba's segregated hotels, so that the regime continues to abuse and beat not only political prisoners but their relatives, so that Cuban newspapers and radio stations continue to function under the strictest censorship?'' I would have to say No.

Cuban-American moderates, as quoted in some articles, want the United States to offer partial lifting of the sanctions in the hope that the Castro dynasty will carry internal reforms. They ignore the fact that the business as usual approach has been tried for years by Spain, Canada and others and has done nothing but help to keep the regime in place.

The Bush administration and other democratic governments want to help the Cuban people rebuild a prosperous, democratic Cuba. The naysayers see a nefarious plan behind the president's offer; yet only those siding with the Soviet Union described in similar terms the Marshall Plan, which, generously funded by the United States, made possible the reconstruction of a democratic and prosperous Europe after World War II.

• Then there are the "appeasers" -- Miami Cuban exiles who broadcast radio programs in Miami taped by the Castro regime in Cuba. Cuban Americans cannot win for losing. If we criticize such outrages we are labeled extremists and hard-liners. If we ignore the Miami pro-Castro radio and TV programs, we are told that Cuban Americans no longer support U.S. sanctions.

Labeling Cuban Americans is a side issue. Cuban-American public opinion can be easily ascertained by looking at the votes of six Cuban Americans of both parties in the U.S. Congress. At the end of the day, Bush and the Central European governments who support the dissidents are right: The issue is neither U.S. policy on Cuba nor the European Union's policy toward Havana, but the inalienable right of Cubans to get rid of a murderous regime.

Frank Calzon is executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba in Washington, D.C.