No Time to Lift Trade Ban

August 2nd, 2006 | USA Today
by Frank Calzon

No sooner had the surgeon (or the coroner) finished working on Fidel Castro's intestines, than those who had long insisted on lifting the embargo seized the moment to renew their call.
But this is no time for opportunistic appeasement, which can be misinterpreted by the hard-liners now in power. Soon after the world learned that Castro, unseen and reportedly undergoing surgery, transferred temporary power to his brother Raul and several hard-liners in Havana, pundits urged Washington to lift the embargo.

For one, Fidel could yet recover. For another, Raul's formula is not a transition from dictatorship like Augusto Pinochet's in Chile but a succession modeled after North Korea's Kim Il Sung's transfer of power to his son.

Rather than fly a white flag, the world should use this opportunity to demand democracy in Cuba. Czech writer and former president Vaclav Havel, who has been the target of Castro's wrath, continues to call on the world to oppose Castro's repression and to support the Cuban people.

Havel is right that the embargo is not the issue. Many European and Latin American leaders agree. Former Chilean president Patricio Alwyn, who replaced Pinochet, has said: "The same reasons that prompted the majority of the Chileans to fight for democracy justify the legitimate aspirations for freedom of the Cuban people." Other Latin American democratic leaders, such as former Uruguayan president Luis Alberto Lacalle and former Costa Rican president Luis Alberto Monje, have joined Havel's appeals.
The embargo should not be lifted unless all Cuban political prisoners are released and the International Committee of the Red Cross is allowed to visit Castro's political prisons. Why not also insist that Raul Castro end his brother's apartheid policy of banning Cubans from hotels, beaches, clinics and stores set aside for foreigners?

Instead of blaming America first, why not ask Raul Castro to accept the offers of American and European humanitarian assistance rejected by Fidel. The only condition should be that their distribution be made by the American and European Red Cross to make sure food is not diverted to the military or to hard currency stores. What evidence is there that Havana's military junta is any more sensitive to the needs and wishes of the Cubans than Fidel?

Frank Calzon is Executive Director of the Center for a Free Cuba, a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., that promotes human rights and democracy for Cuba.