BY ERNIE MAILHOT AND BILL KALMAN
MIAMI - U.S. president William Clinton and secretary of
state Madeleine Albright announced a series of measures January
5 that they claimed would "ease the plight of the Cuban
people." Though touted by the media as a "relaxing" of some of
the brutal U.S. sanctions imposed on Cuba, these measures are
actually part of Washington's strategy to continue the economic
blockade of the island. They flow from the U.S. capitalists'
unrelenting hostility towards the Cuban people and their
revolution. At the press conference, Albright used the occasion
to attack the revolutionary government of Cuba as a "repressive
and backward-looking regime."
Later Albright told public television's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, "We're going to keep our pressure up against Castro. We have bipartisan support for these measures."
The press conference came as the Clinton administration rejected a proposal from 24 Democratic and Republican senators and three Republican former secretaries of state to set up a bipartisan commission to review all aspects of U.S. policy towards Cuba, including the trade embargo. This proposal, whose backers argue for what they hope will be more effective ways to put pressure against the Cuban revolution, was attacked vociferously by many hard-line conservatives and Cuban-American rightists.
The Clinton administration's measures include changing the law so that not only Cuban-Americans but any U.S. residents can now send up to $1,200 a year to Cuban individuals and "organizations independent of the government"; allowing the sale of some food and agricultural products to "independent nongovernment entities" such as restaurants or co-ops; and increasing "people to people" contact by streamlining the approval process for cultural, athletic, and academic exchanges. In particular, the Clinton administration would allow the Baltimore Orioles professional baseball team to play two exhibition games against the Cuban national team, one in Baltimore and one in Havana, with proceeds going to Catholic Relief Services. This is part of an administration policy that uses Catholic charities to circumvent the Cuban government.
Other measures announced by Clinton include increasing charter flights to Cuba, reestablishing direct mail service, and "strengthening Radio and TV Martí," which broadcast counterrevolutionary programming from Florida. Another part calls for "launching new public diplomacy programs in Latin America and Europe to keep international attention focused on the need for change in Cuba." Some of these changes, such as the direct mail service to the island and additional flights, will need Cuban government approval to be implemented.
As part of these moves, Clinton named José Collado to succeed Jorge Mas Canosa as chair of the bipartisan Advisory Board for Cuban Broadcasting, which oversees both Radio and TV Martí. This post had been vacant since the death over a year ago of Mas Canosa, who headed the rightist Cuban American National Foundation. Collado is a Democrat and a regional vice- president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America. Collado's resume, supplied by the White House, points out that he was once appointed by then president of the AFL-CIO Lane Kirkland to the organization's anti-Cuban outfit called the Labor Committee for a Free Cuba.
Various rightist politicians in Miami as well as the Miami Herald expressed opposition to some of Clinton's measures. Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart, both from Miami, said they would oppose any food sales to Cuba as illegal.
The Herald, a vocal opponent of the Cuban revolution, supported Clinton's proposals, along with the continuing economic blockade. The papers editors said they oppose the sale of agricultural supplies because "...any such sales could bolster the state, which virtually controls all food production." Peter Romero, acting assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, explained the government's intentions are "to promote a very nascent, nongovernmental sector in Cuba in a way that they are able to exercise increasing autonomy and, obviously, increase their ranks."
Andrés Gómez, a leader of the Antonio Maceo Brigade, an organization of Cuban-Americans who support the Cuban revolution, told the Militant, "The fundamental problems are not being addressed. This is window dressing. There will be more flights from more U.S. cities to more Cuban cities, but Cuban-Americans are still restricted to one visit per year. Others in the U.S. cannot travel legally except with hard-to- gain licenses from the U.S. Treasury Department. The planes can fly, but people can't. None of the measures fulfill the needs for normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States."
The New York Times quoted Cuban foreign minister Roberto Robaina saying that Washington's new measures "don't really go to the root of the problem. The root of the problem is still a blockade that is unjust." Robaina had just arrived in Haiti, where the Cuban government has taken the initiative to send volunteer doctors to help meet the dire need for medical care that was exacerbated last year by Hurricane Georges.
Bill Kalman is a member of the United Transportation Union. Ernest Mailhot is a member of the International Association of Machinists.