Monday, August 23, 2010

U.S. Concessions on Cuba must be Thought-out Carefully

By Jerry Brewer

As former President Fidel Castro once again emerges as Cuba’s moral international spokesperson, it is important to ask and know if he truly speaks on behalf of the Cuban people?  U.S. President Barack Obama is believed to be preparing to ease travel restrictions to Cuba, and perhaps yield on other U.S. and Cuba conflicting issues.

Lifting the decades-old trade embargo, addressing the U.S. presence at Guantanamo, and answering those who continue to charge “misguided Cold War policies toward Cuba,” should lead strategic think tanks and those researchers with a hunger for accurate facts, to closely examine the voluminous transcripts of Fidel Castro’s words.  Too, they must not ignore or forget the true actions of Castro’s dictatorial regime that appear to live on.

Fidel Castro’s alliances and nexus of revolution that he shares with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez strongly continue. The venomous hatred of the U.S. and their well-documented meddling in the political affairs of those Latin American nations struggling to maintain democracy and fight organized criminal insurgents with little resources, indicate a complete disregard for human rights.

As Hugo Chavez was confronted directly with evidence of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) on Venezuelan soil, and with Colombia’s documented evidence of Chavez and Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa’s support of the FARC guerrillas, Fidel Castro put on his olive-green fatigues and paraded to the world podium of words.

Castro began his rhetoric claiming nuclear war by the “U.S. Empire” against Iran and North Korea was upon us.  He expressed concern to keep “U.S. children and youths from being harmed” by a U.S. launched nuclear war against Iran.  Both Iran and North Korea are countries which Castro and Chavez strongly support, while too welcoming their diplomats to Cuba and Venezuela.

In the second part of Castro’s “Reflection” that is entitled “Global Governance,” Castro said, “It’s terrible to think that the minds and feelings of American children and youths will be mutilated by wars.  We must fight now to keep those young people [from being] taken into a nuclear holocaust, to maintain as much as possible their physical and mental health, and to create ways in which human beings can be liberated from this terrible fate.”

An incredibly heady statement for a dictator, given his tenure over a much suffering Cuban people.

Castro's foreign policies have included the support of revolutionary groups in Nicaragua, Bolivia, El Salvador, and ultimately Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela.  In October 1973, Castro deployed thousands of Cuban soldiers to fight against Israel alongside the Syrians during the Yom Kippur War.  Hundreds of Palestinians were believed to have received military training in Cuba.  All of the Cuban revolutions against democratic U.S. allies have cost the Cuban people a quality of life so richly deserved.

Who is to blame?

Fidel Castro said that he knew of no solution for the financial crisis in Cuba, but he told the people not to surrender to a capitalist system, as riots of desperation by the Cuban people broke out in Havana due to his misguided management and poor leadership.  He did allow many to exile.  However, he chose not to impose freedom to his people or free elections, and he continued a lengthy record of human rights abuses.

In lieu of political concessions to appease and feed a hungry nation, and to survive beyond poverty, Castro’s will forced him to turn to Hugo Chavez and Chavez’s generous Venezuelan petroleum wealth.  In exchange Castro has provided what he deems a most important asset — his Cuban intelligence service and other military advisors for Chavez’s Bolivarian Revolution.

Corruption and malfeasance within Chavez’s administration, as well as massive spending on arms, military ordnance and political gifts, have forced a former wealthy nation into dire economic situations in providing food, electricity, and other necessary items for the Venezuelan people. Venezuela has turned to China in an attempt to save the the nation from more impending economic disasters.

As Cuba and Latin America’s leftist regimes continue their efforts to prevent the U.S. from assisting its democratic neighbors with drug interdiction, and in the fight against transnational criminal insurgencies — violence and deaths continue to soar.  In Venezuela alone, reports indicate a murder rate of 220 per 100,000 people.  This is a higher rate than Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez.

Indeed, Caracas may currently be the most violent city in the world.

The U.S. must remember that Cold War espionage against us, by Cuba, is still alive and well.  Too, the Guantanamo base remains a strategic observation hub for Caribbean activities that potentially threaten free people within this hemisphere.  And it is clear Fidel Castro wants us out.

President Obama holds the cards.  To free the Cuban people is a decision of the Castro regime.

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Jerry Brewer is C.E.O. of Criminal Justice International Associates, a global risk mitigation firm headquartered in Miami, Florida.  His website is located at www.cjiausa.org.