For Cuba, a difffffffffffferent, yet familiar new year
This is a Jan. 1 like none other in nearly six decades. And yet it kind of feels like every other one.
Today, there will be at least eight regularly scheduled flflights from South Florida airports to the one in Havana, Cuba. Those flflights will arrive in a Fidel Castro-less Cuba on the 58th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution’s triumph.
The fifirst post-Cold War, minus- Fidel Castro New Year’s Day has arrived. But it’s not like most South Floridians expected, or perhaps Cuban-Americans wished for.
Why? At least three reasons.
One, Fidel’s death was not synonymous with the passing of the communist era on the island. Castro’s younger brother, Raul, is still in charge.
Second, for Cubans, the surge in tourism from the United States didn’t make up for the cutback in aid from Venezuela or the ineffifficiencies of Cuba’s centralized economy, which saw GDP shrink 1 percent in 2016.
Third, uncertainty reigns going into 2017. Cubans fear their economy is sinking into recession, again, and the diplomatic detente with the United States could change with a single tweet from the incoming president.
So, what is next for Cuba, the United States and South Florida? I don’t know. But some are calling for a return to Cold War isolation.
That’s the concern after President-elect Trump on Nov. 29 threatened to “terminate the deal” with Cuba unless the United States, Cubans and Cuban-Americans got more concessions from the surviving Castro sibling.
I agree it is a flflawed deal. Like, for example, the shortlived but still offffffffffffensive rule on a cruise to Cuba that welcomed anyone except those born in Cuba. Sorry, but a U.S. passport has to be honored regardless of whether the holder was born in Massachusetts or Matanzas.
Still, anti-embargo voices insist a unilateral lifting of “the blockade” should be next because business and commerce has to be the change agent.
I would agree, but only if it is a true, competitive and level-playing fifield for business. Not the type of selective cronyism we’ve seen.
Otherwise, it becomes like the metaphoric scene in the “Godfather” sequel in which the mafifia dons slice up a cake as they carve Cuba into spheres of foreign ownership. Which, if you think about it, is what helped lead to revolution in the fifirst place.
So, for 2017, I’m resolving for a rational middle ground between Cold War and capitulation.